Toptal is a freelancer website which claims to hire top 3% of the world’s talents. In this article I will share my experience working at Toptal as a freelancer. If you are looking to know about how to get into Toptal, please check my other article.

Pros

Fully Remote

Most of the jobs are fully remote which means I can stay in any part of the world and deliver my work. If I need to sign a contract with a new client, there’s not much on-boarding cost since I can just stay where I am.

Quality Clients

If you are already a freelancer, you already know what I am talking about. Clients play a vital role in having a good experience as a freelancer. As part of Toptal, I got the opportunity to work for Fortune 100 companies in the USA.

Variety in Opportunities

Toptal offers freelancers the opportunity to select projects based on their personal interests and preferences. Working freelance allowed me to access more challenging development jobs in the international market compared to the local opportunities I was finding. Work in the USA is usually much more interesting with more advanced technologies.

Secondly, if you’re really specialized in web development, you can begin a transition into a space like DevOps by taking one or two smaller steps. That flexibility and the ability to make your own path is, for me, the biggest advantage.

Preferable Compensation and Tax Advantages

When I was working for a local company, I was getting competitive compensation based on the local market. Every time I asked for a raise, I was conveyed the message that I was one of the highest paid employees for my role and experience. But ever since I started a full time job at Toptal, I started to earn at least 4x money in comparison with the compensation I was getting from my local company.

When I was working for a local company, I had to pay income tax against my income. But now I do not have to pay the tax due to some offered benefits from the government for the freelancers. Rather, the government is giving me an incentive over the remittance that I am bringing in. This really makes a big difference when comparing compensation against a local company.

Cons

Different Time Zone

Although I can work remotely, I still need to find some overlaps with client work hours. I am based in a time zone which is 11-12 hours ahead of the USA. So I find it difficult sometimes to find overlaps. Most of the clients require 50% time overlap on average.

Time zone difference is also a challenge for job search. Most of the jobs are posted during US work hours. I cannot apply to most of the daily job posts since I am mostly sleeping at that time. I can apply to those jobs the next morning, but the first few applicants are more likely to get selected due to the Toptal matching algorithm.

Unpredictability of Work

Most of the jobs I found on toptal, are short term and 3-6 months on average. Which means I need to search for new jobs very frequently. Even as I progress in my career, this unpredictability may never totally go away.

Lack of Employer-Sponsored Benefits

There are a lot of economies of scale that I miss out on as a freelancer. Not being part of a company can make some things like insurance difficult. Health insurance is a pain point cited by many freelancers.

Summary

Toptal offers incredible opportunities for professional growth and lifestyle flexibility with the caveat that I must accept unpredictable work.

Apply to Toptal with my referral code and we both get 100 USD once you land your first job: Apply here

Find my toptal profile here.