Consultant / contract programmers how are you found?
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
If it was me I would give them the list of sites that people here have mentioned, and then stay well away. It is very hard to find good developers, and even harder to find ones that are good at doing small jobs. An hour long meeting (maybe on the phone) creating two days or so of work that gets done over a weekend and delivered on Monday morning etc is a very difficult project type, and takes the right kind of person to deliver it. Often you end up with the client expecting more than what is delivered etc. Then they expect free support for the next ten years. By the time you go through all this with the client beforehand you'd have used half the budget to start with. Personally I've done a number of these types of projects, most have gone OK, but 75% of them are after another developer has tried and failed. If you recommend someone that is always going to reflect on you. If you say this is a difficult thing to do and give them the sites then you've certainly done your bit to help and if it alls goes wrong you shouldn't end up looking bad.
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Yeah which is why I was looking for some kind of super site or something, not specifically referring any particular person but leaving it up to them. I don't want any involvement in this at all except answering questions for the developer on our api support forum specifically if they need help which, if they are experienced enough, they really shouldn't need much. Trouble is all the developers using our api now are either making commercial apps or doing in-house stuff. You're right though, you try to do a good deed for developers looking for a little money and sure as anything it will probably end up backfiring on me. Maybe just best to abandon the idea entirely.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
Which API?
"If you reward everyone, there will not be enough to go around, so you offer a reward to one in order to encourage everyone." Mei Yaochen in the 'Doing Battle' section of Sun Tzu's: Art of War. .
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
How about this? http://jobs.freelanceswitch.com/categories/2[^] Maybe something like that is what you need...
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
With all of the rejected suggestions, it really sounds like your customers want work done for 'little to nothing'. That is the absolute worst kind of job possible. I think that with the type of work you have and the money you want to spend, you are not going to find the 'quality' resource you want. You need to start trolling the local high school cafeteria honestly. That's my only suggestion. Perhaps if you could get your customers to pony up real dollars, you could go to CEWeekly, where the REAL contractors play. Outside of that, you need to go fish. I am sick of people who really believe that this stuff is easy and should be dirt cheap. Then they stand on a soap box and bitch about how bad coders are and careless with error handling and blah, blah, blah. You get what you pay for. Its really simple. Pay is crap, you get crap.
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
I would suggest looking for professional groups of programmers and looking there. And, while it may sound a little "old-fashioned" for the tech world, check out local Chamber of Commerce's. I do a lot of networking through my Chamber membership. Then, once you find someone that you know is reliable and won't hurt your reputation, stick with them. If these are small jobs like you say, then someone should be able to absorb them here and there. Plus, if you set up a good relationship with this person, they may be able to offer you a commission so that you can earn a little off your referrals. Good luck. -Doug
-Doug Glennon http://www.glennonconsulting.com
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It's not for me, it's for any one of our customers who are located globally.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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I'd be interested! I've got 5 years experience in .NET C# and like to think I do a good quality job (UML, design, TDD, etc). If you're interested, let me know and I'll send you my details. :)
I'm interested, available and experienced. See my Web site for details and contact: http://www.kvsoftweb.com Sorry for all the people here giving you run-around when a simple answer is required. I'm located in Toronto area, Canada. Cheers, Vlad
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
Have you tried the unions and guilds yet? TechsUnite and Programmer's Guild have a lot of people willing to do such work for another month's mortgage payment.
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With all of the rejected suggestions, it really sounds like your customers want work done for 'little to nothing'. That is the absolute worst kind of job possible. I think that with the type of work you have and the money you want to spend, you are not going to find the 'quality' resource you want. You need to start trolling the local high school cafeteria honestly. That's my only suggestion. Perhaps if you could get your customers to pony up real dollars, you could go to CEWeekly, where the REAL contractors play. Outside of that, you need to go fish. I am sick of people who really believe that this stuff is easy and should be dirt cheap. Then they stand on a soap box and bitch about how bad coders are and careless with error handling and blah, blah, blah. You get what you pay for. Its really simple. Pay is crap, you get crap.
:) I understand what you're saying believe me, I did contracting many years ago. This is not that kind of situation, the reason I've rejected a lot of the suggestions is these are very tiny jobs, things that would take me a couple of hours with my greater experience with the api. Little utilities like importers and exporters etc. It's not like they are asking for an entire application to be made. Money is not the issue it's just that these are business people and asking them to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to simply find someone to do a few hours work is not reasonable at all.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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With all of the rejected suggestions, it really sounds like your customers want work done for 'little to nothing'. That is the absolute worst kind of job possible. I think that with the type of work you have and the money you want to spend, you are not going to find the 'quality' resource you want. You need to start trolling the local high school cafeteria honestly. That's my only suggestion. Perhaps if you could get your customers to pony up real dollars, you could go to CEWeekly, where the REAL contractors play. Outside of that, you need to go fish. I am sick of people who really believe that this stuff is easy and should be dirt cheap. Then they stand on a soap box and bitch about how bad coders are and careless with error handling and blah, blah, blah. You get what you pay for. Its really simple. Pay is crap, you get crap.
Hmm, don't think so. . ..he seems to want someplace to refer his customer to that they can find someone to do small projects (so of course for a few hundred $), not necessarily that his customer wants to pay only a few hundred for a moderate to large application.
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
This may seem a little obvious but try googling, i.e. ".Net consultant Seattle". You'll get established consulting companies and a few independants (like me :) ). Whether independant or mega-global there are always the good and the bad - try to get a recommendation or referral.
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
I'll throw my hat in the ring as well... 15 years full-time experience as an independent consultant, first in ASP and now in .NET. I have several "odd job" projects going at any given time. PM me if you'd like my contact info... :)
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Where's the best place to direct people looking for .net developers interested in making small utility apps? Besides rent a coder of course, I've heard too many horror stories to be confident in making any suggestions.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
Have you tried elance.com?
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:) I understand what you're saying believe me, I did contracting many years ago. This is not that kind of situation, the reason I've rejected a lot of the suggestions is these are very tiny jobs, things that would take me a couple of hours with my greater experience with the api. Little utilities like importers and exporters etc. It's not like they are asking for an entire application to be made. Money is not the issue it's just that these are business people and asking them to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to simply find someone to do a few hours work is not reasonable at all.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
Try this then, http://www.ifreelance.com/[^]. The problem with these kind of sites is that you never know what the quality of the results are going to be. I understand what you are trying to do, but I still think its only going to generate problems. Here is my viewpoint; I write a little program to take care of, lets say, a file formatting issue for $50. I finish and they use it and like it, but two days later realize that if it did the task a little different, they would have 200% more benefit from it, so they go back and pay again to have the code updated. The next person (differnt coder again)breaks function A that has little noticable impact, but accomplishes task B. Now the user has the extra functionality, but the code hicups every other time they use it. Now they are frustrated and bad mouthing the first coder, when it was the second who caused the problem (and really their lack of planning and foresight). Long story short, by the time they are really done with the code that they only wanted to spend $50 on, cost them $5500 (including manhours spent trying to correct issues and find coders and , and , and) after they jerked around with it for a year. If they had understood what they really wanted up front and discussed it with a good coder and laid out the foundation and set the specifications and ground work (yea it takes time and money), it would have cost them $1400 instead, and been delivered in 4 weeks instead of 52. Now you have a pissed customer because they got jerked around for a year and ended up with half the functionality they wanted at twice the cost. That happens nine out of ten times. I don't do it anymore and neither do any of the other coders that I know, who know their way around code. You, as the person who suggests the lesser cost method of solution providing are doing two things, you are going to eventually lose that customer when they realize you could have saved them many dollars in the long run and cutting the noses off the faces of the people who can actually provide the right services the first time by making it appear as though they 'charge too much' or are 'too slow'. Yea, it costs more than they think it should up front, but the savings in the long run are many times the larger up front cost.
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It's not for me, it's for any one of our customers who are located globally.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
Me too. It depends on how remote your customer would mind your developer - I'm in New Zealand. Check out my website for details: http://www.cyberfuel.co.nz Andrew
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Try this then, http://www.ifreelance.com/[^]. The problem with these kind of sites is that you never know what the quality of the results are going to be. I understand what you are trying to do, but I still think its only going to generate problems. Here is my viewpoint; I write a little program to take care of, lets say, a file formatting issue for $50. I finish and they use it and like it, but two days later realize that if it did the task a little different, they would have 200% more benefit from it, so they go back and pay again to have the code updated. The next person (differnt coder again)breaks function A that has little noticable impact, but accomplishes task B. Now the user has the extra functionality, but the code hicups every other time they use it. Now they are frustrated and bad mouthing the first coder, when it was the second who caused the problem (and really their lack of planning and foresight). Long story short, by the time they are really done with the code that they only wanted to spend $50 on, cost them $5500 (including manhours spent trying to correct issues and find coders and , and , and) after they jerked around with it for a year. If they had understood what they really wanted up front and discussed it with a good coder and laid out the foundation and set the specifications and ground work (yea it takes time and money), it would have cost them $1400 instead, and been delivered in 4 weeks instead of 52. Now you have a pissed customer because they got jerked around for a year and ended up with half the functionality they wanted at twice the cost. That happens nine out of ten times. I don't do it anymore and neither do any of the other coders that I know, who know their way around code. You, as the person who suggests the lesser cost method of solution providing are doing two things, you are going to eventually lose that customer when they realize you could have saved them many dollars in the long run and cutting the noses off the faces of the people who can actually provide the right services the first time by making it appear as though they 'charge too much' or are 'too slow'. Yea, it costs more than they think it should up front, but the savings in the long run are many times the larger up front cost.
Good points, however we have no fear of losing any customers, we make commercial software and it's doing *very* well and has for a decade now and always does even better the tougher the economic times. One of our promotion partners recently noted that our software and people making similar software are the only ones actually doing better the last few months than all their other software types they promote. They even had a journalist who wanted to interview us but that's not our kind of thing. :) I think what we'll do is institute some kind of free developer program with a free license for our software for their own use as it's something that quite a few consultants and anyone who charges for their time already use. Cheers!
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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Hmm, don't think so. . ..he seems to want someplace to refer his customer to that they can find someone to do small projects (so of course for a few hundred $), not necessarily that his customer wants to pay only a few hundred for a moderate to large application.