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Comment by adyer07 | Hacker News Reader

I tried this and struggled. After taking a break from full-time developer work, I reached out to multiple tech companies via personal referrals. Everyone said that they’d love me full time, but couldn’t have a part-time hire. I got a lot of soft brush-offs to “reach out when you have more availability.”

Out of the blue, however, a former employer reached out to me and offered to hire me for as many (or as few) hours as I could handle, which has worked out to 10-25 a week. It’s been a really nice arrangement that I’ve enjoyed. The catch is that this company is in a completely different industry, with a completely different pay scale than tech. So I’m happy with my job, but wouldn’t be able to support myself on it with part-time hours if I was the only household earner.

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I hear ya. Many recruiters/bosses simply don’t want to hear anything about part-time work at all. I think that’s a mistake on their end – it could be a major benefit that would make that employer stand out from the crowd. But many companies sadly doesn’t think about it that way.

PS. As someone else mentioned here, and in case you find yourself on the market again: You might want to try to discuss part-time only after receiving a written offer. Then you know for sure that they want to hire you. And then you have some leverage.

Very interesting - I will definitely try that next time.

I agree! Flexible work would be a huge differentiator and I was ready to bend over backwards for it. I’ve heard that many companies won’t consider it because developers are just so darn expensive - it’s not worth it to pay a huge ransom and not get someone’s full attention.

In my experience, you have to negotiate part-time after the verbal "great job, we want to hire you" but before the formal written offer.

I had a similar experience; seeking a job with reduced hours was almost impossible. But working as a contractor for an ex-employer worked out really well.

I'd typically work Monday & Tuesday, take Wednesday off for myself, then do parenting for Thursday & Friday. It was a great way to spend a few months.

Yeah if I decide to try my hand at contracting then reaching out to past employers could be a good idea. After all they know my track record, and I know lots of people there, and I know who to speak with to get things done etc. And they won’t have to explain all the domain-specific knowledge to me.

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