I recommend to search and find opportunities in the following (apart from portals like upwork) craigslist.org stackoverflow.com angel.co remote.co/ remotive.io

Good to see that you got wonderful exposure and hands on experience in tech space. Hope you got a reasonably done resume. If you have sufficient supporting documents, good presence in professional networks, and reasonably updated about opportunities around, you could land up on your next big opportunity in a matter of three weeks. I would not recommend to park 6 months for preparation as the economy is not that good. So if you are ready, begin today with a plan in place. 1. Your objective is clear and established a target job 2. Load your resume in a couple of tech job portals, angel, LinkedIn etc. 3. Collaborate regularly in LinkedIn and stackoverflow kind of forums 4. Set targets every day - like find and apply for 20 opportunities, follow up with recruiters, talk to consultants, startup investors etc. 5. Monitor what is happening, evaluate progress and see what is the end result 6. Find some quality time and attend short online courses to refresh yourself. Do not forget to promote your certificates via professional forums. Good Luck

I recommend to use angel.co and have seen many angels and VCs there. Another channel would be reputed groups in LinkedIn