Vent: Can't find a decent developer

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BradM

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Jan 18, 2007
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Orange County, CA
Where do you guys find your developers? I have tried everywhere it seems and we just get these AWFUL resumes of people who are "designers" that send us their portfolio which is a blank wordpress default theme with a bunch of templatemonster sites they made. I mean... what the fuck.

How can I get anything done without a decent programmer/admin/developer?
 


Rage9 said:
You gotta be willing to pay them.
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Yup. One kick ass developer = 10 shitty offshore ones, with a lot less headache and fewer communication problems. It partially depends on the scale and complexity of what you're trying to do though. If it's something small and easy, cheap can sometimes work out ok. If it's a big engagement, completely different story.
 
nvanprooyen said:
Yup. One kick ass developer = 10 shitty offshore ones, with a lot less headache and fewer communication problems. It partially depends on the scale and complexity of what you're trying to do though. If it's something small and easy, cheap can sometimes work out ok. If it's a big engagement, completely different story.
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QFT!
 
I kick ass, but I'm pricey. If you need something done though, I can do it, and I can do it damn well and with very little headaches. Get in touch.

Edit: and even if I'm too busy to do it, I can probably refer you to someone else who kicks ass.

Edit 2: but I don't do design. I mean, I have a network of designers if you need design done through me, who are also pricey and awesome; but I personally only write beautiful code. Experienced in any language/tools needed to get the project done.
 
I've been around 3 years coding in PHP as a freelancer.
None of the sites I've coded have ever been hacked.

My clients ask me to code more and more things for them as I deliver their work in a timely (from a simple evening to a week as max) manner.

Most of them said me I've greatly exceeded their expectations.
And I charge half of what people with a tenth part of my experience charge.

As Refrozen, I don't do design. I can code a simple layout in most of the cases (but I'm not a web designer), but I'm specialized in coding. Great, fast, secure and clean code that will improve your server performance so greatly, that you'll forget what high CPU load is in most cases.

My last client has already hired me for 3 consecutive projects, and I'm completing his forth.

Specializing in: Scraping, Bulk Data Management
 
These last two posts are dead on. I plan and plan before I jump in. I use frameworks to make things go as fast as possible. I do rapid releases and iterations to get features out fast so people can see results fast. But I am not cheap by a long shot.

My philosophy: In development there are three things you get to pick from: Fast, cheap and correct. The catch is - you only get to pick two of them at a time.
 
I went to a company once for development work. It was horrible. I paid $75 per hour and because the guy was being paid hourly he only did what I specified. So the membership system didn't have things like remember password or the administration area would be missing real basic functions because I did not specify.

Fuck that shit.

He was Canadian, NDA, contracts, all that nonsense. Worst experience I've ever had. I'd rather troll forums or my contact lists for freelancers.

It was like asking for a portrait and getting a caricature.
 
droplister said:
I went to a company once for development work. It was horrible. I paid $75 per hour and because the guy was being paid hourly he only did what I specified. So the membership system didn't have things like remember password or the administration area would be missing real basic functions because I did not specify.

Fuck that shit.

He was Canadian, NDA, contracts, all that nonsense. Worst experience I've ever had. I'd rather troll forums or my contact lists for freelancers.

It was like asking for a portrait and getting a caricature.
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I hear what you mean, but nobody can read your brain and there's a bazillion of features you'll whine about if you don't change your approach. Offshore or not, unless you have an in house coder or a bored freelancer you can boss around with countless modifications for what you only specified as "user account management with a login box on the home page", you have 2 broad options:
- Specify everything yourself including all details and how the features will be validated, the only difference with writing code is that you can't. You lose a lot of time, yeah, but it's cheaper because the guy has no clue how to put a project together, you do.
- Get a hotshot coder who knows his shit and will ask the right questions when you are too vague about what you need (see above posts).

Someone here had made a great series of blog posts about correctly outsourcing your developments, you need to read it (edit: Can someone post the link if they also remember it?). Just know what you need for your project : If you take the cheapest way, they'll take the shortest way to your requirements. Or you got screwed like a berry muncher, it happens too :-)
 
droplister said:
I went to a company once for development work. It was horrible. I paid $75 per hour and because the guy was being paid hourly he only did what I specified. So the membership system didn't have things like remember password or the administration area would be missing real basic functions because I did not specify.
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Would you have preferred him to bump up the bill by adding lots of things you didn't ask for?
 
BradM said:
Where do you guys find your developers? I have tried everywhere it seems and we just get these AWFUL resumes of people who are "designers" that send us their portfolio which is a blank wordpress default theme with a bunch of templatemonster sites they made. I mean... what the fuck.

How can I get anything done without a decent programmer/admin/developer?
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I bet you aren't paying enough.

I know lots of great developers. In general, they want (and get) upwards of $100/hr freelancing.

It was like asking for a portrait and getting a caricature.
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When you build a house, you don't just hire constructions workers. If you don't want to design the house you have an architect do it for you.

The same goes for software.

Get a software designer to write up detailed specs of exactly what you want. Then almost any programmer can do it properly when given the specs.

edit: or write them yourself. it's time consuming as hell but it ensures you get exactly what you want.
 
I have found the best developers ever by

going to DP,... (OK STFU - lots of people look there)
And posting a challenging description and ignoring all the indians and phillipinos (sorry I think india and philippines are really nice countries guys, but........) and keep bumping my thread until I find some crazy european to take the job.

Then instead of writing a big boner of a detailed spec, I discuss with him what I want and then let him recommend the best ways to solve the issues.

If he gets stumped here, then no go.
 
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