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What's the most readily-available temp work for a developer between jobs and looking for an IT-related paycheck?

Ben Halpern on November 01, 2019

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sandeepbalachandran profile image
Sandeep Balachandran

Dear Ben,
You have been asking too much non IT related jobs lately. Come out clean. Looking for a plan B right? I like farming.

Faithfully,
Me

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Jer

Another suggestion: Reach out to agencies and ask if they have any contract work. Not one at a time, more of a shotgun approach.

I have a friend who's uses this as his entire business model and has been doing well for himself for years now as an "agency that supports agencies". He says that most marketing/digital agencies contract their web development and are always looking for new contract developers. He also says that many prefer to work with a developer they can have a relationship with and feel that the freelancing platforms don't allow for this.

The work isn't always exciting -- lots of WordPress, Drupal and the like -- but it's solid and pays.

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Glenn Stovall

+1 for the advice of subcontracting with agencies. That's worked well for me in the past.

Another strategy I've had is to reach out to coding boot camps or other teaching outlets. The one I found paid $75 per mock interview. Sometimes they may have opportunities for workshops, referring you as a coach, or other opportunities

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Jacob Herrington (he/him)

In my experience, ecommerce freelance work. If you can write JavaScript or HTML/CSS you can probably find some short term work on Shopify or something similar.

Reaching out to agencies and asking if they have a backlog can be an easy way to find a few hours of recurring work.

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leojpod

freelancing on platform like upwork perhaps?

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Gabe

Yeah Freelancing seems like the best option if you're not planning on doing it for long.

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leojpod

Maybe something more "local" like Malt (malt.fr) for the French around here would be easier to get going in a short time. Less competitions and more direct offers.

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Gabe

I personally have no experience using freelance services - in my case I was an IT help desk intern for almost 2 years and built small list of people who would come to me outside of work for IT help. They still do, though these days I'm a little to busy with my actual job to assist as much.

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Shannon Crabill

Freelancing, but admittedly it could be hard getting started.

Connecting with a recruiting agency, see if there are any temp/part-time roles that are a good fit.

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Chris C

If you don't mind beating your head against a brick wall at times, you can do private tech support for strangers.

Beware of doing it for friends/family =p

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Holy-Elie Scaïde

Mentorship?

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Glenn Stovall

Mentorship is typically free, but I could see offering some kind of coaching on the side

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Holy-Elie Scaïde

Sorry. Wrong choice of word

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Andrew Brown 🇨🇦 • Edited

Recruiters have endless amounts of 6-month contracts.
The only catch is they are in-person and you're treated like an employee.
So none of the benefits of an employee or a contractor.