Where to find great tech freelance talent
Q: Where can I find high-quality tech freelancers?
Co-working spaces: “Co-working is a growing idea, and most cities have one or more of these spaces. These sharedwork environments are spaces towork alone or collaborate, plus they’re usually a professional location to meet clients. Tech freelancers, entrepreneurs and startups are attracted to them, so it’s a greatway to find talent. Work a day or two aweek there and get to knowpeople— you’ll be sure to find talent.”— Kyle Clayton, Set Jet
Your own community: “We have only used freelancers fromour local community because most of ourwork requires lots of ideation, creativity and brainstorming. This means most of ourwork happens in a roomwith a whiteboard, so remote freelancerswon’twork for us. We have found some really good talent through local incubators and technologymeet-ups.” — Jyot Singh, RTS Labs
Toptal: “I recently discovered a technology talent site called Toptal (www.toptal.com) that is quickly becoming one of the best places to find high-quality technology freelancers. The co-founder of the sitewas recently named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list because it’s on track to do nearly $100 million in sales this year by connecting tech companies to fantastic tech talent.”— Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.
GitHub: “The great thing about GitHub (github.com) is that you can see exactly what developers haveworked on and built. For hiring engineers, this is far more valuable than a resume. Not everyone on GitHub will be looking forwork, but it’s a goodway to screen for quality.” — Sathvik Tantry, FormSwift
Stack Overflow: “Whilemost active participants on Stack Overflow(stackoverflow.com) are not actively looking for contractwork, more often than not you can convince them to help you at least part-time. You’ll quickly be able to gauge their competence and skills based on the contributions they’ve made to the community, too.”— FirasKittaneh, AstraBeds
Dice: “Dice is a job search board (dice.com) targeted strictly to those in the tech industry. But employers can use it as well through job postings, amore comprehensive hiring campaign and other recruiting solutions.”— AndrewSchrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
eLance: “I’ve been using eLance (elance.com) for various development projects for over a decade and honestly it’s the best platform to find high-quality tech freelancers. The nice thing is that you not only set expectations for what it is youwant built, but dozens or more bids roll in from all types of developers. Ratings help youmake a choice based on your specific needs and budget.” — Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com
Envato Studio: “Envato Studio (studio.envato.com) has recently become one of the fastest freelancer platforms. Envato reviews every provider to make sure they are affordable, reliable and provide qualitywork. The freelancers’ profiles are also very informational— full of reviews, portfolios and available services. They’ve even built in stats showing total number of completed jobs and recommendation scores, aswell as repeat clients.” — KumarArora, Aroridex, Ltd.