[consulting] oDesk

[Matt Chapman]

Brian Vuyk wrote:
> You are all right in probably not worth it. I may just try with a 
> small job and see how it goes. Like I've said, I don't like the 
> monitoring system, though!

As someone who often hires people to do things I could do myself, but 
lack the time for, I dare say that many Drupal developers are worse than 
lawyers when it comes to billing practices. I've seen a 10 hour bill for 
two lines of code changed to upgrade a module from D5 to D6 from a 
developer who was supposedly experienced in such work. Perhaps he got 
hung up on researching writing the jQuery he used to check *every* 
checkbox on the page for the requirement that one checkbox should be 
checked & disabled default.

And the lower the hourly rate, the more likely they are to pad the bill. 
I'll gladly pay 4-5 times the minimal rate for someone who works as 
efficiently as I do. I'm not going to pay that kind of money to have 
someone learn on the job. $8/hr is about right if you're making it up as 
you go along, and you live in a country where the housing costs a third 
of mine.

So, as a buyer, I'm a big fan of being able monitor my workers and make 
sure they've been truthful about their time and their skills.

I get that research is part of the job; I'm not going to balk at 
screenshots of api.drupal.org... but if some dev is surfing youtube on 
the clock, I'm going to exercise my right to withhold payment. As for 
me, I don't bill my clients for research time unless they want to do 
something that really never has been done before. I spend about 10 hours 
per week on researching on my own time so I can stay up to date on the 
latest progress in Drupal & related technologies.

Also, part of what the freelancers get from oDesk is an insurance policy 
that they will be paid for their time if the end client balks unjustly; 
as someone who spends way too much time trying to collect from 
delinquent employers, I know how valuable that is.

Best,

Matt