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Filip_Zdravkovic's avatar

Laravel jobs, freelancing, remote work... ?

What is your experience with freelancing and remote work? I want to try freelance/remote jobs (as a Laravel Web developer), but I'm not sure how to start, and I am always asking myself "do I have enough knowledge", "how much do I need to know before applying"... You know, after reading many blogs with tips for freelancers, I decided to create a personal website with blog, I created accounts on LinkedIn and popular freelance websites such as Upwork... and what I noticed about freelancing - it's really hard to start, to get first projects, especially if you have no previous “real-world” experience (which is my case). Do you have any tips on starting freelancing career, how much do I need to know, what are good websites to find jobs?

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6 replies
jaydeluca's avatar

Come up with an application to build that can showcase various skills and put it on github. Reference it when you apply for jobs.

willvincent's avatar

The biggest issue I've seen with the various freelance sites is people looking for developers rarely have a realistic idea about budget, and there are always some low-ball people offering to do work for peanuts.. In my opinion, they aren't going to be much help to you for getting profitable freelance work.

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Filip_Zdravkovic's avatar

@willvincent Yeah, I know what you mean... Also, I've noticed a lot of demanding clients that are looking for someone who needs to know almost every possible PHP framework (Laravel, Zend, Yii and CodeIgniter expert), but also Angular, React, Vue... and web design... and many other things. WTF? I wouldn't be surprised if one of the requirements is to have the Grand Slam title.

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willvincent's avatar

@Filip_Zdravkovic there is a direct, inverse, correlation between the amount of money people are willing to pay vs. the service they expect. Always, without fail I have experienced that people less willing to pay realistic amounts will expect more. Probably because those who are willing to cough up a reasonable fee understand that they're hiring a professional and trust them to provide a high quality service.

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jlrdw's avatar

In my opinion you are better off looking for a good solid company to work at for a number of years.

Edit: not fly by night but a real reputable company and not some start-up a real company, maybe a startup company okay if it seems promising.

And don't put all of your eggs in one basket learn something besides laravel, some large Enterprise companies and state governments have certain specs you have to program by going in and saying well I know laravel it's not going to mean nothing.

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