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Comment by iainctduncan | Hacker News Reader

It depends what you mean by contracting - which can be anything from "an employee who gets no benefits so a bit more money" to freelancing.

If you're looking for ongoing part-time contracting, I have successfully landed multiple contracting jobs by applying to places that were looking for full time work, for whom my skills were an exceptionally good fit, and saying "I know you weren't thinking of part-time remote contractors, but I'm a really good fit, would you consider it?"

Lots of places have just never seriously considered it, but faced with a hot prospect, will do so. And lots of places out there are actually wrestling with the issue of needing extra work, but not having enough to justify the obligation of hiring permanent full time.

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Employers face the mirrored version of OPs question.

They'd be happy to hire contractors for some things, but have no good way to find them.

As both a client and contractor, I like arc.dev / codementor.io. It's well-paid, with a decent amount of high quality people on there.

why do the employers prefer hiring rather than contracting?

Speaking as an employer, availability is important. If you're only working 15-20 hours a week for me, you've surely got other commitments that are occupying your mind and time. I've also seen many people doing part-time contracting take on more than they can handle, either moonlighting part-time from their full-time job or taking on too many simultaneous gigs. I've done this myself as a contractor, so I understand why it's happening, but as the employer I don't want to be on the receiving end.

I still hire part-time contractors for things, but for anything that's time sensitive or availability is a concern, I prefer to have a full-time employee.

ok, but what if you need to complete a task and cannot assign or find employees in a reasonable amount of time? would you then consider contracting the task?

Of course, short term contractors are ideal for overflow work. My point is that I try not to rely on part time contractors over the long term because their availability can change.

Speaking as an engineer that sometimes wears a hiring manager hat. Full-time long term is typically preferred. On a complex product in a complex domain there can be a long learning curve. It’s very valuable to have people that stay for multiple years and were there when certain choices were made.

People have a different learning and onboarding speed, but it generally takes months for an engineering hire to “break even” and be able to pick up most tickets on their own. So we generally prefer people that stay longer.

That being said, there is also value to bringing in people with different backgrounds, experiences & perspectives. So sometimes freelancers or consultants can be good choice.

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