[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How do you find part time work?
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Ask HN: How do you find part time work?
I have a project that I'm working on turning into a small business.
I've done some part-time work (retainers and project-based) over
the past year and it's gone well. It's relatively high pay for
part-time work, leaving me time and flexibility to work on my own
project. The thing, I haven't really put much work into finding
this kind of work. I've had a few opportunities land in my lap
pretty nicely. Now, I need to seek out more work like this. I have
ideas, but I'm curious to see how others are finding part-time
work. Ideally, I would get 10-15/hr a week retainers, but project-
based work is ok too. The key is that I can keep getting the work
with consistency. My corporate career was a cross between
engineering and product management. I truly believe my best utility
is the cross-over of the two. I'd be happy to do part-time
leadership for small teams, take on independent projects, do things
like build and maintain small apps/integrations, etc. So: 1) How
are you finding part-time work? 2) How do you sell yourself if
you're more of a generalist like me?
Author : leros
Score : 137 points
Date : 2024-12-15 19:20 UTC (3 hours ago)
| ethernot wrote:
| 1. Networking and keeping contacts. Not LinkedIn which I have
| found to be completely useless and full of lunatics and weirdos.
| Good old fashioned email and exchanging details when you work
| with other people. Check in with people occasionally to remind
| them you still exist. I have to turn work away.
|
| 2. Mostly bullshitting people then winging it.
| bilsbie wrote:
| What's the best way to check in? I feel kind of inauthentic
| when I do it.
| lizzas wrote:
| I guess just be upfront?
|
| "Hey James, I see you are working at Microsoft in Azure
| Compute and I am interested in breaking into that too. Would
| it be possible to go for coffee or catch up on Zoom?"
|
| You may have to remind them how they know you if it has been
| a while :).
|
| Keep it short. Unless you know they like a long email!
| lizzas wrote:
| Check out:
|
| - https://www.fractionaljobs.io/
|
| - HN - who wants to be hired
|
| - Talk to people you have worked with.
|
| - Keep your eyes open all times. E.g. I always pop into careers
| of a HN post, I keep a list of companies I am curious about. I do
| this even though I am not looking for a job.
|
| - Negotiate - ask a FT job if they will do PT or contract.
|
| - Find an agency to join as a contractor
|
| [edited for clarity]
| throwoutway wrote:
| I like this, but there are only 17 and the majority are "Chief
| Financial Officer" or similar. Any other fractional job boards?
| tbird24 wrote:
| Founder of https://fractionaljobs.io here, yes you're right.
| But we spend dozens of hours a week sourcing the whole web
| for open fractional roles. So it's not that _this_ board
| doesn 't have the ones you want, it's that there just aren't
| that many available yet.
|
| But we're doing everything we can to accelerate this. We have
| about 5 new jobs launching tomorrow.
| codingdave wrote:
| Through some work I've done the last couple years, I've
| been exposed to a couple consultants who specialize in
| using fractional work within organizations. Between them,
| their clients, and others I've known who have gone that
| direction, I think I see a flaw here -- such jobs exist,
| but are rarely posted on the web.
|
| "Fractional" is a term that is often focused on leadership
| roles more than part time IC gigs. You will find such roles
| when talking to C-level leaders at organizations who are
| having growing pains - maybe their IC hiring is outpacing
| the director-level hiring, maybe they grew too fast to
| fully develop all the skills needed. Either way, the exec
| team is overwhelmed. They know they need more leadership,
| but don't want to build out a large middle management
| layer. So they are looking for solutions to a problem.
|
| Because of that, if you are trying to accelerate, stop
| scouring the web. Scouring the web just puts you in a
| reactive position, acting as a recruiter and hoping the
| people you find happen to match the posting. Instead, get
| talking directly to C-level execs and board members at
| small/medium-sized growing companies, and be the consultant
| guiding them to decide whether they need to hire, or if
| contracting a fractional leader into their org is a better
| solution. Let your postings be the results of those
| conversations, and keep getting to know people who are
| looking for fractional work. Tie those two together, and
| you'll see acceleration.
| philip1209 wrote:
| Also: https://frctnl.xyz (free community for part time tech)
| djaouen wrote:
| None of these have worked for me lol
| lizzas wrote:
| There be tumbleweeds, but if you automate/habitize these and
| don't expext too much should be OK. Even full time jobs are
| this hard to get RN!
| tbird24 wrote:
| What kind of role are you looking for? I'm the founder of
| https://fractionaljobs.io, I may be able to give you a better
| sense of why these aren't working for you.
| jimnotgym wrote:
| I'm interested in your fractional CFO roles. I'm interested
| in doing Finance at tech companies. I'm based in the UK
| which may make it harder
| djaouen wrote:
| I don't blame your company. This world has had it in for me
| since the day I was born lol
| tbird24 wrote:
| Ayyy, thanks for the shoutout Lizzas. Taylor here, founder of
| https://fractionaljobs.io
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Related:
|
| _Fractional Jobs - The Job Board for Fractional Work_
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42425473
| BobbyTables2 wrote:
| Never tried but try finding really small companies (<20 employees
| - the fewer, the better).
| k__ wrote:
| I'm a freelancer, which makes things much easier.
|
| Usually, people ask me to work for them full time, and then I
| tell them I only do 30h/week max and they're usually good with
| that.
| mportela wrote:
| Follow up question: how do you find freelancing opportunities?
| felipefar wrote:
| Just wanted to share that I've found part-time roles hard to get
| by. It seems companies mostly look for full-time employees.
|
| This is unfortunate because it makes harder to keep working on
| personal projects on the side, because you either have to make
| them lucrative to let you work on them full-time, or you have to
| squeeze them during night-time, when you are tired from daily
| work.
| lobsterthief wrote:
| I've found it's best to squeeze them in the morning, before
| you're tired from daily work ;) But I understand not everybody
| can function well that early
| em-bee wrote:
| when i was in highschool, i used to get up at 5am to do my
| homework. it was quiet (and i was sharing my room with my
| brothers) and i was awake. best time of day to get work done.
|
| i think when applying that to your side project, it has the
| added benefit that you start into the day doing something
| worthwhile which can be encouraging (no matter how bad it
| gets at work, i already did something useful today)
| probably_wrong wrote:
| Whenever a recruiter contacts me and I say I'm looking for a
| part-time job, they ghost me. They don't even say "that's not
| what we're after", just... nothing.
|
| Not even dating apps have been this rude to me.
| danenania wrote:
| I hate to say it because it many companies will be extremely
| frustrated if you do this, but if you just want to maximize
| self-interest the move is definitely to go through the whole
| interview process without mentioning that you want part time,
| then bring it up at the offer stage. Some will be annoyed,
| but you'll avoid getting filtered out before meeting an
| actual decision maker who can make an exception for you if
| they like you.
| em-bee wrote:
| i pretty much gave up looking for part time roles. i apply for
| full time roles and hope i can talk them into reducing my hours
| later. in germany, by law after i think 6 months you have a
| legal right to reduce your hours to part-time unless it is a
| small company and they can show that reducing your hours would
| cause serious difficulties for the company.
| JeremyBarbosa wrote:
| My solution for this was switching careers. I found that anyone
| hiring engineers wanted someone doing 40 hours a week at least,
| which makes sense since you have to have such a large mental
| model to build a system. Content and copy writing on the other
| hand is much more flexible because the unit of work is so much
| smaller. Any content marketing manager would love a real
| engineer to write for their blog once a week and help sell
| their product. Then just stack up different clients until you
| reach whatever weekly load you are comfortable with.
| mariorojas wrote:
| I have never worked in PT jobs, but as a contractor based in
| Mexico, I usually apply for remote positions on LinkedIn,
| particularly in SAP Commerce development.
| djaouen wrote:
| Honestly, I am open to any Linux-related opportunity that comes
| my way: that number has been 0 lol
| rossdavidh wrote:
| 1) It will probably not be "consistent", so you need to ask for
| more pay than you require, so you can last through the droughts.
|
| 2) Your best opportunities are places you've already worked,
| because they know you and you know at least some of their
| infrastructure, code base, etc.
|
| 3) Very small companies are more likely to need a generalist, and
| be unable to pay for a full-time on-staff person. You will need
| to let a lot of small companies know what you can do, and spend a
| lot of hours doing that, which no one will pay you for.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > Ideally, I would get 10-15/hr a week retainers, but project-
| based work is ok too. The key is that I can keep getting the work
| with consistency.
|
| Work like this is more commonly described as freelance,
| consulting, or contracting.
|
| If a job is advertised as "part-time" they're usually expecting
| you to work every single one of those hours, unlike a retainer
| where you're expected to be available for up to that many hours.
|
| It may sound pedantic but it's important to understand the
| difference when searching for roles. If you take a "part-time"
| job they're generally going to want you to be working for every
| one of those hours, even if you have to find your own work to do.
| If you treat it like a retainer job where you're only expected to
| be on-call if they need you, you could run into some
| disappointment.
|
| Using the right terms will also help you find roles that more
| correctly match your expectations.
|
| True part-time work is hard to find because most companies would
| rather hire someone to work 4 x 40 hour weeks on a project
| instead over the part timer who wants to do it in 8 x 20 hour
| weeks or 16 x 10 hour weeks.
|
| This leaves work that is sporadic and spread out, or companies
| that have a need but can't fit full-time compensation into the
| budget right now. That's a hint for the type of work and
| companies you'll need to seek out. Trying to pitch yourself as a
| valuable contractor who needs 3-4X longer to finish a project due
| to your short workweek isn't a winning strategy for most jobs.
| danenania wrote:
| I think it depends a lot on supply and demand dynamics for the
| specific role. If the company is having a hard time finding
| someone qualified and they see you as a good fit, they
| definitely might prefer to get someone working part time
| immediately compared to waiting who knows how long for another
| good candidate. This especially applies to startups under time
| pressure.
|
| And then once you get in the door and show you're a net
| positive, why not keep you? 15 hours per week of net positive
| is better than 0, even if they'd really prefer 40+.
| Aurornis wrote:
| I've been on the managing side of part-time employees. We did
| part time when people were going back for advanced degrees or
| had other short-term needs away from work, but still wanted
| to keep their jobs.
|
| Unfortunately it's really hard to have one person working
| 10-15 hours per week while everyone else is working 40.
|
| You encounter a lot of situations where teams are delaying
| meetings until the part-time person is available. You have to
| catch the part-time person up on things that have changed
| while they were away. If the part-time person doesn't finish
| an important task before their 10-15 hours is up, someone
| else might have to take it and restart the task to remove it
| as a blocker.
|
| It only really works when the part-time person's project is
| really independent and not time sensitive. Anything that
| interacts with the rest of the team or the rest of the
| company comes with additional overhead that might come close
| to cancelling out the productivity of having one person
| working 10 hours per week.
|
| There's a lot of wishful thinking about part time work where
| all hours worked contribute equally to the project, but in
| the real world having 4 full-time employees and 1 part-time
| person working 10 hours on a project is basically the same as
| having just 4 full-time employees working on the same thing.
| Having only 4 full-time employees might even be more
| efficient due to the lower communication overhead.
|
| So that leaves independent projects and work that isn't time
| sensitive.
| danenania wrote:
| Yeah, these are definitely valid points. But is it so bad
| that you don't hire someone great who comes along and only
| wants part time when you've got no other decent candidates
| in the pipeline?
|
| The challenges you mention are real, but many companies
| will still be tempted even if they have to make an effort
| to carve out specific tasks that are a good fit.
| liontwist wrote:
| The arrangement you are looking for is typically for people who
| have contributed to an organization for decades, have a lot of
| organizational knowledge, and are close to retiring.
|
| - working part-time primarily solves a problem for you, not the
| employer.
|
| - pay is not a linear function of time. your value drops when you
| aren't available during working hours or skipping initiatives,
| etc.
|
| - you are signaling to the organization that you're not really
| into their thing and to yourself that you are not willing to take
| risk on your own thing (Paul G writes about this).
|
| I would advocate for working hard full-time to capture your full
| value, and then take time off to do other things.
| kmoser wrote:
| Long time freelancer here (decades). I've gotten 99% of my
| contracts through word-of-mouth. You will get better long-term
| results than simply grinding through job boards (which you should
| still do--you never know). You will want to do two things:
|
| 1) Cultivate your existing network. Just the other day I
| reconnected with a friend I haven't seen in several decades.
| Guess what? He just so happened to be a software dev, and needed
| another dev to help him with a project. This is just one of many,
| many stories I have. Call or email people to see how they're
| doing. Even better, meet up with them for coffee or a meal. This
| doesn't have to be mercenary; you're probably already doing those
| things. But start reaching deeper into your network.
|
| 2) Build your your network by meeting others in your field and/or
| potential customers _in person_ (e.g. at user groups, meetups,
| tech talks, etc.). Talk about what you do and love to do.
| Presumably that involves your skills that you want to get work
| in.
|
| Finally, be consistent and reliable and communicate clearly.
|
| As for selling yourself when you're more of a generalist, I
| wouldn't worry too much about this yet. The key will be when
| you're presented with a job opportunity that leans in one
| direction (e.g. 90% dev, 10% management), and you'll have to
| decide how far you're willing to bend to fit it. But right now
| you're just getting the word out.
| Beijinger wrote:
| I am from a total different field but: I've gotten 99% of my
| contracts through word-of-mouth.
|
| Yes, no brainer. But how to get the first contract?
|
| I exploited myself, my client vastly underpaid but I had my
| first client.
| lucasluitjes wrote:
| > How do you sell yourself if you're more of a generalist like
| me?
|
| I focus on small firms. They don't have the resources or amount
| of work to hire a full-time (or multiple full-time) person for
| each role. If you can do many roles well, they don't have to
| source/vet a super-part-time person for each role.
|
| > leaving me time and flexibility to work on my own project.
|
| I think there's a bit of give-and-take there. Early on I try to
| look extra hard for any opportunity to show I can be flexible if
| they need something, and give them no reason to doubt my ability
| to deliver. Pretty soon trust is established, and I have all the
| time and flexibility I need to work on other projects alongside.
|
| > The key is that I can keep getting the work with consistency.
|
| My experience is my clients often don't know beforehand how long-
| term/consistent the work will be. But if I'm reliable and
| helpful, it usually turns into a long-term relationship.
|
| > How are you finding part-time work?
|
| HN seeking freelancer thread
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whoishiring) got me a
| particularly nice gig, also meetups, and most of all staying in
| touch with people I've worked with before. For the latter two, I
| try to focus on quality over quantity. The handful of people who
| know me well, tend put me in touch with better matching gigs than
| the large group of superficial contacts.
|
| Cold-emailing/cold-calling companies that look like they may be a
| good fit, also worked. Personally I find it a bit draining so I
| avoid cold-anything if I can.
| hakanderyal wrote:
| If you are asking this question, probably the best answer for you
| is old fashioned sales/marketing.
|
| Relatively high paying jobs usually fulfilled via network, which
| happens the way you described ("land in my lap").
|
| You need to do marketing activities to extend your network, so
| more work lands in your lap.
|
| In person works best if where you live has opportunities for
| this. Try chamber of commerce if there is one. They usually have
| lots of events for local business owners where you can meet with
| many potential customers.
|
| Try cold emailing otherwise, it has the best ROI when done right.
|
| Bonus points: This skills will be needed to get the project you
| are working on off the ground too.
| jimnotgym wrote:
| I feel your pain
|
| My cross over is Finance and tech. I get all the time, 'I really
| need someone like you' but never a solid commitment.
|
| I had to change jobs earlier this year and all these contacts
| evaporated! I really would like to help a series of companies
| rather than just one for 5 years at a time.
| deadbabe wrote:
| Honestly you're better off finding a full time remote job at a
| slower paced company where it's feasible to work on two things at
| once.
|
| Part time work isn't consistent and it pays so little it's hardly
| worth it.
| em-bee wrote:
| how do you identify such a company?
| cbracketdash wrote:
| This just rose to the top of HN today :)
|
| https://www.fractionaljobs.io/
| CMCDragonkai wrote:
| My company often hires for part time workers. It's like
| multiplexing, there is a market for squeezing out some
| efficiency.
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