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Finding Programming Work on the Side?
vistaconfig wonders: "I work as a developer for a certain fairly small company. I'm very happy with my work/pay and I wouldn't consider changing my job. However, I find myself bored at night since I never take any work home (as per the boss's orders). Since I'm not capable of working without some kind of motivation, I'm trying to find some kind of a side job that pays whatever money, and has deadlines (that's the only way I can work, unfortunately). There doesn't seem to be a website for side jobs. I'm willing to take something on, but I don't know where to go. How do other Slashdot readers deal with finding the side job in the first place? "
However, I find myself bored at night since I never take any work home (as per the boss's orders).
You are bored, because your boss won't let you take work home. You're kidding, right?
OMFG. What are you working for, anyway? Jesus H. Christ! Go out and HAVE SOME FUN. Meet a WOMAN (or a man, if that's your thing).. Go out and DANCE. Go to a production of something. Take some music lessons. See a provocative movie about provocative people with provocative people. Learn how to play bridge, backgammon, how to take pictures, how to bluff a Texan out of a pot. But for fuck's sake DO SOMETHING. EXPAND YOUR HORIZIONS.
Kids these days. Ay carrumba!
Since I'm not capable of working without some kind of motivation, I'm trying to find some kind of a side job t
Working? WORKING? What are you, a retard? This is your SPARE TIME. YOUR TIME OFF.
Find the nearest tall building, and jump. That's my advice, for you are not living and I see very little hope for you.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Ask Google: contract programming
Have you looked at Rent A Coder? That's the first outfit that comes to mind. (As of writing this post, there are no other posts showing, so forgive me if it's redundant.)
Also check your local (or not-so-local) Craigslist boards, people frequently post there looking for small programming projects.
Also also, call around to local charities, political groups with whom you agree, and other similar operations. See if you can identify ways their operation could be streamlined, and implement them.
I tend to agree with the comment suggesting that you look for something different, like a life.
... project?
/., of course).
However, if that's not feasible (e.g., maybe you need more money; maybe you don't want a life right now), then how about a pet
You could work on an open source project. Or you could think of an "unmet need" and code the solution, get some angel money, parlay that into VC funding, cash out and criticize the government full time (on
I'd check out guru.com. It's a good site for finding programming jobs of all sizes and in all fields. I've taken several jobs from the site while in between jobs and on the side.
I, for one, would recommend TopCoder: http://www.topcoder.com/ . I am a member (blue-rated), and it's an interesting place; half devoted to algorithm competitions, where you have short timed problems to complete, and half to software development. All of it involves money in some way, either as prize or compensation: I suggest you check it out.
Rentacoder is full of people trying to get cheap work done with a poor idea what they want and no intention to pay at all if they can get away with it. No-one needs Rentacoder to find a programmer. Instead, there should be a site called Rent-a-networker. No, not the kind of networking that involves cables and routers, the kind of networking that involves going to conferences and smoozing. There should be a site where programmers can go, enter their skills and availability and some business guy goes out and finds real customers who need those services. The business guy gets a cut of whatever you make, so he will be trying to find clients that really need your services and are willing to pay top dollar for them.
How we know is more important than what we know.
If you're happy with your pay, why not join one of the many thousands of open source projects out there that could use your help?
I don't know your situation, but your boss may think he's doing you a favor. Talk to him, take on more responsibility. Run the company. Do you think there's nothing more to do there? It's a rare company that can't use some extra, motivated, help.
You could always do a code bounty.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
I registered on RentACoder in hopes of basically freelancing as a summer job and eventually abandoned the idea. The site is extremely popular with overseas coders of varying quality (from worse-than-crud to top-notch), many of whom put in bids which are just ludicrously low if you're duplicating them from a base in the US or another first world nation. Take, for example, a project the complexity of an undergraduate CS lab (not an ACTUAL undergraduate CS lab, although there's no shortage of students using rentacoder to cheat that way): I would assume eight solid hours of effort would get this done. I was thinking of bidding in the $100 range -- $12.50 an hour seemed like a pretty fair valuation for my time for a college student with a specialized skill set working as an independent contractor. Within an hour of the project being posted, there were I kid you not a dozen bids offering to do it for $20. Many of them had the feel of a copy-paste job of questionable English skills, but there were some capable individuals in the bunch. I mean, programming for pocket change beats working at McDonalds, but programming for $2.50 an hour... not a worthwhile proposition I don't think.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Yup, I was in the same predicament that you're in; home after work, and bored out of my skull. So, I started contracting at night working with a small firm writing accounting software, and with a hotel writing banquet management software. One night when I finally got to bed at two in the morning, my wife looked at me and said "you've been so distant for the past six months, have I done anything wrong?" That broke my heart. I realized that I'd come home from work, eat dinner, and head on upstairs to my home office and code all night.
It was also affecting my full time job. I was constantly late, and groggy and grumpy until sometime around lunch. My boss at the time finally got tired of the complaints and gave me an ultimatum: fix my attitude problem or find another job.
I finally realized what an a-hole I'd been to my co-workers and more importantly to my wife. So, I gave up the contracting work.
What I'm trying to say is that instead of burying your head in coding 16+ hours a day. Take some time for yourself after hours. Hang out with friends. Surprise your S.O. by doing something that's fun, offbeat, and different from your normal routine. To sum it up, enjoy life.
-ScottMy other sig is a Glock
Someone mentioned OSS...but that isn't the only path for free time. Have you ever contacted local non-profits and seen what kind of help they need and if it fits with the type of programming you'd like to do?
I'm probably not the only person who can provide the structure. (There are a bazillion project sites out there, but sites != structure.) There are an amazing number of projects out there. The problem is that there are simply not enough people to go around, and the lines of communication between coders and projects has traditionally been poor. Proper requirements analysis and project specifications are rare to non-existant outside of the best-of-breed elite institutions, paid or otherwise. Most of this is because geeks are often poor communicators, so the projects that are interesting (ie: geek-run) are the ones people know least about, and the ones with the best PR (run by marketing) often have the least novel or interesting work involved in them. This makes it hard to find out what REAL work is out there.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
While I think the idea of Rentacoder and other bidding sites is good for getting quantity of work through, it's really the wrong type of business model. Basing a service on discounted labour is a short way to make very little money. Not only that, but it de-values your worth. I've been working as an independant programmer for almost 15 years and I've tried a few different ways of finding new work to do, advertising in newspapers, journals, 'door knocking' around businesses with flyers, but by far the best way of getting ongoing well paid work is by referral.
Getting that first customer is the tricky bit, but once you've done that the rule is simple, when the work is either complete or well under way, ask them for a minimum of three referrals for businesses they know personally who may require work, and ask them to put in a good word for you. Always push for three as it covers the odds pretty well and you're nearly always guaranteed new customers. It's difficult to do initially as it feels awkward asking them for that kind of information, but you have to see if from their perspective, they have a valued service that has helped them and their mates should benefit in the same way. I've never had a customer who was not willing to give me referrals in this way.
Fix a rate, do some research into the going rate for your area, don't undersell, don't oversell. After a while you get used to spotting risks, be they technical (in most cases you have to guage the amount of technical risk involved, this will aid in contingency) or political risk.
Don't be afraid to contract other people into the same job with you, just choose people you know, even if they have flaws it's better the devil you know. You can be fussy about the type of work once you have quantity coming through the door, until that point be prepared to do any type of development work.
The discounting thing is the real point though, don't be tempted to do it. Instead of discounting, reduce your services for the same job. Otherwise you'll find yourself doing the same work for one customer at the discounted rate for 10 years and have a hard job trying to increase your rate.
Getting that first customer though, not really as hard as you think. I try to avoid working for friends and family, but if you can get references from friends and family that's the next best thing.
Know your own process. Understand what it takes to go from the handshake to getting paid from an invoice is very important. It's good to know how to gather meaningful requirements, build your own practical specifications, manage customer expectations, managing variations to work and learning to say no at the right time. It's easy to skim over some of these, especially when you first start doing it by yourself, but after a while you realise why they exist and how they can save you time when done right.
A low priority is insurance, professional indemnity is a good one, cover yourself after a while. Not that you're going to be careless about what you do, but the insurance is there for when you get hit out of leftfield. When you get enough income in to pay for the insurance get a broker and invest.
Task Mangler
If you use computers, I know that you have run into software that totally sucks. In fact, not only did it totally suck, but every piece of software that came close to doing that thing sucks. Or you have run into wanting to do something that simply no software out there does.
There are still LOADS of gaps like this anywhere from tiny utility software up to enterprise level stuff. Pick one. Whatever one bugs you the most. Write some really good software. Open source it and sell support. Or don't.. whatever. Just write good software.
So you need some deadlines to keep you going? Not uncommon. Have someone do it for you (isn't that what you would do by contracting?). Either get yourself a partner (preferably someone who is keen on handling all the _other_ parts of creating and running a company in exchange for the possible rewards) who is also a good deadline-setter and will not let you slack. Or hire yourself a business coach if you do want to try your hand at the other aspects of running a company and just want someone to egg you on.
Read Paul Graham's essays for encouragement and why starting your own software company is (still) a good idea. http://www.paulgraham.com/
Oh yeah - ALSO find yourself another engaging hobby or two. They must involve at least the following:
Social interaction. Yes you need this. You cannot work in front of a computer at work and do programming all day and then come home and do it all night. Your boss made that rule for a _reason_ . In order for your creative programming side to flow the rest of your mind must be fed. If you just program all day every day for primary job and then your side job your productivity will drop like a rock. This should ideally involve more than one person - a significant other will severely cut into the time you can spend on the stuff you need (socializing with more than 1 person and getting outdoors (see below)). It is a trade off.
Get out. Out of the house. Out of buildings. Gardening maybe. Or hiking. Bicycling. Whatever appeals really. This is important for all the same reasons that social interaction is. It will tend to give your mind a break from thinking too heavily and the opportunity for creative thoughts to bubble up. It will also keep your body healthier. Not Olympic gymnast healthier. Heck - gardening will leave you a fat slob (if you are, and want to remain so), but it will bring your health up a slight notch nevertheless. If you want to be time-efficient, find a hobby that combines social activity plus getting out - this would possibly allow the space to date. But I do feel that doing something relatively mindless (BUT NOT IN FRONT OF A SCREEN - no video games and no TV. They are not mindless enough) is also fairly important even if it is only for a short amount of time..but regularly. At least once per week. Heck - just sit outside in a lawn chair in the sun and make chain mail. No thought involved, but you get fresh air and sun.
Remember, the hobby must be engaging enough that you will continue to do it in spite of the pull to spend all of your time in front of the computer. Try out a few and see which one sticks with you for a while. Plop a reminder in your calendar a few months down the line to start the programming part (ie: don't get so sucked into the hobby that it cuts off your original plans). Plop a reminder in your calendar a few months down the line to re-examine your hobby(ies).
Yes, this will severely cut back on the total amount of time that you spend in front of the computer programming. In fact, you might get only a tiny bit of code done per week (best done in extended-concentration burst I know - maybe one weeknight and 6-8 straight hours on one weekend day). But it will be much higher quality and you will get a LOT more done during that time.
If you are concerned about the time issues and you happen to watch TV cut it out. Watching TV fulfills neither of the requirements for a healthy body and mind needed for programming. If
Start a side business.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
Yes, you are right! Dialup was popular in India till a few years before. Providers like BSNL, Airtel have started providing broadband (starting at 256kbps), neverthless a good speed to start with. It has pulled quite a lot of students into freelancing...
I'm an Indian student. I find RentACoder extremely useful. With a week's effort, i can fund my semester. The only problem I face is during transferring funds (from paypal, which takes more than an month). Competition is quite high and that forces people to bid at lower prices, atleast to make some money instead of doing nothing. Now that I have subscribed to Broadband, i have to make atleast $15 worth work per month to compensate my extra payment for broadband....
it moves on...
You sometimes go to movies without your girlfriend?
You should treat her better!
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
if motivation is your issue then volunteer to help a charity. Good IT help is hard to find for these kinds of operations and you can go to sleep at night happy that you've helped others less fortunate.
But I will quote Mallrats when I say "What you need is a fatty-boom-batty blunt, and I guarantee you'll be seeing a sailboat, an ocean, and maybe even some of those big-titted mermaids doing some of that lesbian shit."
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I agree with the AC parent.
-Get a life outside of work. But, if that's not right for you,
-Craigslist seems like a worthy option. Local jobs and contacts. You never know...
-Robots for fun is a worthy idea, as is pretty much any other OSS project, as (many) other people have mentioned.
Personally, I would say that you should FORCE yourself to do something non-programming related.
-I'm guessing you're in your early 20's.
-20 years from now, you'll be kicking yourself for spending all your time coding and not doing something "different" .
--Like movies? Make one.
--Like music? Play some.
--Like books? Write one.
--Like food? Learn to cook.
--Like coding THAT much? Teach it to kids.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
First off - if you're only getting a few extra hundred a month for that amount of effort, you made yourself a bad deal. I finally caved and did a side project - a friend of mine asked for help, and it seemed interesting enough, so I agreed but only within very strict limitations signed in a contract, including my maximim amount of time I would spend.
I would also recommend that you only work on POC's and transfer knowledge, if you're doing side projects, unless you're intending to make them fulltime. I wound up doing about 40 hours work with about 500 LOCs, integrating 3 separate systems together in a base framework that wound up being as robust as they needed. (IOW, the POC is actually very near to their final code requirements, meaning they only have to do minor tweaks). They're very happy, I'm happy, and I'm done. New work = new contract.
Even though this is a friend, on the biz side we made it clear from the get go that we would work within strict limitations. Don't get caught in the trap of "well, I need one more thing". Every time something like that comes up, my response is - it's possible, but only if it fits in with my schedule, otherwise I can't perform to the expected level.
Even with the low 40 hours of work, this still affected my family life for 3 weeks, as I have a FT job and family.
Last note, just because you think you have lots of spare time and are "bored", I'm willing to bet you don't have near the amount of time you think you do. Take on a small project first, with strict limits on how much of your time will be used. Make damn sure you can accurrately estimate how much of your time it will take. That last bit is very very important.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
I work for the State and we are not allowed to work another job in the same field. I have no idea why or how it would be enforced. I thought about taking my 6 weeks of vacation and going to Iraq as a contractor. Great money. But the university stomped it flat, especially since I was on their insurance. I can understand that.
So I do volunteer web work for no-profits.
If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem
Don't be too qujick to blame those pesky foreigners. It's also likely that the majority of applicants were simply more skilled than you. The difference between a coder who is still in college and a professional with 5 or ten years of experience is immense.
You say this was a simple CS lab type project. It is very likely that some of the coders already had usable code in their own library to accomplish the purpose of this task.
I personally have bid 8 hours on projects which would be considered complete network applications. I know in college these projects would have taken me 2-3 weeks to complete. Which is why I can get projects bidding 10x that per hour now.
Regards,
----- 70% of all statistics are completely made up.
I have found that many people were glad I was from the US, spoke English, and was available at roughly the same hours as themselves.
There are plenty of opportunities on RAC, you just have to keep bidding. I highly recommend it.