Toptal

Today, I was browsing Facebook on the bus to college and I stumbled upon an article about Toptal. To summarize, Toptal is a company created by two enginnering students. What sets it apart is the fact that nowadays it made profits for 80 million dollars, rejected Silicon Valley offers and... never had an office.

All interactions, meeting and initial recruitment was done via Skype. The creators designed a special screening process aimed at recruiting "the top 3% best" engineers across the world. The whole process is done remotely, and includes tests and Skype meetings.

I have worked professionally as a programmer since 2009, and recently started getting into the freelancing world. Some months ago, I created a profile on both Freelancer and Upwork, and managed to win, complete and get paid for a few projects. As we all know:

  • It's great not having to commute to office everyday!
  • Having the freedom to choose which work to do is a great perk: I can choose those I like and can do in the most efficient way. It's a win/win situation.
  • I gained the extra time I desperately need to finish my Computer Engineering carreer.
  • The constant commuting between work, home and college was slowly wearing me out. The day was not long enough to get things done, and I was wasting my energy

However, freelancing has its downsides:

  • Unstability: you might win all bids one month, and have a lousy streak the next. This is specially true when you are getting started and don't have high reputation.
  • Low growth rate: the strong competition forces you to lowball when defining your pay, and the initial earnings are too low.

So I'm going to give a shot... try getting into that top 3%...

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