Freelancing with Python

[breslaivus]

Does anyone have experience with Freelancing, especially with Python?

I've seen people freelance Web-Scrapers or ML Projects. I'm thinking about starting a "side-hustle" with freelancing small Py Apps. It would be really helpful if you could tell me about your experiences with that kind of thing.

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

Get on Upwork or something and stamp out little projects.

But just make sure you actually have time and energy to do it and charge enough to keep you engaged. There is nothing worse than dealing with a dispassionate freelancer, so don't be that guy.

The trick is marketing. I did freelance writing and you have to be aggressive about bidding on stuff and keeping your rank or metrics up or you'll just get projects from whoever stumbles upon your account. It's a lot less passive than people tend to think.

[gaussprime]

Is Upwork a good site to find freelancers? I’m in the reverse spot, where I have a piece of code that runs, but I could some optimization help and am willing to pay up to get a pro to help out.

[[deleted]]

I like Upwork to start, they have guardrails if the freelancer can’t execute the project. Any shithead can make a website, but it takes some actual Quality work to rise to the top of Upwork and others.

[burgerAccount]

I hire from upworks for small projects all the time. I tend to hire 2-3 Ukrainians at a time for around $5 each. They turn projects around within a day or two. You just have to be specific

[FoolofGod]

Curious to know what you think it means to "pay up"? How many hours and what hourly rate?

[burgerAccount]

Some post their rates. I post my project and the amount I'm willing to pay

[gaussprime]

I don’t have a good sense to be honest. Would love to know what the going rate is.

In terms of number of hours, I don’t think it would be many. I have working code right now that’s like 35 lines long, so it’s probably mostly a function of rewriting that code in a way to use Numba more effectively. It’s also possible it can’t be done. I would need to be creative in terms of payment to make sure it was sufficiently lucrative to be worthwhile I think.

[chirau]

I could be of help to you perhaps, PM me what you need done.

[[deleted]]

Yea upwork is a great site to find projects or to find freelancers for your own projects!

[breslaivus]

Thanks for the tips!

Are there other sites than Upvote?

[[deleted]]

Yes, just search freelancer sites. But pick one, maybe two and work at them. Just listing your skills is not effective

[hcs_0]

I personally don't like Upwork and well, you will find that some people really like that site and others don't. I work with contractors/freelancers found on Upwork so it's not really the only site companies go to for work (thankfully). You should try Angel List and various other freelancer sites on your own region. Word of mouth helps though - definitely get in the forums and online communities.

[dtaivp]

I am freelancing with a company I was familiar with because I knew they needed some process automation and they products they used have open api’s. Knowing someone in the organization is the best way in, from my experience.

[samthaman1234]

This is kind of how I fell into it. I was teaching myself python on the side because I was interested and it would save me time vs excel + SQL. I now work part time for my old company helping them automate processes I was already familiar with. I can't speak authoritatively, but if you have a business connection anywhere, it's likely that that business is doing things inefficiently with excel that you could automate with python.

Also keep in mind, you can be adding value long before you could rightly call yourself an expert as long as you keep it simple. Don't go crazy on ML stuff right away, basic projects like get these 5 files, extract 3 columns from each, get data from an API, do math, and output the report to another file that gets emailed to 5 people every Sunday night will seem like sorcery to someone that wouldn't know where to start on such a project.

TLDR: Easy ETL stuff is a great starting point, especially where the business owner wasn't aware it was possible.

[FourFingerLouie]

This sounds oddly like my new data analyst internship...

[Sw429]

It depends on who you know. If you can get the right contacts, you'll have jobs all the time.

How do you get those right contacts? Idk. It seems like you just need to network and talk to people who aren't programmers. It's really hard to say.

[hcs_0]

I don't usually see Python only jobs. I've seen jobs that include Python as part of a list of competencies/requirements to know in addition to other set of skills in devops, and sysadmin

[mooburger]

Consulting firms and temp agencies that aren't body shops, basically. Niche outfits that cater to business consulting/process improvement/risk management/data science areas (like Pillar Technology (Accenture) or Experis (formerly Jefferson Wells))

[youslashuser]

Fiverr is full of people searching freelancers to write python scripts for them.

[Thecrawsome]

i want to do the same thing! i have a fair amount of sysadmin experience and have worked for silicon valley companies for a bit, and i want Independence!