Ted Roche wrote: > Yeah. right. I gave up an international guru practice in VFP and > became just another novice LAMP coder for the money, fame and glory. > (More like blame and gory.) There's a glut of LAMP developers out > there and they offer double-minimum wage rates, since they just got > out of school (college, high or grade) and live at home with Mom. They > were raised on this stuff, code faster (but buggier) than I do, stay > up for days at a time, and will take a job for $200 fixed to establish > a reputation. And let's not even start on offshoring! My rates didn't > exactly skyrocket when I chose to work out of a state with more moose > and bear than people. But I am loving it, 'cause software development > is what I do, and Open Source lets me do it better. > This is what tempts developers like myself to consider getting out of this career. Yes, I love developing solutions, and they're good ones according to my clients; however, it's very stressful with the way technology keeps changing...and I'm not that old, either and feeling the anxiety!
> The interesting thing is that the problems we run into are very > similar, whether it's VFP or PHP, PostgreSQL or DBFs, milling machines > or mailing machines. Communicating with the clients, properly setting > expectations, educating them about the software development process, > helping them to figure out their *real* requirements, estimating the > projects, working out the user interactions, designing the data model > -- all that stuff is pretty similar. The big differences are whether > you terminate or continue a line with a semi-colon, and whether you > need to PACK or VACUUM the database. > > Sorry if we touched a nerve, MB. Sometimes we play a little rough. > Like I said...I'm just edgey given the shit I'm wading through. No offense taken really. I do acknowledge your depth of experience as much more than mine, regardless, and hence my respect/deference for your opinions on these kinds of things. > But to get back on topic: "Bidding for jobs based upon the number of > tables involved:" > > No, don't do that. > I look at it this way: how long am I going to be tied up with this job if I get it, given the scope that has been defined? Let's say it's 2 months....then I decide "Ok, it I want to bill $xxxxx this year, that means I should bid 2/12 of $xxxxx for the job. Perhaps a bit more to pad it for a little scope creep (that I would allow as a courtesy...but not to be taken advantage of). Does this logic have any merit or is it crazy too? -- Michael J. Babcock, MCP MB Software Solutions, LLC http://mbsoftwaresolutions.com http://fabmate.com "Work smarter, not harder, with MBSS custom software solutions!" _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
