Ask HN: Where do you find meaningful part-time tech jobs?

[indepnd]

I'm planning to apply for a part-time tech job while also working on my personal project. I found Gumroad which seems perfect but my skills don't match. Are there other companies offering part-time jobs in a similar fashion like Gumroad?

[iainctduncan]

I've done this lots. The thing to recognize is that people don't post for part time work, but they will often settle for part time work. Heck, lots of them have never even thought of it! I used to just fire tons and tons of cover letters out to companies on stack overflow careers saying "I think I'm a great fit, but I'm only available part time" and see who bit. (And lots bit)

Also, it helps to explain (if this is true) that you are available every day for part of the day and that you can be flexible about the arrangement. That is much easier for managers to deal with than 2 or 3 days per week and you unreachable on the others.

Also, don't listen to folks saying it can't be done who have never actually tried. I've been doing it for many years.

[indepnd]

Thank you! I appreciated this info!

[znq]

Not sure what your skills are, but at Mobile Jazz [1] we offer remote part-time and full-time jobs for software engineers, designers and project managers.

We've been a fully remote company since inception and put a ton of emphasize on providing every team member with what they need in terms of flexibility and work-life-balance.

We've written an extensive Company Handbook about who we are, how we work and what we do [2]. It's free to download.

We’re proud to say that our average employee stay is four years — more than double the average for our industry.

[1]: https://mobilejazz.com/careers/

[2]: https://mobilejazz.com/company-handbook-pdf/

[rpmisms]

> "engineers, apply through our API"

Love it. Self-selecting and fun!

[gregjor]

Meaningful is subjective. For me meaningful amounts to reasonable clients who pay. I don’t expect to find much more “meaning” than that.

Freelancing is as full- or part-time as you want.

[shime]

I have a meaningful (which is subjective) part-time job and I've been mostly freelancing for the last 10 years (out of which the last 4 years I've been mostly freelancing part-time).

Although I've started with UpWork, I don't recommend it for job search anymore, because the quality of clients was low from my experience. A lot of job postings ended up being a race to the bottom with rates. I think WeWorkRemotely is a better option for search, while HN hiring threads are even better.

[chrisa]

Call it “consulting” and say you have room for a part time client. It will take some work (use your network, job boards, manually reach out to companies), but you will find something. It helps to have a strong portfolio or proof that you know what you’re talking about (write an ebook, or blog, or open source, etc)

[readonthegoapp]

whoa, trippy - i didn't know tech companies were going the part-time route already.

that's the one danger about the 4-day work week i'm not crazy about.

my guess is, if you had a relatively valuable skillset, say coding of some type that was reasonably in demand for, say, a contract rate in the US that would get you $65/hr or more on a W-2 basis, then you would be able to find some decent, possibly long-term work _if_ you were willing to put in the effort.

what's the effort? start pitching companies. find full-time listings and submit your resume, tell them what you're seeking (20 hours/wk, 4 hrs/day, $50/hr, employed normally, but just part-time instead of full time, presumably no bennies, etc.), and that's about it.

ping 10 companies a day from the "Who's hiring?" threads, and see what you get back, rinse, refine, repeat.

also, pay linkedin $30/mo and ping dev managers directly with your pitch.

and try to talk to an HR-type person at a startup to get the lowdown on what it would actually take to get hired part-time - it might end up being pretty simple, or not, but you'd be in a much better position if you knew, and might not take more than a simple message or phone call, or ask a friend of a friend who is in HR.

[ccvannorman]

Expert AI/ML, CV, Chip design/fab engineers can earn $250-750 per hour if they have a recognizable name, pedigree, and/or trust built. You can absolutely secure part-time consulting income at these levels if you have the right connections.

Online platforms are a race to the bottom in terms of cost; I wouldn't waste my time there, unless you are planning to differentiate yourself and have a significantly higher price point than the average person in your field.

[badpun]

How many people in these fields have recognizable names? 200? 500? You’re talking about a narrow elite group.

[wizzerking]

I have used upwork.com sucessfully, and also lost many jobs this way as well. So use the site as an elemEnt of a mixture Particularyly with linkedin.com

[WalterGR]

lost many jobs this way as well.

What do you mean?

[whateveracct]

Doesn't upwork take a cut + lock you in (ToS means you can't work with upwork clients outside upwork or something - idk if that's enforceable tho)

[WalterGR]

Interesting. That sounds like a non-compete clause, which for traditional employment is unlawful in California. But if it's for 'gig work' or self-employment (speaking broadly,) I wonder what the law is around that...

[gregjor]

Upwork is gig work, not traditional employment. Their enforcement is banning offenders from their platform. When you sign up you agree to a contract that has terms like you can’t cut Upwork out of the relationship. Legal enforcement would be a breach of contract suit, not a labor dispute.

[kvz]

Transloadit is a similar company to Gumroad when it comes to work philosophy. What kind of job are you looking for?

[caherrerapa]

Interesting to know. It would explain the pain of getting issues solved within a reasonable timeframe as a paying customer of Transloadit

[kvz]

Hi can you shoot me an email to kevin at transloadit dot com? We pride ourselves on timely and great support right from the devs so I’d be very interested to learn about the specifics and get your issue resolved if I can

[indepnd]

Mainly backend or tools, in Rust or Python.

[delinquenz]

What’s your sector? Have you thought about contracting or consulting? Here in Europe many of these gigs tend to also work part-time. And with that type of arrangement you can also pick individual projects instead of companies that‘d put you in boring and purposeless projects anyways.

[WalterGR]

Why is contracting and consulting part-time in Europe?

I'm not familiar with the tech work situation there... I assume those things are typically full-time in the US, but I have no evidence.

[davidajackson]

I know HN is probably against self promotion like reddit is, but maybe you could drop your LinkedIn into the prompt. Personally most part time jobs come through references, so building your connections on here is probably one way.

[gtirloni]

If you join platforms like Toptal, X-Team, etc, you can set your available hours to 20h/week and find clients that are okay with that.

[cpach]

What kind of work are you looking for? Frontend, backend, BI, DBA, UX, testing, tech support…?

[indepnd]

I mainly look for backend (Rust or Python).

[RobRivera]

zombo.com

[WalterGR]

"Zombo.com is a single-serving site created in 1999. It was originally a faculty and student joke from the George Washington University Center for Professional Development. The site parodies Flash introductory web pages..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombo.com

[elias94]

So you're asking for a freelance website. Avoid "meaningful" plese

[killtimeatwork]

You want meaningful AND part time?

[forgotmypw17]

Yes.

[killtimeatwork]

It means that you'd probably have to compromise heavily on the third arm of the triangle, i.e. the salary.

[iainctduncan]

No you don't, you just need to get better at selling yourself and negotiating. Most devs are terrible at negotiating and putting themselves forward.

[killtimeatwork]

Being amazing at negotiating is a salary multiplier regardless of whether the job has meaning or is part-time... For example, as an absolutely amazing negotiator, you might get yourself a $1m full-time meaningless job or $100k part-time meaningful job. $100k is not a small amount, but you're still leaving $900k on the table.

Plus, let's face it, most devs are fungible commodities and don't have much bargaining power on top of the prevailing market rate. For devs, most bargaining power comes from domain expertise, but d.e. severely limits the scope of the job search - i.e. you may be limited to only a handful of companies worldwide which would be interesting in paying extra for that expertise. Chances that any of them do "meaningful work" AND allow part-time are close to zero.

[iainctduncan]

No. I've been doing part time work in tech for almost 20 years, and have done part time work for many "meaningful" jobs: working for scientists, contracting for non-profits, building better ed tech systems, working for hospital fundraising foundations, school boards, etc. There's a lot more to negotiation than money. In all of those I've been able to charge decent market rates, and work part time.

I'd say helping the forest service for environment canada collect forest fire data is meaningful, as is helping track underwater noise to reduce marine mammal damage.

It is absolutely a seller's market for developers right now. If you can't find part-time work in a meaningful field, it means you don't know how to look for work and ask for what you want, full stop.

[forgotmypw17]

Probably... But time is not money, it's much more valuable.

[f3rnando]

best match: https://www.mturk.com/worker

[f3rnando]

LOL Low wage or freelance?. :P