Who's Hiring Freelance Contractors?

[alexwyser]

It seems that the "Who's Hiring?" threads are very popular but are for full-time positions tied to a particular location.

A lot of people on HN work remotely as contractors and have difficulty finding decent paying gigs. I myself am a freelance web designer (alexwyser.com) and find it difficult to get gigs that pay well.

I'm sure a lot of startups and companies on HN need designers, developers and programmers like us.

So who's hiring contractors?

[kevinelliott]

You would think with tight budgets and an inability to create more full time jobs due to the stifled economy, that more part time consultants would be needed, especially for computer related needs at companies in all sectors (not simply startups). These needs are out there, but many managers don't feel like they have the experience managing remote part time assets, nor do they have the authority to hire in such a way. But again, these needs are out there, and there are certainly companies hiring like this.

But it's a lot of work requiring a ton of networking, lots of portfolio sites and examples of past work necessary, and putting a lot of effort into bidding for the jobs, even if the work is simple and short.

I admit I would do a lot more part time consulting to help continue to bootstrap my own business if this was easier to do.

[kls]

There was another thread going on in a different post and I came to the conclusion that the problem is not that there are not enough good freelance gigs but rather there is not a good way for the communication to be communicated among managers looking to find a top caliber guy and top of the line freelancers. No manager wants to wade through elance or one of the other sites looking for that diamond in the rough. So I started thinking that there has to be a better way and I started thinking what about an invitation only site where members invite new members and there reputation is tied to there recommendation. For example they may be a good developer to hire but they may not be good at recommending other people. Their recommendation score would then suffer and if it got low enough, they would not be allowed to invite other to the site. Conversely those that where good at spoting talent would get more invites that they could send. As well maybe a minimum rate that participants would have to adhere to would keep the site from becoming a race to the bottom like the others. I registered igi.gs the other night and am thinking about building up a MVP. The part that I am struggling with is how do you do the initial seed with quality people in a host of locations?