Re: Doing more for less

Your points are good ones. In capitalism it all boils down to "At what rate
are the parties willing to participate in the transaction?"  Of course
companies want lower rates (especially with the magnifying glass over each
line in the budget). Of course developers want higher rates (when you get
used to the gravy pouring in, you don't want it to stop).

The problem I think every top-tier developer would agree with is that
companies (often recruiters in their stead) often focus too much (IMO) on
rate and too little on quality. If there was an easy way to measure the
quality of a developer (like x parts per billion or rate of purity that we
would use in chemical sciences) then this would not be nearly as frustrating
for all parties involved.  Sure there are tests, sure there are
certifications, sure there is formal education. But none of these translate
into quality measurements. And if you cannot measure quality, why pay more
for one person over the next? Obviously, the answer is because even though
we cannot clearly put a number on the quality of a developer, we know that
there is a difference in quality and better quality is worth more.

So, if we as top-tier developers want rates to increase what can we do about
it?

-----Original Message-----
From: Unmoderated DOTNET job forum [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Abhijit Gore
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 8:18 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [DOTNET-JOBS] Doing more for less [ was Lead CF / ASP Developer,
New York City ]


Several recruiters in east coast seem to be smoking something or maybe its
everyone :) Yesterday, a recruiter contacted me for a position requiring
atleast 8 yrs exp, hands-on J2EE and .NET experience with atleast 4 years
financial exp in Fixed income and Securities. Guess what the rate was?
ridiculous $31/hr. I have seen rates as high as $60/hr for same experience.

What's driving the rates lower????

I have heard some interesting discussions on this list. I have seen various
reasons from recruiters to guest workers to offshore sites. But they are not
the ones who write the check or generate the demand. The real driver of
southward trend seems to be intense Wall Street / Shareholder pressure to
show profitability. Do you really think that Wall-Street cares how a company
gets its work done as long as its producing profits? In the current economy
where you have to 'do more for less', all IT Mgrs are pushed to lower their
budgets and accomplish more. As a result, cost acquires precedence over
quality or patriotism.

just my $0.02

Abhijit

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