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by usgroup 2959 days ago
I don’t know where you are but typically you’re better of contracting.

The typical situation is that employers need techies LOCALLY and can’t find them in the sort of numbers they’d ideally want which drives rates up: +1 techie.

Issue with freelancing sites is that it flips the demand/supply around. The supply is global and outstrips demand (ie people actually compete for contracts): rates are driven down, +1 employer

IMO:

1. Try and contract locally if the pay is best there. Further you’ll be creating contacts to get you into new gigs.

2. If that’s not available look for remote positions direct with employers. If you’re v good you might get one.

3. If you can’t do that consider a freelancing site but really all it’ll be good for is portfolio . You’ll probably find the “next step” remains just as far away if you already have s portfolio.

1 comments

> The typical situation is that employers need techies LOCALLY and can’t find them in the sort of numbers they’d ideally want which drives rates up: +1 techie.

There are local jobs here, but they are mostly pretty standard and boring (small business web sites and marketing), which I am not really interested to do.

Although there is a lot of competition on freelancer.com et al. at least there are jobs for most areas of expertise.

As mentioned, I am aware of the drawbacks (pay-cut by middleman, competition with a large pool of other workers), but it seems like a good idea to find your first clients.

Hopefully it is not bad reputation later on (this guy worked at Upworks) ...