[Baypiggies] Elance, Guru, Contract Work etc.

[Glen Jarvis]

Although there's a lot of merit in what you say, it's not universal to sites like this. I found people who paid a lot more because they knew I lived within the silicon valley area and there's a perception of a lot higher quality.

So, yes, some times -- maybe even most of the time -- you'll find customers like this. But, it's not always the case and it'd be silly to exclude the possibility of finding those clients.

My Madrid customer is a perfect example. And, he originally came from Elance until we built up a working relationship and work outside of Elance.

Cheers,


Glen

El Nov 1, 2010, a las 10:29 AM, Roderick Llewellyn <roderick at sanfransystems.com> escribió:

> I avoid sites like these like the plague. This is priceline.com for programmers, where the advantage is totally with the one offering the job. You're competing with the entire world for these jobs, so the whole game is to drive down your compensation to the lowest possible level on the planet. Do you really want to be paid the going wage in Bangalore? No problem if that reflects your cost of living (i.e., you live in Bangalore). But since this is BayPiggies, you probably live in the Bay Area. So you're paying the highest cost of living after Manhattan, and getting paid the lowest wages on Earth. That's a problem! Your client cares not that you live in the Bay Area.
> 
> I agree with the caveat against fixed-price bids. These are VERY dangerous in programming. It's one thing to ask a construction contractor for a fixed-price bid on building a deck. There are not many unknowns there. In programming, once you have negotiated a fixed price, the client has a huge incentive to make endless change orders. Naturally you can refuse to take them, asking for an hourly rate on each one. But since a fixed-price bid usually means you get paid little or nothing until the job is done, if client is unsatisfied with your negotiating stance, he will probably not pay you at all. And generally forget the courts; they are so complicated, take so long, and are so advantageous to the side with more money and patience that any contract you sign is almost meaningless anyway. I have major experience here I assure you! So be wary of any contract longer than a month or two which won't pay you until completion. Of course, you could always arrange to meet under a bridge, you bringing your software, client bringing his money, and both taking no more than three armed guards.... I'm sure you've seen that movie too!
> 
> If you take tiny jobs, like write an ascii-to-integer converter kind of thing, you will spend far more time looking for work, negotiating, phone calls, etc., than you will spend actually doing work. Since you will often not be willing to take the Bangalore-level wage that will be offered, you will not get or take most jobs. Look instead for longer-term contracts. Try to find something where you have unusual skills or abilities. If the job is to download a LAMP suite and get it running, writing 100 lines of glue code in the process, you're competing against every kid on the planet, because almost everybody can do that. It's not really even software engineering. If on the other hand you know how to optimize MySQL queries better than Joe the Plumber... oops I meant Programmer, you have a better chance.
> 
> My two cents!  - Rod L.
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