Hi there! My first question: is working remotely common enough, or even practical?

[BasiliosZ]

Hmmm. Ok, very good points - thanks! Well, at least I know!

[TheFaQQer]

My ideal scenario would be to find a potential employer to give me a problem to solve and a deadline, and I'd go and hammer away, meeting in person when necessary (the advantage of flexibility!) for progress updates, demo sessions and so on.

You won't find an employer to do that. You might find a client of an independent professional or self-employed software developer, but you won't find an employer. Make sure you understand that crucial difference before going any further.

So, in conclusion, do you guys have any experience with this kind of remote working? Is it something common? Are there job sites or agencies that specialize in that, or at least consider it a viable alternative?

You won't find it on any contracting boards or jobs boards. You want something like elance or peopleperhour or similar. But be prepared to be in the race to the bottom and being undercut from people that can do it remotely from non-UK locations which are invariably cheaper.

Good luck.

[northernladuk]

I would say it's incredibly rare to find anything like this. You most certainly won't find it on the jobs boards. This type of work is won through networks are previous clients that value you work and even then it won't be common. Companies just don't run business by delivering stuff on evenings and weekends.

Without the network of previous contracts I don't have a clue how this is even achievable I am afraid. There are the peopleperhour type boards but from what I have seen of them I wouldn't get out of bed for the rates they offer. Might be worth taking some pretty low stuff to build up relationships possibly.

[BasiliosZ]

Hi there! This is my first post here. I'm a, experienced software engineer, and up until now I never did any contracting in UK. At the moment I do have a permanent job that I'm quite happy with, but I was thinking about looking for an opportunity for extra work.

I have some time in the evenings and the weekends. My current contract lets me look for additional employment as long as it doesn't affect my productivity. I also have limited but reasonable flexibility when it comes to working from home, working hours and so on. So I was wondering whether working remotely is something common, or even practical, because for obvious reasons I cannot go for the classic full time working contracts.

My ideal scenario would be to find a potential employer to give me a problem to solve and a deadline, and I'd go and hammer away, meeting in person when necessary (the advantage of flexibility!) for progress updates, demo sessions and so on.

I tried to do a job search in the Contract Search section, but couldn't find any, or maybe I didn't use the right keywords. In some cases working remotely was offered, but it was clear that it was a full time arrangement rather than working towards set targets. That seemed to be the case for other job sites and recruitment agencies as well: plenty, really plenty of full time contracts, but not quite the conditions that fit my situation.

I do realize this is quite a restrictive scenario, and that this market has its own rules and habits, and I'm more than happy to learn about them. That's why I'm here on this forum after all!

So, in conclusion, do you guys have any experience with this kind of remote working? Is it something common? Are there job sites or agencies that specialize in that, or at least consider it a viable alternative?