[k__]

When I started, I checked out websites similar to Upwork and Fiverr.

I also found some gigs through friends.

Later, started tech blogging and companies started approaching me.

What helped the most was becoming a contributor for an tech ecosystem.

Find a technology that's small, but has potential for growth. Start using it and contributing. When the big players move in, you might have a few months or years advance.

[leros]

Did you find UpWork worth pursuing? I looked at it briefly and it seemed like a race to the bottom on compensation.

What type of blogging are you doing? I'm curious how companies would find that and decide to hire you.

[k__]

"Did you find UpWork worth pursuing?"

Personally? No.

But I met a few people who were pretty serious about it, and made good money there.

"What type of blogging are you doing?"

I chose a platform (dev.to) and started writing about my weekly learnings in my dev job.

React, React-Native, WebPack, Node.js, etc.

Later, I moved to DevOps stuff with AWS, Pulumi, Serverless, etc.

I got between 1000 and 10000 views per article and was Dev.to Distinguished Author for two years.

If you put quality stuff out that people want, sooner or later you get some interest.

Not every company has AWS or Vercel reach/money and can hire the top 1% of content creators.

On my website, you can see some of my clients. Not FAANG-Tier, but not no-name agency either.

https://kay.is