Why Should I Hire a US Based Freelance Developer?
Search:

Home | Business | Management

 
 

Why Should I Hire a US Based Freelance Developer?

By: Margaret Phillips

If you are a US or Canadian based company the urge is probably strong to
hire an off shore developer to save your business some of those very
costly development dollars. So what can I say to change your mind and
hire a US based freelance Java or PHP Programmer instead of an offshore,
Asian contractor?

Of course the offshore contractor would no doubt be less expensive, but
surely you have heard the saying "You get what you pay for". Personally
I have found that to be true more often than not.
You can hire a freelance programmer from across the ocean at a bargain
rate but you have the language, culture and time zone barriers to
contend with. You also are not quite sure of their educational
experience.

A US based programmer who has a US college degree is going to cost you
more but I guarantee you will have much easier communication with this
person. And really, in the end is it going to cost you more or not? And
with the booming economy in Asian countries and the sagging economy in
our own, good off shore developers can and are charging rates comparable
to the US. So a bargain rate programmer may end up being not such a
bargain when your application fails to function as you desired.

The hours of operation when working with someone on the other side of
the globe are going to slow down your development unless one of you is
willing to work in the middle of the night. While you are sleeping they
are working and vice versa, communication is slow unless you or they are
willing to work in the wee small hours of the morning. I did some work
for someone in Australia once and while language was not a problem ,
the time difference made the project drag on for weeks longer than it
needed to. Instant message would have worked much quicker had we been in
the same hemisphere. Since that experience, I always make sure my
clients are in the US or Canada.

I have also noticed that a lot of US freelance developers are retirees
who have 20 to 30 years of IT experience behind them and are looking for
a job that can supplement their retirement income. Just because someone
is over 62 does not mean they have not kept up with the latest and
greatest, especially if this has been their life's work. They have
developed excellent work habits over the years and have learned how to
finish a project.

It would be a good idea to ask to see a sample of their code. You can
see if it is tidy, easy to read and well documented. If you want someone
else to be able to come along and edit this project at some point in the
code's lifetime, then these code characteristics are vital to making
supportable code. I have had the unfortunate experience of editing code
that had no documentation, with variable names in pseudo English/Russian
and methods of more than 30 lines in length. It was virtually impossible
to sort that out without a total rewrite. If you do not know what good
java code is supposed to look like then take a quick glance at the Java
web site regarding code conventions: java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/
There is a lot more involved in choosing a freelance programmer than
just picking the lowest priced bid. Some upfront screening and leg work
will save you money in the long run.

Article Source: http://articlenexus.com

Margaret Phillips has 30 years experience in the workplace and has been a freelance java developer for the last two years. She was featured in the Women for Hire Webinar in 2008. She works out of and recommends Rent-A-Coder and oDesk as le

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Management Articles Via RSS!

отдых в Севастополеplugin wordpressрыбалкатанцевальный лагерь

Powered by Article Dashboard