Freelance Job Hunt

Freelance Job Hunt

Search a freelance platform for matching jobs, verify every listing in the browser, and produce a ready-to-apply project with draft proposals.

Trigger

Use when the user asks to find freelance work, search for gigs, look for jobs on Upwork/Malt/freelancermap, or wants to start freelancing.

Inputs

• User's profile (skills, languages, location, portfolio) — read from profile.md or ask
• Target platform (default: Upwork)
• Number of jobs to find (default: 10)

Process

1. Build candidate profile

Read the user's profile.md, now.md, and project registry to extract:

• Technical skills and stack
• Languages spoken
• Location and timezone
• Portfolio projects (live URLs, GitHub repos)
• Unique selling points (combinations of skills that are rare)

2. Search for jobs

Use the browser to search the target platform for jobs matching the user's top skills. Run multiple searches across skill combinations:

• Primary stack (e.g., "Vue Nuxt")
• AI/emerging skills (e.g., "Claude API", "LangChain", "MCP")
• Niche combinations (e.g., "Nuxt Firebase", "AI automation n8n")

Collect URLs of promising listings.

3. Verify EVERY listing (CRITICAL)

For EACH job URL, open it in the browser and:

1. Confirm the page loads the actual job (not a redirect to a category page = expired)
2. Scroll down to find the budget/rate section
3. Record the exact posted budget from the page
4. Note: type (hourly/fixed), duration, hours/week, experience level, location restrictions
5. Check if the job says "no longer available" (closed but still visible)

Rules:

• NEVER estimate or guess budgets. Only use the number shown on the page.
• If a listing redirects to a general page, mark it as Expired and exclude it.
• If a listing says "US only" or has location restrictions, note that.
• Replace expired jobs with new searches until you have the target number of live, verified jobs.

4. Create the project

Create ~/Projects/freelance/README.md (or update if it exists) with:

# Freelance

**Mission:** [User's freelance goal]

## Competitive Edge
- [Unique selling points extracted from profile]

## Market Rates
| Skill Area | Rate Range |
|---|---|
| [skill] | $X–Y/hr |

## Opportunities ([Platform], [Date])

### [Category Name]

#### 1. [Job Title]
- **Type:** [hourly/fixed, hours/week]
- **Duration:** [from listing]
- **Budget:** [EXACT number from listing page]
- **Link:** [clickable URL]
- **Why you:** [1-2 sentences connecting user's experience to this job]

<details><summary>Draft message</summary>

[Personalized proposal referencing user's specific projects and experience relevant to THIS job. Include portfolio link. Keep under 150 words.]
</details>

5. Write draft proposals

For each job, write a proposal that:

• Opens with relevant experience (not "I'm a developer")
• References a specific project the user built that demonstrates the required skill
• Is concise (under 150 words)
• Ends with portfolio link
• If the job post mentions a keyword to include, include it

Output

• ~/Projects/freelance/README.md with only verified, live jobs
• Each job has: verified budget, clickable link, personalized draft message
• Register project in ikigai's PROJECTS.md if not already there

Lessons

• Upwork listings expire fast. A search result from even 1 week ago may be dead.
• NEVER present estimated budgets as real ones. The actual posted rate is often far lower than market rates.
• Always open each URL in the browser to verify — web search results and API scraping cannot access Upwork budgets reliably.
• Most Upwork AI/dev jobs post $10-30/hr, not the $60-150/hr "market rate" from blog posts.
• Some listings are US-only — check location restrictions before including.