Advice for finding outsourced piecemeal work from agencies (moved from General)

[WTFH]

RichardS71 asked the following:

Hi All, very new to freelancing and wondered if anyone has any advice about finding agencies that outsource software development? What key phrases should I be googling or searching for on linkedin? What do they typically call their departments that deal with outsourcing? Which agencies do you know of that do this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Lance]

agencies find people.

I'm not sure why you are asking about outsourcing in the context of agencies. No matter what they miught claim, they don't provide outsourcing, they are a body shop.

If you're just looking for ad-hoc development work, write your CV and get in on Jobserve and LinkedIn.

[NotAllThere]

Agencies generally aren't interested in anything other than long term 5 days a week contracts. If you have a good relationship with an agent and some client pops up with a short term or one off contract, then you might be lucky.

[edison]

I thought 'piece' or piecemeal work was being paid per unit produced, usually associated with low pay jobs like manual assembly work in a factory? If the OP just wants to do odds n sods then maybe look at freelance sites like Fiverr but expect to see some quite low rates as you are potentially competing for work against people in other lower wage countries in Asia etc.

[RichardS71]

Thanks for your collective feedback chaps. I know some agencies have departments that work like consultancies and take on project delivery using their database of human capital to do the work. I didn't know how common it was or even the search terms I would use to find them. But from your feedback I see it'll probably be like looking for several needles in a very large hay stack and not worth the effort.

The freelancing sites are pretty much a no-no for any western dev like myself although I know the UN have been posting high paying projects on there but likely they'd favour devs from poorer countries to spread the wealth around.

[CodeCobbler]

Not sure exactly what the question is but, I do notice there are differences to contracting than there were 10 years prior.
I have discovered some agencies (shall we say) with an interesting business model.
Do not know how popular these are in reality or if they are just some kind of startup idea.

As you say, theres the Upworks, the Topcoder etc which, make you jump thru endless hoops, and unless you are a 4th worlder or willing to put a lot of time into building networks not worth it.

Theres some boutique agencies that have a preferred supplier approach. Based around niche stuff.

Theres a few shared revenue type models which operate a bit like a consultancy. Dont know how popular these actually are.

Main sales funnel seems to be the open market like cwjobs etc.

I am not sure about Linked in. I am 50-50 whether to delete it or not. I have had nothing useful from it, and the "somebody viewed your profile" triggers my paranoia. The innocent have nothing to hide I know but, IDK if its much use as a job platform. Tends to be just echoes of whats on other boards.