Hacker News Reader

Comment by danmaz74 | Hacker News Reader

OT: I'm thinking about moving from Rome to London in a couple of months. During the first months there I'd like to work part time as a programmer: I'm very experienced with Ruby on Rails and Javascript/CoffeeScript and I would like to see from the inside how it works in the London startup scene, while I also work on my side project for which later I'll be looking for investors.

Any suggestions about how to start looking for contract or temporary work while not residing in London? Of course I'm willing to travel to interview and/or make arrangements, but I can't leave my current job immediately.

View on HN

I'm in a similar boat as you :) I'm from Slovenia and I've been searching for a full-time job from here. It really isn't a problem since most companies are doing phone/skype interviews these days. I'm actually coming to London today to do a couple of face-to-face interviews and I already have one offer. So really, the fact that you are in Italy shouldn't be a problem.

Look here for jobs: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/ https://jobs.github.com/positions?description=&location=... http://workinstartups.com/job-board http://www.3-beards.com/jobs http://www.cwjobs.co.uk/ http://jobstractor.com/ linkedin ...

Also check out the monthly hiring thread here on HN (and you can use my bookmarklet to make it a bit easier :P https://github.com/janhancic/hnHiringFilter)

I can also hook you up with a good recruiter if you want (my email is in the profile).

Thank you! How long did it take to get these interviews?

Depends, some companies responded in matter of hours, some in a couple of days. Some didn't respond at all (or they will eventually). So after that we usually setup a quick phone chat the same or next day. And if all went well we continued from there.

You really should first decide when you'll be moving. If it's in 3 months then I think it's a bit too soon to start searching. But once you do start searching things should start moving rather quickly. Just make sure you'll have the time to answer all those emails and calls :) And try to send a large batch of applications at once so you can have as many interviews at once when you'll come to London (it's not really cost effective to come just for one interview).

Yes, my main problem is having to give a 2 months notice at work. I'll try find employers (or clients) that are comfortable with that.

Thanks again

Don't forget http://hackerjobs.co.uk ;-)

You could start with checking out what London companies are hiring and contacting them. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5150834

Thanks for the suggestion

Hey Dan. Drop me an email (address in my profile). I'm looking for contract ruby folk at the moment and know quite a few others looking for contractors.

Hey Stevie. Thanks! I'm writing right now.

Really - my contacts in recruitment world say the contract market is dead in London ? Perm work is five times the volume and teams are all in house now? Am I wrong?

Yes, you are wrong.

"Contacts in the recruitment world" are probably right about contracts with clients that use recruiters.

I'm currently turning down more work than I know what to do with through my network.

Very. I'm an inhouse recruiter myself however I used to work on the dark side as an agency recruiter. Contract work (particularly for rubyists) is still surpassing perm work.

as a Pythonista I must ask - why Ruby?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com