Who is available for contract work?

[Gabor Szabo]

Hi,

While the subject is not strictly related to advocacy but I was just
contacted by
a client for some work that will be bigger than I can do alone. The
interesting part
was that the client said

"In the Java world there are lots of companies providing
development services but he could not find any in the Perl world"

The extra work is not big enough and long enought to hire someone so
I need to find another contractor/consultant who could take some of the
extra work.

I thought I'll ask some of the people I know but then I realized that I don't
even know about many of the people if they are employed or if they can
offer contract work for a few weeks/months.

There is a very short list of companies and individuals that provide
consulting but I think it would be very useful to enlarge that list:

https://www.socialtext.net/perl5/index.cgi?perl_businesses

So if any of you are providing consulting or contract work in Perl
please add yourself to that page. If you know about others who
offer such services, please ask them too to add info about themselves.

regards
Gabor

[Uri Guttman]

>>>>> "GS" == Gabor Szabo <sza...@gmail.com> writes:

GS> The extra work is not big enough and long enought to hire someone so
GS> I need to find another contractor/consultant who could take some of the
GS> extra work.

GS> I thought I'll ask some of the people I know but then I realized that I don't
GS> even know about many of the people if they are employed or if they can
GS> offer contract work for a few weeks/months.

GS> There is a very short list of companies and individuals that provide
GS> consulting but I think it would be very useful to enlarge that list:

GS> https://www.socialtext.net/perl5/index.cgi?perl_businesses

GS> So if any of you are providing consulting or contract work in Perl
GS> please add yourself to that page. If you know about others who
GS> offer such services, please ask them too to add info about themselves.

and how do i login? is there a perl user/pw or do i make a new
socialtext login?

also this would be more appropriate on the perl jobs list or its discuss
list.

uri

--
Uri Guttman ------ u...@stemsystems.com -------- http://www.sysarch.com --
----- Perl Code Review , Architecture, Development, Training, Support ------
--------- Gourmet Hot Cocoa Mix ---- http://bestfriendscocoa.com ---------

[Gabor Szabo]

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 11:42 PM, Uri Guttman <u...@stemsystems.com> wrote:
>>>>>> "GS" == Gabor Szabo <sza...@gmail.com> writes:
>
> and how do i login? is there a perl user/pw or do i make a new
> socialtext login?

I am not sure. This is the relocated version of the official TPF Perl 5 wiki.
I think I had my account preserved from there.

> also this would be more appropriate on the perl jobs list or its discuss
> list.

Oh, I have totally forgotten about that. I'll send it there too.
Thanks for reminding me.

regards
Gabor

[brian d foy]

In article
<AANLkTim03WTDGN0E6Tj9g...@mail.gmail.com>, Gabor
Szabo <sza...@gmail.com> wrote:

> a client for some work that will be bigger than I can do alone. The
> interesting part
> was that the client said
>
> "In the Java world there are lots of companies providing
> development services but he could not find any in the Perl world"

There's two parts to that sort of statement usually. Not finding anyone
can easily be "No one agreed to trade their time for what I was
offering" as "There aren't Perl programmers available".

I've never had a tough time hooking up customers with programmers.
There are a lot of people out there who are available and do good work.
Because of that, they don't waste their time with loony projects, low
pay, and ridiculous environments.

On the flip side, finding a lot of Java programmers and companies
providing services doesn't mean that they are any good. And how popular
can Java really be with all of those idle programmers sitting around?
:)

It reminds me of the marketing guy at the only company that fired me.
He came out to visit us in New York and was annoyed that all the
restaurants we suggested were full of people. He suggested a restaurant
that had no people in it. Um, there's a reason for both of those.

Gabor's basically right though: it's nice to have a list of people
looking for contracts. I tend to find, however, that the people you'd
most like to hire aren't ever looking because they have quite the queue
already. :)

[Joel Limardo]

I don't think it is that hard to find people; I think it is hard to find the 'right' people. It is not a good idea to get requirements for a contract and, at that point, start looking for people to help you with the work. I've been there and it is really kind of late. You need to develop relationships with people you trust, respect and want to work with long before the contracts show up.  The process is really pretty easy. Find their e-mail and send them something that introduces your consultancy and mention that you sometimes get projects that exceed your capacity.  Ask if they would please respond with some project they have worked on recently and minimum project sizes that they typically accept.  Tell them that you are looking to build a database of companies that you can collaborate with on projects.  Be sure to ask how many developers at the firm have the particular skill set.  If they tell you only one, get that person's name so if/when they leave the company you can look them up on LinkedIn and find out what they are presently doing.

In my industry I often get tapped to find other consultants, so I use my LinkedIn contacts to find out who is looking for work.  I've done the things I've described above personally, so I know that they work, but for me people keep jumping around between different companies so I've learned to just link to the actual consultant on LinkedIn.  That way, no matter where he/she is working today, I can find them easily.   

BTW, I don't recommend that you ask for rates when talking to companies without a hot contract in hand because a) they change frequently b) you might be considered a competitor and handing out rates to competitors is a dumb idea.  

BTW #2, unless you do not value your time very much, I would not normally look for other people on projects myself unless I'm getting compensated to do so. There are MANY people in the staffing business and lots of them work on commission, so if my immediate list of contacts bears no fruit my next word of advice is to tell the client to use a staffing firm. This is why I maintain lists of 'go-to' people in the first place. I don't want to look like I didn't try to find anybody; but on the other hand being too nice and scouring the earth for developers is a waste of my time.

[Elaine Ashton]

On Aug 20, 2010, at 4:06 PM, brian d foy wrote:
>
> Gabor's basically right though: it's nice to have a list of people
> looking for contracts. I tend to find, however, that the people you'd
> most like to hire aren't ever looking because they have quite the queue
> already. :)

SAGE (the sysadmin guild) has a section of their members site for both job postings and for those looking for jobs which is nice not only to see what's out there in terms of jobs, e.g. SAG is currently looking for a sysadmin to the stars in LA :), and other folks' CVs even if you're not currently looking for work.

Those for whom work seeks them are fewer in this economy, especially since I've noticed a trend in the SA market of jobs demanding a much wider range of skills and for a bit less money. I'm sure it's not much different in other areas of IT including programmers. Looking for a job may still carry some stigma similar to lepers of yore but, judging by the news lately, they're in good and growing company and it wouldn't be a bad idea to give those with specific skills a place to market those skills (and available jobs).

e.

[Richard Foley]

Hi Elaine,

I'm not sure "looking for a job" carries quite the same old stigma as lepers
of yore, so much as "looking for a job WHEN OUT OF WORK". It's that old
catch-22 again.

The next most leper-like stage is probably the "leaving soon" state, regardles
of whether going to a new job or not. There's a nice Dilbert cartoon about
that somewhere, where people stop talking, to the soon-to-leave-group-member.
I think they EVEN stop lending him their paper stapler! It'd be funny if it
wasn't so true. People can be such sheep!

--
Richard Foley
Ciao - shorter than aufwiedersehen

http://www.rfi.net/