Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?
by bravura on Saturday October 02, 2010 @09:05PM
(#1751804)
I think consulting + contracting is definitely the way to go.
When I consult through MetaOptimize, part of my goal is to work with smart people that I couldn't get otherwise, who work with me because they can set their own hours and work from where they want. This means that I have access, for example, to smart engineers + scientists in academia who want to keep doing research for pleasure but make spare cash on the side. (p.s. we're hiring people for part-time, remote work arrangements: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1748833)
It's sad to see in the Who's Hiring post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1748045) that so few employers offer flexible work arrangements. I think a lot of top talent is lost this way.
Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?
by gizmomagico on Sunday October 03, 2010 @02:54AM
(#1752261)
How do you find your clients, and is your consulting/contracting work something a mere mortal could pull off too?
Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?
by patio11 on Sunday October 03, 2010 @10:06AM
(#1752721)
If I'm not too busy tonight with Business of Software prep work and dinner, I'll write something on my blog about it. I'm a mere mortal whose skillset is very, very difficult to hire for. That describes lots of people on HN, although the skillsets are probably different.
Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?
by gizmomagico on Monday October 04, 2010 @01:28AM
(#1754698)
Cool. It would be interesting to hear more about this.
I'm told that many consultants do something like this. If full-utilization for a consultant is $200,000 (and that is by no means a ceiling), then 50% still puts your household in a pretty decent place to be. There exist some consulting opportunities where you can schedule arbitrary amounts of work over long time scales -- I have one client relationship where, if I wanted to bill four hours on Monday and four hours on Tuesday and then never touch the keyboard again, he'd be thrilled by that. There are other opportunities if you want to parachute in, work for two weeks, and then get back to living.