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I am trying to become a freelancer or a contractor in backend/data engineering/algorithm development, working remotely.

My entire professional life has been full time work, either from the office, or hybrid.

I would like to prepare for interviews and assume there will be a difference in how they work - I assume it will be hire faster-fire faster mentality, but would like to hear from people who actually do it or from people who hire for such positions.

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  • See also past comments: remember that you get absolutely no benefits, and charge appropriately. I'm not sure you even get unemployment payments as a contractor, since you still employ yourself, so charge appropriately. Try to make sure your next contract is lined up, if not committed to, so you can step across into it when this one ends without a lot of downtime. And so on.
    – keshlam
    Commented Oct 14 at 18:46
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    This question might be more suitable for freelancing.stackexchange.com
    – Mark Rotteveel
    Commented Oct 15 at 8:07
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    @morsor: Unresolvable opinion is a standard close reason. As is "This really belongs in another Stack, where it will find more experience/expertise in its area." One good thing about interviewing as a freelancer is that nobody is likely to ask you "what do you hope your role will be in 5 years?"
    – keshlam
    Commented Oct 15 at 9:32
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    "Freelance" can have multiple definitions. I get my work mostly on a project basis, That typically involves a scoping meeting, writing a statement of work, creating a quote and then the client approving (or not) and opening a PO (purchase order), that I can charge against. Most clients are not great at writing SOW so I do that mostly myself and generally they like what they see, That's as close as a "traditional" interview as it gets for me.
    – Hilmar
    Commented Oct 15 at 13:06
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    @MarkRotteveel seems that OP went and posted it there as well, but I see that 24h later no on has answered there :/ ...
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Oct 16 at 15:40

4 Answers 4

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I would like to prepare for interviews and assume there will be a difference in how they work

I think your assumption is incorrect, and there should not be any fundamental difference between interviews for full-time positions and ones for freelancers or part-time positions.

All interviews seek (in general terms) to see if you and the company and job are a good match for each other, as well as to validate and explain a bit more what you said on your resume.

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    Interviewers for full-time positions often put a lot of emphasis on "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" or "Can you convince us that you're interested in staying with the company long-term?" type of questions, which presumably isn't such a focus for a short-term freelance contract. So in that regard you can expect a big difference.
    – Stef
    Commented Oct 21 at 15:03
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    Also, recruitment processes can be quite long in some companies, because hiring the wrong person can be a big loss for a company, especially in countries where firing people is hard. Hiring the wrong freelancer presumably has a much lower cost, and recruitment processes are accordingly shorter.
    – Stef
    Commented Oct 21 at 15:06
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I have experience with consulting (but not freelance). In general consulting interviews are more focused on the specific project and perhaps a bit more technical if that's required. There will be less of a focus on the overall cultural fit, but it's still important.

Your assumption about "fire faster" is correct. Once you've sold the project you'll be judged mostly on results.

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  • Fire faster will likely depend on the locale. For example, in US "at-will" employment, it might actually be harder to fire a contractor/freelancer than a normal employee, if the contract has specific clauses about termination.
    – Mark Rotteveel
    Commented Oct 15 at 8:10
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    @MarkRotteveel Fair point, I was leaning into the analogy a bit. In my industry we don't usually get "fired" from a project, they just won't ask us to come back next year (annual work). I don't work in legal, you probably are correct about contract clauses. That said they better be solid, because the client will take whatever additional steps they can. They might have you deliver a minimal viable product and say thanks for your service, goodbye.
    – Steve
    Commented Oct 15 at 13:47
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The interview process for a freelancer tends to be a 'fast track' version of the one for an employee.

If a recruiter is involved, there will probably be a relatively short talk (hardly an actual interview) with the recruiter, so they feel confident sending you onward to the client.

The client interview is often short (30 - 60 minutes), is very project-centric, almost never involves HR and does not consist of several rounds with a changing group of people.

Almost all questions are technical, allowing you to elaborate on previous relevant experience. At times, there may be 'softer' questions regarding how you react to adversity, unclear requirements and difficult people. This may be a sign of a somewhat challenging working environment.

The interviewer is probably the project manager and/or a senior professional; at times when the project manager is technical enough, they might be the sole interviewer. The recruiter might participate in the interview, but merely as an observer. It seems some recruiters prefer participating - and some clients prefer they do not, as they rarely add any value at that stage. Whether they participate is out of my hands, so I tend to not care.

As a freelancer, I would like to know which exact role is expected of me, which other roles are adequately covered (so I won't end up in them) and what the current challenges are. This line of questioning will be more direct than an employee would (or should?) ask - but is necessary to determine whether the project is a good fit. In addition, I personally find it beneficial to immediately demonstrate that I am a freelancer and not an employee.

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The interviews will be different in many companies, because they're usually looking for fundamentally different things.

When you hire an employee, you're usually thinking about the long term - they could potentially be working for you for multiple years or even decades. So while their current skills are important, a lot of the time their attitude and progression and future potential can be more important. For instance, some companies will intentionally hire people who don't have much experience or technical skills/knowledge, but who have good attitudes and are interested and want to learn - because it's much easier to teach someone specific skills than to change their attitude. Similarly, you might hire a developer who has no experience in your specific language/tool/framework, because a good developer can easily pick that up.

But when you're hiring a freelancer you don't usually care about their progression or future potential, because you're not hiring them for the long term - you're hiring them for weeks/months to solve a specific problem. So the interview for a freelancer is much more focused on their actual skills and abilities today, and whether they know the specific tools and technologies needed to hit the ground running.

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