Any agencies doing part-time or remote contracts?

**northernladuk** · 5 November 2013, 13:54

Unless you have good direct contacts or a good network I would say you have close to absolute zero chance of pulling this off. The market is flat enough as it is for guys that can travel to interview and do a full week. You are also a huge risk to the agent so you have him to fight as well.

We do have some people on the forums in part time or full work from home but I believe most of those are through negotiation with existing clients or calls from clients that know they trustworthy. Getting one off the bat from an agent? I don't think so.

If I was in your shoes I would make a decision on what is most important to me and do that. If you have the warchest to not work and don't want to move from Italy then stay. If you need to work then leave.

Why not just become a local and farm stuff or just quit IT and do something that is plausible in that region. I hear there is a shortage of goat farmers in Northern Italy.

**Old Greg** · 5 November 2013, 14:05

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Unless you have good direct contacts or a good network I would say you have close to absolute zero chance of pulling this off. The market is flat enough as it is for guys that can travel to interview and do a full week. You are also a huge risk to the agent so you have him to fight as well.

We do have some people on the forums in part time or full work from home but I believe most of those are through negotiation with existing clients or calls from clients that know they trustworthy. Getting one off the bat from an agent? I don't think so.

If I was in your shoes I would make a decision on what is most important to me and do that. If you have the warchest to not work and don't want to move from Italy then stay. If you need to work then leave.

Why not just become a local and farm stuff or just quit IT and do something that is plausible in that region. I hear there is a shortage of goat farmers in Northern Italy.

I often do part time contracts and occasionally run two concurrently. However, my current contact (80 days over 6 months) is the only time I've ever managed to negotiate such working arrangements from the start with a new client, and that was because I have worked with the hiring bod several times before so am a known quantity.

**tdm** · 5 November 2013, 14:26

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Unless you have good direct contacts or a good network I would say you have close to absolute zero chance of pulling this off. The market is flat enough as it is for guys that can travel to interview and do a full week. You are also a huge risk to the agent so you have him to fight as well.

We do have some people on the forums in part time or full work from home but I believe most of those are through negotiation with existing clients or calls from clients that know they trustworthy. Getting one off the bat from an agent? I don't think so.

If I was in your shoes I would make a decision on what is most important to me and do that. If you have the warchest to not work and don't want to move from Italy then stay. If you need to work then leave.

Why not just become a local and farm stuff or just quit IT and do something that is plausible in that region. I hear there is a shortage of goat farmers in Northern Italy.

Thanks lad for your honest opinion,
I met people doing full work from home contracts but they were mostly regular full time contractors which arranged it with the employee after a working with it for a good amount of time.
I do have some war chest to sustain my current lifestyle, but it won't last forever. I'm 31, I studied and I've been doing IT basically my whole life, and it's not easy to change field even if I wanted to.
You're right when you say I should make a decision on what is most important to me. On one hand, a place that I like, a girlfriend who's working in the local NHS and not willing to move, friends and family, parents who occasionally needs help; on the other hand, economic survival. It's a tough one.

P.S: Unfortunately for me, I don't see goats in here.

**DirtyDog** · 5 November 2013, 14:32

Originally posted by tdm View Post

So I was wondering if anyone ever attempted to land a part-time contracting job or even a remote job. I guess if I had a 3 or 4 days workweek I could 'easily' commute to the UK once a week, the airport is close to home and I can get to 'sort of' London or anywhere in UK in about an hour.

Do you know any agency or agent who's specialized on this type of contracts (remote or part-time)? If you were in my shoes, what would you do?

Don't know anyone who specialises in this kind of thing, but I'm about to clock up three years working from home - I've met the who team once (two week stay), and catch up with some of them every six weeks (one or two days at a time).

It is possible, you just need to be lucky.

**northernladuk** · 5 November 2013, 14:35

Originally posted by tdm View Post

I met people doing full work from home contracts but they were mostly regular full time contractors which arranged it with the employee after a working with it for a good amount of time.

Regular full time contractors??? You sure about that phrase

**tdm** · 5 November 2013, 14:43

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

Regular full time contractors??? You sure about that phrase

eh

I haven't phrased it properly. I meant contractors who's been working remotely (sweden) full-time for more than 3 years. This was in Dublin, though.

**tdm** · 5 November 2013, 14:52

Originally posted by DirtyDog View Post

Don't know anyone who specialises in this kind of thing, but I'm about to clock up three years working from home - I've met the who team once (two week stay), and catch up with some of them every six weeks (one or two days at a time).

It is possible, you just need to be lucky.

See, that would be the ideal setup for me as well

but it's basically impossible to achieve without a pre-existing network.

**DirtyDog** · 5 November 2013, 15:55

Originally posted by tdm View Post

See, that would be the ideal setup for me as well

but it's basically impossible to achieve without a pre-existing network.

I've had two successive contracts where it's worked.

First one, the client went to the agency and described what they needed doing. Agent told them they needed to get me in, as it was niche work and I'm one of the few people who does it. Client was spread globally so there was no point in being based in an office overseas and charging expenses.

Current one I got through LinkedIn - someone who is on the project knew I was looking, and they needed someone to come in and help out. Again - global implementation with no logical place of work, so working from home made sense.

Sounds like you need to find some global projects and argue that you can be more effective, cheaper from where you are, rather than needing to be on-site. One guy on this project literally flicks from place to place - he did a month in Morocco recently, and is in Spain for a few weeks at the moment. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection

**Boney M** · 5 November 2013, 16:31

Could you not whore your skills out to some of these online sites like payperhour and contractor.net or something similar?

Any agencies doing part-time or remote contracts?