Hello, I am a graduate developer in Venezuela. I entered freecodecamp with the intention that my knowledge have international validity and so to get a job outside my country. Currently I have a job in my country but I am not well paid, things in Venezuela become increasingly worse and do not think this can improve the short term. Could recommend me which way to go to achieve my goal? Excuse my English and I’m learning and help with google translate. Thank you for reading!
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What about remote work (portals like https://www.upwork.com/ work for it perfectly) or looking for job offers that usually offer relocation costs on Linked in?
You can also apply to the companies directly, very often they have job offers on the page.
Apart from that you may look for job at services you use while coding or learning new stuff about code/ design (stackoverflow, css tricks, even pages like tech related blogs offer nowadays sections devoted to work).
To apply anywhere I think more useful than any certificate is the attitude, portfolio, references, some small side projects showing you care and problem solving skills. Any missing knowledge can always be learnt. Certificates are useful but not the most important.
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UpWork is a great place to test your skills and meet a lot of interesting people, that can teach you a lot of new, very usefull staff.
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I just registered in www.upwork.com. I honestly never even apply by linkedin and when I have a profile.
I’ll start to apply directly pages too.
And if sometimes I think what I need is more attitude. Thank you very much for answering!
Are you guys finding Upwork to be good? I tried it a while ago (not for web dev tho) and was quickly discouraged. I found the experience to be so totally disheartening. The vase majority of clients seem to be bottom-feeders that are just looking for absurdly cheap labor and at the same time are demanding all kinds of skills that will probably take me another three years to get. Then the already low-paying offers are compounded by the fact that you have to spend so much time looking for jobs that are a good fit. Then you have to write out and send an application, and then of course, wait to be accepted for the job. By the time you calculate your hourly income, you’d be lucky to make $5/hr. Seriously, I think you end up spending a lot more time looking for work than actually working.
It’s possible that I just had no idea how to do it properly and did everything wrong, but I couldn’t figure out how to make a decent income from it. There are too many people out there willing to race to the bottom with their prices. So, in my experience anyway, it’s not a good place to find real work.
That said, it IS good for getting paid while you are still learning. Until you get that “good” job, you’ll need to practice and make stuff to put on your portfolio anyway, so you might as well get paid for it - even if it is just $5/hr. It’s better than nothing, right?
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@GitCoderr I am currently developing my code and design skills, so I haven’t got much work from there myself, but I have much better experience than you.
My jobs on Upwork were so far mostly about testing, UX, or project management. However, my husband and our team (all of them programming) have used it for a few years and you can really make a living from it, not only in India, but in such countries as e.g. Spain where we are living now (Western Europe).
Whenever you are looking for new clients there, it takes time, but there are few ways to make it smarter.
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Keep an eye on clients’ history on Upwork (how many did they employ, for what jobs, what’s the average price they paid, which country do they come from, what opinion do they have from the people they cooperated with so far, how they answer, how they look outside Upwork (their online presence), etc).
We have long term clients coming from there. Some of them did not have a long term history on Upwork, but we took a risk that paid off (before of course checking them and relaying a bit on our guts). -
Make sure your Upwork account looks really good and that your online presence proves what you say on Upwork. Linkedin account, your portfolio, references… all of them are needed and make your application worth considering.
Without showing clearly how can you help the client and why you are better than other million users, you won’t be glad with the results. -
Don’t apply to the jobs that are below your wanna-have price. There will be always somebody who will do it cheaper than you. There is no sense to apply for Asian rates living in Europe or States. It rather can go down than up.
Fixed priced contracts are risky, so make sure you estimate the project looking at each part and giving yourself a time boundary for a small miscalculation. Contracts paid per hour are the best option but sometimes you must first convince the client you are worth it. -
Respond quickly. Make visible you care if you really do about a given project.
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Get down to brass tacks, it’s business. Get rid of useless content of you applications. Provide clear information fitting the offer and showing how you think and can solve your client’s problems.
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Filter the applications. Save your time looking, don’t look at every offer. Come back to offers often, sometimes a best fitting contract appear just after you left the page and went to Facebook/ Twitter wall.
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Take tests, yeah they are sometimes more than stupid but some clients look at them. For some people they are at the same level as portfolio.
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Be patient, don’t jump at any work if you are not pinned into a tight corner. There are various online remote work sources. Upwork is just one of the biggest and most active one.
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In the meantime looking for perfect job is doing small jobs there to gather great Upwork history first. When applying for bigger projects it may be useful to have first good reviews from previous contracts. What’s more, it’s comfortable to check the service first on some small jobs remembering about getting the review from a happy clients after each finished work.
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Keep record of your applications. You can use a part of the application to fit another one if you are organized enough. It can save much of your time, especially for the first contact mails.
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Use your guts. Be human, show why you fit a given project. Be formal but don’t exaggerate. Show that you care and can advice the way that will make the business happy. Be open to video calls, it will tell you much more than mails. They are also a great chance to build stronger business relationship.
Don’t resign from an offer just because there is one or two things on a list that you don’t feel secure at. If you know how to solve the problem and majority of stuff fits you, just go for it. Very often the client mentions some technologies but finally will use other solution. Try to suggest how else you can solve the problem. Apply where you fit.
I am also coming back to applying there for myself soon. Now I focus on learning more.
Have fun and good luck! Hope these will help.
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hola mijolindo, como puedes ver regrese a darle duro de nuevo por aca, estoy tratando de incluirme de nuevo en el mundo de la programacio por lo que veo a cambiado demaciad e estos ultimos años, estmos en linea cuidate dios lo bendiga …
Que fue mijo querido, si vale bastante ahorita hay que parecer una navaja suiza para poder competir, dale cualquier cosa pega un grito. bendición!