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There are 2 ways to land remote work these days: you either apply for companies directly (or via referrals), or you go to freelancing sites and land jobs there. This last kind can be classified into 2 types:
- Non-vetting platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freeeup where you create an account and start applying to jobs.
- Vetting platforms where you need to pass 3-4 tough engineering filters to start receiving job offers.
I'll talk about the second category here. Yes, you'll probably spend a lot of time in these interviews, but you'll likely get paid 3x or 4x compared to non-vetting platforms.
I myself have worked on some of these and can honestly say it's changed my life.
Toptal
- Experience required: You're expected to be fluent in your tech stack. I'd say you need somewhere between 2-3 years of experience.
- Pros: Excellent salary. Vetting for clients too. Full-time & part-time mainly.
- Cons: Tough and lengthy interview process.
- Interview: 4 steps: English interview, online coding assessment, live algorithms screening, take-home project. It can be heavy on algorithms.
- Salary (USD/year): Frontend: 80k-120k. Backend: 70k-120k. Machine Learning: 80k-130k.
- Apply here (Referral link)
CrossOver
- Experience required: They have a huge variety of openings ranging from 2 years exp for junior developers to +15 years exp for high-level managers. You'll need familiarity with JavaScript, C#, C++, or Java.
- Pros: Good salary. Only long term, full-time work.
- Cons: They take screenshots of your machine every 10 minutes to make sure you're not on Facebook or Twitter.
- Interview: 6 steps: basic fit, psychometric (CCAT: basic math and logic test), language, software questions (multiple choice), 2 free-response questions, and the final interview with a hiring manager. You have 13 days to complete.
- Salary (USD/year) Junior: 30k. Mid level: 60k. Senior: 100k. Technical Manager: 100k. VP: 200k.
- Apply here
TripleByte
- Experience required: 2-3 years of experience and good preparation to pass the online quiz and interview.
- Pros: Excellent pay. Good, well-funded startups to work for. No resume or credentials needed.
- Cons: Mostly for onsite US jobs. Few offers for remote only.
- Interview: 3 attempts to pass a 35 question quiz. 2 mins per question. 2-hour Skype interview afterward. Make sure you apply to "Remote only" positions.
- Salary (USD/year): For remote, it can range between 100k - 190k.
- Apply here (Referral link)
I sent this post weeks ago to +550 devs on my email list. Join here if you want to get my tips and thoughts on career growth.
Turing
- Experience required: At least 2 years of industry experience as a software engineer.
- Pros: Legit company with hires all over the world (Africa, Brasil, Pakistan)
- Cons: Tough and lengthy interview process. Less than 1% accepted.
- Interview: Unclear number of steps. You can easily go through algorithm tests, multiple-choice quiz for a specific tech stack, live interview with a coding task, and maybe you also need to build a take-home project.
- Salary (USD/year): Based on my research, you won't probably get more than 100k/yr.
- Apply here
Arc
- Experience required: You'll have it pretty difficult to pass with less than 2-3 years.
- Pros: Full-time and hourly jobs. Great online reviews. You can set your expected salary.
- Cons: Lengthy interview process
- Interview: 4 steps: Background and experience check, coding algorithms challenge, 1-1 English interview assessment, and a 2.5-hour interview with a senior dev.
- Salary (USD/year) Mostly depends on your location and seniority. Here's a list with rough averages. Latin America: 70k. Africa: 60k. Asia: 65k.
- Apply here
Gun.io
- Experience required: Their vetting process is not hard - I'd say +1.5 years of experience is enough to apply.
- Pros: Short, easy application process.
- Cons: The site is not polished, lacks design, and feels buggy at times. Requires a reference from a previous employer. Mostly hourly, contract work, not full-time.
- Interview: 3 step process: Reference check from a previous employer (this one is weird), 3 online algorithm challenge, video self-interview (just you and your camera).
- Salary: Mostly hourly contract work. $40-$70 USD/hr.
- Apply here
Prepare and ace the interview
I wrote a FREE guide with a lot of tips and tricks to ace these types of tech interviews. If you're curious, you can sign up here and get it in my next email.
You might want to save this post as I'll probably discover some more platforms in the future and update the list. Also, I normally use my Twitter to post more of these platforms as I find them.
PD: Here's some advice to write your resume and here's a short post to get you warmed up on algorithms. If you think this helps you, follow me here and stay up to date!
Can you recommend any other similar sites?
Top comments (20)
For Toptal, once you get accepted do you still have to bid for jobs (like in Upwork etc)? ie. No guaranteed hours of work?
No need to bid. You have your rate and you will be paid exactly that. If you're for full time job, you'll be paid 40hrs/wk. If you're hired for part time, it's 20hrs/wk. If it's hourly, you fill a timesheet and they pay whatever you work.
Thanks for this article Carlos! I'd like to ask how does it look like with hourly jobs - are there many of them on TopTal?
Also, how does the process of being hired looks like? Does support match you with projects? Or are there a few developers who apply and the client chooses the one that fits him the best?
Best!
Arek
Hey! Yeah, there are a lot of hourly jobs in Toptal. I myself have worked on 2 of them. Lots of interesting projects so far and clients are always willing to pay for what you charge, it's all about honesty.
To get jobs you have two options: 1. Toptal recruiters match you with potential clients. You then have a quick interview/introduction with the client and, if they like you, you get hired. 2. Yes, few devs apply and the client chooses the best fit for them.
I've been lucky, though, as I've had like 6 interviews and got 3 jobs so far. I've seen devs complaining about interviewing a lot, though, but I have a lot of patience. I have no problem interviewing daily for 2 weeks just for 1 job as they are high quality, probably long-term and very well paid. But I can respect those who don't like it, though.
Thank you for your detailed answers. If you take the full-time position, do you still have to interview for each job in the same way? Will you be signed in for jobs that have longer duration (eg. an entire week/month)?
Thank you for the great article.
as an aside, I was unable to sign up on your site. Any hint...?
Glad you liked it! What was the problem signing up? Try signing up here: mailchi.mp/9fbe9022e6d7/career-boost. You'll get the same email in response.
Thank you, worked with this link. I do not know what the issue is (no error in console, nothing), but now your site is down...
Thanks for you shared the awesome information!
Anytime mate! 😬
Thanks for the awesome resources!
I'm glad you find them useful!
Just my 2 pennies, sites like triple byte can be deceiving... Without reciting a post I made already .. I've seen the process up close, and had a good friend who has been a mentor on so many subjects during my career, ace the whole vetting process and not get any call backs ... Nor could we get anyone from the process to explain why nothing happened. I've been collecting data and research for years for a project of mine, and it's a common theme to sell all types of experience levels on these "our company makes it easy" headlines.
If I could give one piece of advice to anyone in need, it would be to focus having income while searching for a job in our industry. I've seen so many talented people create a mind set to just get any job for paychecks as soon as one of the million companies they applied for submits an offer. They toss their value into the trash, and don't focus on making sure the gig is even the right product or culture-fit. If a developer builds enough confidence to send resumes, it's always because of hard work and focus towards the skills all of these companies NEED.
So it makes no difference if it's your first job, or just a new position, never accept a position without writing out what YOU expect to achieve, and questions to ask that make sure you know exactly how you will be spending your next year's working.
It can be exciting to finish an interview process, and watch your hard work pay off... But unless you are only submitting a resume to one company (never do that, even if you think it's the only one you qualify for, submit to some that might ask for more experience than you have... A lot of the posts you read have people from HR or never coded before posting positions...) you should try to always have multiple experiences to compare before making a decision.
Wow, had no idea Crossover did that. If this is true, it's a major con.
Excellent list! Can we quietly add our source to it? :)
CodersRank is a similar platform but there is no vetting stage. Instead, you can connect your GitHub, Stack Overflow, LinkedIn, etc. profiles to get a full picture of your experience and skills. And of course, you can add more info to your profile manually. Recruiters using CR mostly filter for years of experience and tech stack details. codersrank.io
Hope this helps someone out there!
Cheers! ~AD
Really helpful
Love this article
Nice article! We are running a remote jobs board here: up2staff.com and there are some interesting jobs offering six-figure salaries. Check it out!
You can also find remote jobs at onlyremotejobs.io
Thanks!