Good point and thanks for sharing. I've had some similar experiences (though my current long-term contract required the "standard" tech interview process).
Tangent: I followed your profile's link to your blog. I like what I saw (wrt Docker practices). Have you written about your freelance / contract gig experiences per se? I've been mostly remote for the last 20y, strictly remote since starting my tiny S-Corp / committing to consulting FT 4-5y ago, and I'd be interested to compare notes.
Is there a specific freelance experience you want to know more about? Like, finding gigs or how I manage the business? There's a few dev / business'ish posts at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/tag/dev-business-tips-tricks-.... I have posts on finding gigs, accepting payments, invoicing, protecting and licensing the code you write and things like that.
Tangent: I followed your profile's link to your blog. I like what I saw (wrt Docker practices). Have you written about your freelance / contract gig experiences per se? I've been mostly remote for the last 20y, strictly remote since starting my tiny S-Corp / committing to consulting FT 4-5y ago, and I'd be interested to compare notes.