[Coco] Expert C programmer wanted

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Mon, 2005-02-07 at 01:31 -0600, Roger Taylor wrote:

> 
> Those who overcharge will only be paid by dummies.
> 

Is Dummy Cash a somehow less valuable?

> The smallest bid usually wins.
> 

Perhaps. But my experience is that most projects don't even go out for
bid. The project goes to  "some guy you know" that you either worked
with in the past or that you know through other people. Business is all
about creating good relationships with suppliers, contractors,
investors, customers, etc. Often the work contracted out isn't core to
the business, so it's an occasional hit to the IT budget, and getting it
done successfully is much more important than squeezing the contractors.

> There are other people who can do your work (and better?).
> 

It would be conceited for any programmer to think there's nobody better
(Conceited Programmer?: News at 11 ;-)  ). Of course there is. But
clients are usually not looking for Mr. Right, or Mr. Cheap, they're
looking for Mr. Right Now, reasonably capable and available at an OK
price.

Also, if you undersell yourself, you'll just make your client nervous
that you either don't know what you're doing/have low self-worth, or
that as soon as you get wind of a better rate you'll head for the door.
You have to find a happy medium.

All that said, nobody is going to hand over $50K to any programmer
before work is complete. Every contract I have ever done was paid in
installments at milestones, or it was straightforward pay-as-you-go.
Safer for everybody that way.

-- John.