Are there freelance jobs online?

[jonjacson]

Hello to everybody,

I have been looking for online physics jobs, that can be done from home. I wonder if that kind of jobs exist.

I have found jobs related with teaching online, writing articles and so on, but I wonder if there is any option to do "real" physics.

Of course I don't expect to lead a team of researchers, I am thinking more about maybe boring tasks physicists find in their everyday routine. Maybe they could find it useful to outsource that kind of tasks to others. Do you know if there is a website, university... offering that kind of jobs?

I have a Bachelor Degree, I mean I could do it reliably.

I think that is the future, online jobs, and we are still in the early stages of that. I used the search tab but I could not find threads talking about this, I apologize if it is a known topic on other threads.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I can't imagine there are. The position you describe looks a lot like that of a green graduate student, only more expensive and with the added difficulty of working online.

 

[AlephZero]

Why would a research team want to share their unpublished data etc online with somebody they know nothing about?

Apart from that, there is the issue that it doesn't save any time delegating a task to somebody else, if it takes longer to explain what to do and check it was done right that just doing it yourself.

If you want to work online, make sure you are dealing with a reputable employer, not somebody who will "forget" to pay you, and vanish when you complain about it!

 

[mfb]

There are some unpaid projects like planethunters, galaxy zoo and so on.

Getting involved in the actual research would mean the group would have to spend a lot of time to explain you the task, and that does not work well via the internet.

In addition, tasks are rarely "done forever" after a fixed amount of time. You might want to extend/modify/repeat the task after a while, and then you need someone with a more reliable working contract.

 

[jonjacson]

There are some unpaid projects like planethunters, galaxy zoo and so on.

Getting involved in the actual research would mean the group would have to spend a lot of time to explain you the task, and that does not work well via the internet.

In addition, tasks are rarely "done forever" after a fixed amount of time. You might want to extend/modify/repeat the task after a while, and then you need someone with a more reliable working contract.

Why would a research team want to share their unpublished data etc online with somebody they know nothing about?

Apart from that, there is the issue that it doesn't save any time delegating a task to somebody else, if it takes longer to explain what to do and check it was done right that just doing it yourself.

If you want to work online, make sure you are dealing with a reputable employer, not somebody who will "forget" to pay you, and vanish when you complain about it!

Thanks for your replies.

I understand your point and I think those are good reasons. But you were very pesimistic and you only talked about the cases where they have to spend more time explaining the project than actually working.

I suppose there will be another cases where explaining the task is easy, and you can work for some time, I know it won't be forver, but maybe some months. Those examples you wrote were very interesting, if they actually paid, that would be what I was talking about.

About the confidentiality, obviously you would sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, as everybody working at freelancer.com or similar websites is doing already.

 

[heatengine516]

If you know how to code there could be some freelance coding gigs, but that's the only kind of online freelance work I've ever heard of anyone doing.

 

[AlephZero]

About the confidentiality, obviously you would sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, as everybody working at freelancer.com or similar websites is doing already.

A NDA is only worth anything if you are confident it will be complied with, and at worst you can get some tangible compensation if it is broken.

A piece of paper signed by somebody you never heard of doesn't meet either of those criteria, unless you are going to do some (expensive) background checks to verify who is the real person you are dealing with.

As for freelance programming jobs online, there are both employees and employers from hell out there. Caveat emptor.

 

[jonjacson]

Well it is possible to create a website were people who want to work must upload all their personal and professional information using original documents.

Also you could see the ratings those workers had got from previous works, written by other clients.

I think it could be quite safe.

 

[Evo]

Well it is possible to create a website were people who want to work must upload all their personal and professional information using original documents.

Also you could see the ratings those workers had got from previous works, written by other clients.

I think it could be quite safe.

Documents are so easily forged, they would mean nothing.

 

[Vanadium 50]

You seem to be arguing that there should be such positions. We are telling you that, to a very good approximation, there aren't.

 

[jonjacson]

haha I am telling it would be possible and maybe helpful for both parts, nothing else.

 

[Evo]

haha I am telling it would be possible and maybe helpful for both parts, nothing else.

I'll tell you what. You do this and when it's a success, come back and show us we were wrong.

Until that happens, this thread is going nowhere, sorry.