Tired of the long commutes, stuffy offices, or just having to put on pants in the morning? Turns out it's not just you. Software Developers from al...
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Nice overview!
By the way, I think that, within the "remote" space, you should make a distinction between remote employees and remote freelancers.
The former are looking for permanent jobs, the latter for projects (I'm in the latter category). This will make a big difference in the sort of tools and tactics that you use (your article seems more focused on remote employees/permanent jobs).
One other 'platform' that I would like to mention (and recommend) is Gun.io (gun.io). A bit of a funny name which has nothing to do with weapons, but with the idea of "hired guns". You can place them more or less in the same category as companies like TopTal, Gigster, Crew.co, etcetera, who are targeting "higher end" customers.
Their website might not look that impressive (they're in the middle of a redesign and relaunch), but their Slack community is fantastic.
Even though I didn't get any "gigs" through them as of now, I already got a wealth of good ideas and tips by participating on their Slack, and I really like their business ethics/philosophy - professional and honest and they're not out to screw you.
This article explains their philosophy pretty well: linkedin.com/pulse/how-gunio-raise...
Good things of Gun.io:
Great Slack community
Great company philosophy and ethics
Not wasting your valuable time with annoying up-front testing/screening in the form of largely irrelevant algorithm tests (like they do on other platforms as TopTal, Gigster and so on) in order to arrive at the (IMO largely useless) statistic of "we only have the top 1% developers" (whatever that means). You can just join their community - you'll be tested/screened of course, but only when you apply for a gig
Less positive aspects:
Word of warning: this platform is not for the impatient, but personally I like it and I see it as a long term "investment", especially for building my network, they don't have a long list of 'gigs' up for grabs (not yet at least, if ever).
It's just a very different model from Upwork etc (and even different from TopTal and so on whom you might compare them with).
Just my personal recommendation, I'm not getting paid or rewarded by them in any way to spread the word ... ;-)
Agreed. Freelance is often more about marketing your personal brand and networking. This article focuses more on full-time/contract work. Finding freelance clients would probably warrant it's own article.
Yup ... also because the most of the tools/platforms that you're mentioning are more geared to finding a fulltime job (even when it's remote). And yes, you need to spend more time on marketing and networking (I'm not doing that enough, to be honest).
Interesting article though! If companies get more used to working remotely then it will benefit both remote freelancers and remote fulltime employees.
Wish that I was already making a six figure income as a remote freelancer ... well it's a matter of patience, it's not going to happen overnight, but I keep working on it, obviously.
Thank you very much Colin, I always lurked about, but your article made me register just to thank you :)
Do you perhaps have some advice for a very junior developer? I want to get some exposure whilst being able to continue my studies. So a basic income would be nice. But I don't think anyone would take someone as junior as I for a remote job.
Right now I am doing a few MS courses mostly in SQL and C#. But I don't know if these areas are very sought after. What languages would give me an edge?
Thank you again!
It's very difficult to land full time jobs as a junior or entry with no experience. What I did to overcome this was seek out small one-off freelance jobs and slowly built up professional experience. Most people won't risk hiring you but there are thousands of "fix my website" freelance gigs out there. I wrote another article explaining how I did exactly this fullbit.ca/from-zero-to-six-figure... good luck!
Thank you Colin! I will apply your advice. Wish me luck!
Awesome Colin. I recommend adding DailyRemote as it is also one of the great remote job boards with daily updated jobs posted in various categories for both tech and non-tech such as Software Development, Design, Support, Sales, Writing, Product, etc.
Great content, Colin! It is very useful.
I would definitely add 🚀 RemoteMore:
👉 join.remotemore.com/devto 👈
It is a marketplace for full-time/part-time remote jobs.
With over 300 remote companies hiring through it.
Thank you, Colin! This was a really useful read for me being an 'on-site' full-time dev wanting to try out remote :)
Can you or someone please share the list of Slack communities or discord servers to help me and others get remote jobs specifically with Javascript stack and/or remote gigs. that would be really beneficial
I'll suggest Upstack for finding great software developers. Upstack is global network of vetted and tested engineering talent. Upstack provide access to full-time dedicated engineering talent available to join your team on-demand. Upstack's talent works remotely for your company while Upstack handles the HR, payroll, project management, QA, and support. Upstack engineer is senior level and verified to have at least 3 years of documented experience in their specific language of expertise. There are lot more info that I can share here, but if you interested with Upstack just click this link upstack.co/company/apply?5BCF44CE and you will start working with expert to discuss your needs and goals.
Thanks for your insights.
Do you have any hints on keeping portfolio of your past work? Or, putting it in another words, how to convince a client that you are the right person for the job?
Also, any advice for people who are experienced, but only worked so far in one place (regular job) and want to shift to freelancing. Are they on the same boat as the ones just starting their carriers in development from freelancing?
Thanks.
For freelance clients, they often want to see work you've completed that is similar to the work they want done. Unfortunately, when you come from a traditional job, you often can't use most of your work in your portfolio. The work around for this is to create public side projects and make them available for clients to view. They don't need to be huge, they just need to be on point for the related tech. This is especially important for back-end development because it's not as visually oriented.
Don't discount your full time job experience. It's just as valuable and can be used to strengthen your CV. If you are moving from a regular job to freelance you can try and find freelance jobs that have a strong match to tech you worked with. As long as you can show that you can work with those technologies and you can talk in depth about them, the client will pick up on your capabilities.
Tldr; Build a public portfolio with personal projects then lean on your professionl experience to sell yourself.
Good luck!
We have got some very interesting six-figure salary remote jobs posted at RemoteWorkJar. Some companies publicly show salaries and some don't.
All the best!
Wow, this post is amazing! Thank you! Really great resources here.
Thank you Colin for sharing the insight.
This list will hopefully grow, but here are engineering teams that are remote-friendly or fully remote on Key Values! --> keyvalues.com/remote-developer-jobs
Yeah, can just sign this post.
Cheers Stefan
fullstackjob.com
You can also find remote jobs at onlyremotejobs.io
Thanks!
Well done! We are running a remote jobs board here: up2staff.com and there are some interesting jobs offering six-figure salaries. Check it out!
workfromhomejobs.me/ also aggregates from 9 different job boards (many of them mentioned in the article) for those who prefer not to have to jump between dozens of sites :)