Re: Doing more for less

The obvious ways to determine quality, from a clients point of view, is
to ask for reference clients (and follow them up) and past work.

The obvious problem for most developers is that past work is nearly
always protected by corporate firewalls and so on.

I think it is every developers responsibility to create demo apps, and
online resumes so as to have these proof of capability and quality
references.

We are just starting out on the multiple client, multiple concurrent
contract job scene, with our speciality quite firmly based around web
services and web applications. The major changes I have found is that
one rate does not fit all, and that you have to lose the technical speak
far more often that you think.
Most people don't care about SOAP and WSDL and Digital Signatures and so
on, they just want to know its secure and works to existing standards.
I find giving my clients access to white papers and Microsoft journals
and so on helps to reassure them that I have researched the areas, and
that the proposed solution will adhere to the standards.
Also keep in mind, that most clients will be happy to put a completion
bonus on contracts. This can greatly increase your average rate!


Chris Haines
Director
evolvin ltd


-----Original Message-----
From: Unmoderated DOTNET job forum
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Andre
Sent: 12 June 2003 21:21
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [DOTNET-JOBS] 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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