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Ask HN: What does it take to bill £500 a day?

I've done some work with Vue.js but the fact it doesn't appear in job listings that often pushed me towards picking up React. A few days into playing with it I typed 'remote react' into Glassdoor. Here's what I found: - Listings offering £400-600 a day or salaries of £40-70k - Lots of listings suggesting they're either remote-friendly or not opposed to full-time remote. Going remote with a London salary is a dream of mine. - A lot of these appear to be strictly front-end positions, suggesting one can simply focus on React ecosystem mastery while barely dipping their toes into Spring/Rails/Django. Now, I've only just started working with React and coming from Vue.js, it's very similar. At this point I'm wondering - how much experience does one need to demand that sort of money for working with React? What does mastery entail? More generally - a question for those billing this sort of money - what do you specialize in, how much experience do you have, how could one get there in their mid 20s?

Boothroid 9y ago
I would imagine that above £500/day the amount of gigs starts to drop off dramatically and that therefore £500/day is at the higher end of the market. Thus, if you are pitching yourself at around this level you are claiming that you are among the best available. Quite a bold statement to make, and you have to have the skills to back it up else I would think you'll quickly be found out. I guess that like anything else, whether you can get to that level and stay there depends on potential plus application.
gregjor 9y ago
The freelancers I know who make that much and more have years of experience, and a portfolio and references to back it up. They know how to solve business problems. They have great communications skills. They can work effectively with a team, and with the customer. And they have a good network of contacts. Mastering a narrow technical skill or tool, even one in demand right now, usually isn't enough.
- Boothroid 9y ago
  Exactly. What they are paying for is a serious operator that can solve the problems that they cannot.

Boothroid 9y ago

I would imagine that above £500/day the amount of gigs starts to drop off dramatically and that therefore £500/day is at the higher end of the market. Thus, if you are pitching yourself at around this level you are claiming that you are among the best available. Quite a bold statement to make, and you have to have the skills to back it up else I would think you'll quickly be found out. I guess that like anything else, whether you can get to that level and stay there depends on potential plus application.

gregjor 9y ago

The freelancers I know who make that much and more have years of experience, and a portfolio and references to back it up. They know how to solve business problems. They have great communications skills. They can work effectively with a team, and with the customer. And they have a good network of contacts. Mastering a narrow technical skill or tool, even one in demand right now, usually isn't enough.

Boothroid 9y ago
Exactly. What they are paying for is a serious operator that can solve the problems that they cannot.