On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 3:13 PM, Rimu Atkinson <[email protected]> wrote: > I have attempted to out-source a couple of small jobs via online job boards, > twice. Both times were dismal failures
I Think what both you and Kent are missing is that the ad Berend reposted was looking for a full-time employee which is very different to the position of a freelancer engaged on a fixed price contract. Kent also seems to missing that the task is form/database programming not HTML design as such. Assuming that they don't see a requirement to have the same client again, a freelancer has an interest in producing the minimal acceptable result in the minimum possible time. An employee has an interest in producing outputs that will satisfy the employer's needs to ensure continued employment. Sure, if you engage a freelancer of unknown ability on a low quote you need to ensure that you have specified your task very clearly and that you have some form of escrow in place ... With per-payment and a lack of escrow, the minimal acceptable result mentioned above is hard to distinguish from no output at all. If freelancers.com doesn't have an escrow system in place, you'd be better off finding another place to engage your freelancers from. regardless of the venue for hiring, you should always check out references before engaging. With an employee, especially if you are engaging a junior, you are going to have to expect to spend non-trivial amounts of time moulding that employee into producing the output you require, but they do have an interest in learning to produce the outputs you need and once they understand the requirements you can (hopefully) rely on them to continue to meet your needs. If you can hire your junior full-time in the 3rd world for under $400 / month, it's hard to see spending 10 times that on a Kiwi unless there is a specific need to have local knowledge or local presence. It's the same inescapable logic that leads NZ companies to host their call centres offshore in India. To preserve your income level you need to be able to express the benefits that you can provide through your local presence or knowledge. -- Bruce Clement Home: http://www.clement.co.nz/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/Bruce_Clement Google Buzz: http://www.google.com/profiles/aotearoanz "Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in this field." Mikhail Kalashnikov -- NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]
