Fishing for remote/PT technical work
July 29, 2015 10:12 AM
I found a job I liked, but it's too far away for me to commute every day. How can I pitch myself as a contractor / consultant for the parts of the job that can be performed remotely or on a part time basis? Many snowflakes inside.
Here's my situation: I am currently not working full time (doing small amount of adjunct lecturing and tutoring right now). I'm interested in a job that uses my skills so I can keep them fresh and get more experience, but I don't need benefits or a large income, as my husband's job covers us both at the moment with no difficulty. The city I live in does not have any industry like what I had before we moved (from Boston), and I haven't been able to even find any postings for anything I'm qualified for or interested in. I came across an engineering job posting in my city (posted by a recruiting firm) for a full time, on-site job that I check a ton of boxes for in terms of education, experience, and a rare technical skill set. In addition, a lot of the things the job was looking for appear to be computer work (data analysis that I've done a lot of in the past, not writing code) that may be able to be performed remotely. I was really excited and applied for the job through the recruiting firm that posted it as being in my city, but after sending in my resume and cover letter, I did some keyword searches and identified the company as actually being in an exurb of a city 2 hours from me. The site itself is 1.5 hours from me, which is more commute than I'm willing to do on an everyday basis.
I have some LinkedIn contacts in common with people at the company (50-200 employees, pretty new company, a “hot new” technology). I was thinking of getting in touch with them through LinkedIn or the company itself and asking if they would be interested in me doing part time or remote work for some of the projects that they posted in the job description. I would be willing to drive to the site 1-2 times per week for face-time / meetings, and to work 40 hours a week total if they had enough quantity of the computer work, or I could work however many hours as they needed. I would also be willing to spend a week at a time there (staying with friends or something) every couple months if a project required it. I'm willing to do this indefinitely (for years), so it's not necessarily a short-term thing. I feel that if they have a variable amount of work, my flexibility and lack of need for benefits could be a good idea for them as a small new company – I could be paid as a contractor/consultant or something and save them some money in overhead. Depending on if I was paid on W2 or as a contractor/consultant, I would want to set a rate that would put me at a normal employee's salary after taxes. I'm pretty sure that my skill-set is rare here (because there's not much industry like this) so they might not have a lot of local candidates anyway, and my references are excellent. I'm not able to relocate so that's out of the question.
My question(s):
1) How do I pitch myself as a PT remote employee / contractor / consultant for a job like this, that's mostly looking for a regular employee? If I was applying for the full-time job as posted, I believe I'd have a really good shot at it in terms of my qualifications, but I've only ever applied and worked at full time jobs in this field.
2) Broadly, who should I try to contact - should I try to get in touch with people I can contact on LinkedIn, or should I apply for the job as posted and pitch this in my cover letter? Should I call HR and inquire about this? Should I refer to myself as a consultant or a contractor right off the bat, or should I shoot for being a “remote PT employee”?
3) Any legal issues I should consider?
4) Any tips whatsoever for doing this kind of thing successfully?
5) Related bonus question – Because I did submit my resume to the recruiting firm, am I obligated to not apply for the job posting on the company's website or contact them directly? Should I try talking to the recruiting firm about my trying to do a remote/PT role? I feel that they falsely advertised this position for saying it was in my city and never mentioning where it actually was in the posting, so I'm not sure I respect their claim on my resume.
Here's my situation: I am currently not working full time (doing small amount of adjunct lecturing and tutoring right now). I'm interested in a job that uses my skills so I can keep them fresh and get more experience, but I don't need benefits or a large income, as my husband's job covers us both at the moment with no difficulty. The city I live in does not have any industry like what I had before we moved (from Boston), and I haven't been able to even find any postings for anything I'm qualified for or interested in. I came across an engineering job posting in my city (posted by a recruiting firm) for a full time, on-site job that I check a ton of boxes for in terms of education, experience, and a rare technical skill set. In addition, a lot of the things the job was looking for appear to be computer work (data analysis that I've done a lot of in the past, not writing code) that may be able to be performed remotely. I was really excited and applied for the job through the recruiting firm that posted it as being in my city, but after sending in my resume and cover letter, I did some keyword searches and identified the company as actually being in an exurb of a city 2 hours from me. The site itself is 1.5 hours from me, which is more commute than I'm willing to do on an everyday basis.
I have some LinkedIn contacts in common with people at the company (50-200 employees, pretty new company, a “hot new” technology). I was thinking of getting in touch with them through LinkedIn or the company itself and asking if they would be interested in me doing part time or remote work for some of the projects that they posted in the job description. I would be willing to drive to the site 1-2 times per week for face-time / meetings, and to work 40 hours a week total if they had enough quantity of the computer work, or I could work however many hours as they needed. I would also be willing to spend a week at a time there (staying with friends or something) every couple months if a project required it. I'm willing to do this indefinitely (for years), so it's not necessarily a short-term thing. I feel that if they have a variable amount of work, my flexibility and lack of need for benefits could be a good idea for them as a small new company – I could be paid as a contractor/consultant or something and save them some money in overhead. Depending on if I was paid on W2 or as a contractor/consultant, I would want to set a rate that would put me at a normal employee's salary after taxes. I'm pretty sure that my skill-set is rare here (because there's not much industry like this) so they might not have a lot of local candidates anyway, and my references are excellent. I'm not able to relocate so that's out of the question.
My question(s):
1) How do I pitch myself as a PT remote employee / contractor / consultant for a job like this, that's mostly looking for a regular employee? If I was applying for the full-time job as posted, I believe I'd have a really good shot at it in terms of my qualifications, but I've only ever applied and worked at full time jobs in this field.
2) Broadly, who should I try to contact - should I try to get in touch with people I can contact on LinkedIn, or should I apply for the job as posted and pitch this in my cover letter? Should I call HR and inquire about this? Should I refer to myself as a consultant or a contractor right off the bat, or should I shoot for being a “remote PT employee”?
3) Any legal issues I should consider?
4) Any tips whatsoever for doing this kind of thing successfully?
5) Related bonus question – Because I did submit my resume to the recruiting firm, am I obligated to not apply for the job posting on the company's website or contact them directly? Should I try talking to the recruiting firm about my trying to do a remote/PT role? I feel that they falsely advertised this position for saying it was in my city and never mentioning where it actually was in the posting, so I'm not sure I respect their claim on my resume.
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