Finding freelancers

[Peter Bowen]

Most of the higher profile rails development shops seem to focus on
whole projects and many of the job boards focus on full timers. We are
interested in finding people to work on existing projects, either as
part of a team or writing new components that hook into a larger
system.

We used several well known boards previously, when we were hiring
full-timers, and found both Joel on Software and 37signals job boards
did not get many results. RubyNow did much better, but I'm guessing
there are sites we missed.

Are there sites people would recommend for finding freelancers?

Thanks,
Peter

[Jamey Cribbs]

As a full-time freelancer, I can tell you that I follow the jobs board
at RubyNow religiously, so my recommendation would be to continue to
use that board.

An additional recommendation would be to simply state what you are
looking for in your job posts. I tend to ignore job posts that
contain the words "rock star" or "ninja" or ones that ask me if I "eat
code for breakfast".

Jamey

[Rick DeNatale]

On Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Jamey Cribbs<jamey....@gmail.com> wrote:

> An additional recommendation would be to simply state what you are
> looking for in your job posts.  I tend to ignore job posts that
> contain the words "rock star" or "ninja" or ones that ask me if I "eat
> code for breakfast".

Just for the record, I'm finishing up a bowl of mini-shredded wheat
with bran, with a sliced banana and a cup of coffee.

--
Rick DeNatale

Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale
WWR: http://www.workingwithrails.com/person/9021-rick-denatale
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rickdenatale

[Paul Pagel]

I would recommend going to local ruby meet ups and finding people.
There is no better way to judge actual talent than meeting someone and
having a conversation. There are lots of good ruby developers in the
open-source community who freelance. Or ask the developers you know
who they know.

Also, I like workingwithrails.com because it lists contractor/FT
employee differences.

Paul

[Philip Hallstrom]

> As a full-time freelancer, I can tell you that I follow the jobs board
> at RubyNow religiously, so my recommendation would be to continue to
> use that board.

+1

Seems like RubyNow is one of the more popular ones... I've noticed
that jobs posted to other sites tend to end up on RubyNow as well..
it's the one I watch the closest...

> An additional recommendation would be to simply state what you are
> looking for in your job posts. I tend to ignore job posts that
> contain the words "rock star" or "ninja" or ones that ask me if I "eat
> code for breakfast".

+100

I'd also add... if your job post doesn't include your company name and
the only contact is rubyninja...@gmail.com there's very little
chance I'll respond. If you can't even share the most basic
information about you, why should I?

-philip

[Jason Green]

I have created a quick feed of all of the Ruby on Rails job postings.
There are some that end up being duplicates, but I think I have pretty
much covered all of them.

The feed is available here:
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user%2F17024929756739267920%2Flabel%2FRuby50

Feed includes:
Railslodge, Railswork, Rails Jobs UK, Jobs on Learning Ruby,
Railsjob.com, Recent Programming jobs, Geekup Joboard, Yahoo amongst
others...

Don't know if this will be of any help to anyone, but thought I would
share it anyway!

Jason Green

Dynamic50 Web Design and Development

Tel: +44 (0)845 409 1403
Mob: +44 (0)7850 732812
Skype: dynamic50.com
Twitter: thefiftygroup
Email: jason...@dynamic50.com
Web: http://www.dynamic50.com

Dynamic50 is part of The Fifty Group. The Fifty Group covers a wide
range of specialities including Web Design and Development, Search and
Selection, Web Production, Video production and Hosting. See http://www.thefiftygroup.com

*** DISCLAIMER ***
This message and any attachments are confidential, and may be
protected by legal privilege. If this has been sent to you in error
please contact the sender as soon as possible.

Dynamic50 Ltd is a limited company, registered in England and Wales,
registered number 06468278, VAT 938499753.

[Jonathan Kinney]

There's also jobregator.com which aggregates a lot of ruby & ruby on rails opportunities. I usually keep an eye on this one a few times per month, though you do get some overlapping.

Jon Kinney

http://jonkinney.com

[John Moody]

One of the things I've noticed is that there doesn't seem to be a dedicated spot for freelancing jobs - most of the sources mentioned are primarily FTE jobs.  Am I missing a freelancing-specific site?

- John

[Peter Bowen]

On Sep 8, 9:40 am, Jamey Cribbs <jamey.cri...@gmail.com> wrote:
> As a full-time freelancer, I can tell you that I follow the jobs board
> at RubyNow religiously, so my recommendation would be to continue to
> use that board.

On Sep 8, 10:22 am, Paul Pagel <paulwpa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Also, I like workingwithrails.com because it lists contractor/FT
> employee differences.

Thanks for the tips. I will make sure we post on both RubyNow and
WWR
I already avoid the cliché "rock star" and "ninja" phrases and we
usually
post as much detail as possible, expecting that candidates should take
a
moment to find out about the project before their interview (when
doing FT hires).

Thanks,
Peter

[Eric Davis]

On Sun, 2009-09-06 at 12:05 -0400, Peter Bowen wrote:
> Are there sites people would recommend for finding freelancers?

Surprised no one has mentioned Twitter yet. I see at least one tweet
every day about a Rails freelancer looking for projects. A simple
search should turn up a few results:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=freelance+rails

>From there you could see how someone communicates and if they have a
blog or site. It's usually a good idea to check if they have a GitHub
account and how active they are on it.

Good luck.

--
Eric Davis
Little Stream Software
http://www.LittleStreamSoftware.com

[Timothy Johnson]

These are more generic, but you could take a look, there are a smattering of Rails development projects on here.

elance.com

guru.com

odesk.com

I don't usually work with these sites or keep an eye on them though. Seems to be mostly the bottom of the barrel kind of stuff. But the top-shelf projects are not usually looking for a lone-freelancer either, so it is kind of a hit-miss. Most of my work comes from people who refer me after fixing problems that are too trivial for their current provider, or they want to charge too much.

For all freelancers I say that you should spend more money and effort at marketing than job hunting. Every marketing effort I have put forth has brought me higher quality clients who trusted me more, than when I would job hunt and you may be one of a dozen candidates. Well-executed marketing puts you top-of-mind for decision makers within the organization, whereas responding to ads is more like a blind RFP process. I hardly ever submit an RFP that I don't know the company involved, and who I am competing against, and whether I have a 70% + chance of winning the bid.

Cheers,

Timothy Johnson

fo...@foundinteractive.com

(w) www.foundinteractive.com

[Robert Bazinet]

Timothy,

What is your definition, or examples of, "Well-executed marketing"?  What works for you?

-Rob Bazinet

--
Rob Bazinet
http://stillriversoftware.com
http://accidentaltechnologist.com
InfoQ Ruby Community Editor - http://www.infoq.com

[Timothy Johnson]

Well-executed doesn't mean spending a whole  bunch, it does mean being specific. You have to know what kind of projects are a better fit with you and really work on your relationships with your clients. Locally I exploit my niche in the crowd of competition in a certain way, and that extends to national clients too. Here is an example:

I don't compete against other Rails developers for a client's business (which is what you are doing when job hunting), but rather I talk to businesses about how we can build great software based upon open-standard technologies, and interconnect it with other systems better than we could have at any time previously. Some clients already know they want a web-app of some sort, so it may be selling a Rails e-commerce or CMS platform vs. some other free or proprietary software. I have been very succesful at showing clients that while they can download free packages (like magento or wordpress), there is still a lot of work setting up those systems, and they are ultimately not as flexible as what we can do with Rails. 

I was competing against a local company who already had an in-house developed e-commerce system last year. A publishing company wanted a system that was a good bit different than what was standard, and the other firm wanted to charge a lot of money on top of the licensing and then on top of exaggerated hosting fees and even taking a cut of the sales. They couldn't be as flexible and the publishing company would be locked in with them. I ended up building a Rails Cart for them with all their features (from scratch) at a greatly reduced rate comparatively, and telling them that if our relationship ever goes south, or I go out of business for some reason, they can find any number of Rails developers to help them work on the system, or train someone in-house to save costs. All around it was a big win for them. On top of all that, being able to provide awesome customer service and direct communication is a huge win, and they have referred me to many others.

This is just what I mean, spending your time competing against "BIG SOFTWARE" and not competing against other Rails developers for a "job" is the successful way to freelance and keep busy. I can't over stress enough also that you should always make sure the client will make a whole lot more money from the project (or save it in other costs) than what you are charging for it. If you build an application that effectively eliminates a few people worth of man hours, the client is always excited to spend more.

Timothy

[Robert Bazinet]

Great advice.  One aspect of finding work by not competing against other Rails developers is certainly a logical approach but I wonder what your methodology is to get to the point you are talking with the client.  How are you meeting these potential clients in the first place?  Are you leveraging local resources like Chamber of Commerce events or other business events or are you using some other method?  

A major part of the battle is not selling someone on a solution but more about meeting someone with a NEED in the first place.

-Rob

[Timothy Johnson]

To keep it short this time... ;)

Attending local Ruby groups is one way to meet Ruby developers and some other developers and business owners in your area, but attending local business-networking groups (like BNI) or chamber of commerce is a way to market these types of solutions to the general public. Market the things you have done, and have your clients stand up with you, or at least give a testimonial (video or otherwise) when you get a chance to present. Also talk about other peoples' solutions in the same space, and become well-versed in different areas of expertise. 

I speciallized in Flash apps for years before I found Rails, and now my specialty extends to building CMSes that deliver content to Flash e-learning and applications. Inside that niche I am able to get great work. But there are areas I also market outside that niche, that introduce me to new people. When a business owner and I hit it off (personally or professionally) then I can begin showing off the work. If you aren't meeting new people with small businesses that you can get along with and talk comfortably to, then long-term it is not a good fit. These introductions give way to projects in the near and long term

Timothy