Ask HN: Becoming an [international] freelance consultant

My apologies in advance, I can&#x27;t answer your question directly, but your post gave me pause and I might not be the only such person with these reactions.<p>I agree with @contingencies, Java is the only technology you mention. Many recruiters will probably not read past that if that isn&#x27;t what they are looking for. There is nothing wrong with it, but it does lock you into being a &quot;contract programmer&quot; vs a &quot;freelance consultant&quot;.<p>Are you making the transition from contract programmer to freelance consultant? If so, then you need to reposition your personal branding &#x2F; marketing.<p>In order to deliver value as a consultant you will need a lot of person-to-person interaction. So, as you point out, you need to be able to communicate fluently with the stakeholders and the many people who are working on any given project.<p>Whilst emails, chat and phone calls are very useful, a lot of essential and (IMHO) critical communications takes place in person. That is basically why teleconferencing hasn&#x27;t supplanted business travel. So whilst you can continue to travel, you will probably need to be located with the client for at least part of the time. In many organisations working &quot;remote&quot; causes concerns to management. Travelling from project to project is another matter.<p>In my experience, the best consultant opportunities arise when working for a major international consulting firm. Once you have established a solid track record in that environment it is possible to go freelance. Employers, like recruiters and agencies, look at your track record for proof that you can successfully complete the given assignment. As a freelance consultant you are expected to hit the deck running.<p>Then there is that massive stumbling block ... being freelance means that you have to market and sell yourself. Having gotten an assignment you need to track your hours, bill and collect. It is for these reasons that I have found working for a consulting firm is less stressful. When you choose your field and company well, travel becomes a given rather than an option.

My slightly aged but in my opinion still relevant general advice is this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12744624" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12744624</a> , in addition to this more elaborate blog post referred to in that comment: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bjoernkw.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;starting-a-software-consulting-business&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bjoernkw.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;starting-a-software-consulti...</a><p>I also can&#x27;t emphasise enough that you&#x27;re in the business of solving problems, not in the business of creating software: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15761354" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15761354</a><p>Focus on particular industries or categories of business problems rather than specific technologies.

My advice: Remove Java from your resume, or at least bury it at the end.<p>Rationale: Generally only relevant to Android development and bigco. Your major clients in consulting will be SME.

I&#x27;m really not sure what you&#x27;re asking. Could you possibly clarify? You are already working as a contract programmer, which is a freelance of sorts, and already travelling the world. Are you saying that you travel on your personal time, i.e. when you&#x27;re not working, but that you would now prefer to travel further afield (more than France and Germany) specifically to work on projects? Or are you saying that you are already travelling for programming work (France and Germany being examples of this), but that you now wish to transition into a more management-consulting focused role instead of programming, i.e. more involved in the business process and strategy end of things and less on the technical side?

&gt; What are other job recruitment agencies which I should sign up for (especially international and remote wise)?<p>Toptal has an interesting platform &gt; <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;toptal.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;toptal.com&#x2F;</a>

What I did was work for a company and then transition the job remote after 11 months.<p>I kept my &quot;california&quot; salary and actually earned a lot more money than when I was sitting in an office.<p>Best of luck!

I&#x27;ve been sitting at both sides of the table via TopTal. First I went through their interview process, which I didn&#x27;t like and the experience afterwards wasn&#x27;t great. More recently I helped to hire people via Toptal to work on a project I consulted for, and that was good. Really great developers, and what I can see they have a lot of flexibility.<p>However, have you considered remote work instead? There is more companies open to that setting and you can also have a good time flexibility. I work for game studio in Dublin - we offer fully remote setup, &quot;unlimited&quot; holidays and flexible working hours. Your skillset matches exactly what we need. But even if you aren&#x27;t interested in making games for a living (python &amp; java fullstack development) there is tons companies like us. I know because we have to compete with them for the best talent.