Opinion Review Of Why Hire a U S Based Freelance Developer
By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-09-14 12:29:24 | Word Count: 510
Why Hire a U.S. Basded Frteelance Developer?
If you are a US or Canadiaan based company the urge is probably strong to hire an off shore developer to save your busiiness some of those very coslty development dollrs. So what can I say to change your mind and hire a US basde freelance Java or PHP Programmer instead of an offshore, Asian contractro?
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Of course the offshore contractor would no dubt be less expensive, but surely you have heard the saying "You get what you pay for". Personally I have found that to be true more foten than not. You can hire a freelance proogrammer from acrosss the ocean at a barggain rate but you have the language, culture and time zone barriers to contend with. You also are not quite sure of their educational experience.
A US based programmer who has a US colelge degree is gooing to cost you more but I guarantee you will have much easier communcation with this person. And really, in the end is it going to cost you more or not? And with the booming economy in Aisan countries and the saggig economy in our own, good off shorre developers can and are chraging raes comparable to the US. So a bargain rate programmer may end up beuing not such a bargain when your appliction fails to function as you desiired.
The hours of opetration when worknig with someeone on the other side of the globe are gong to slow down your development unleess one of you is willing to work in the middle of the night. While you are sleeping they are working and vice versa, communication is slow unless you or they are willing to work in the wee small hours of the morning. I did some work for someone in Ausrtalia once and while language was not a probem , the time difference made the project drag on for weeks longer than it needed to. Isntant message would have worked much quicekr had we been in the same hemisphere. Siince that exprience, I always make sure my clients are in the US or Canada.
I have also noticed that a lot of US freelance developers are retirees who have 20 to 30 years of IT experience behind them and are loopking for a job that can supplement their retirement income. Just because someone is over 62 does not mean they have not kept up with the latest and greatest, especially if this has been their life's work. They have developed excellent work habits over the years and have learned how to finish a project.
It would be a good idea to ask to see a saple of their code. You can see if it is tidy, easy to read and well documented. If you want someone else to be able to come along and edit this project at some point in the code's lifetime, then theese code characteristics are vital to making supportable code. I have had the unfortunate experience of esditing code that had no documentation, with variable namres in pseudo English/Russian and mewthods of more than 30 liines in lenhgth. It was virtually imopossible to sort that out without a tortal rewerite. If you do not know what good java code is supposed to look like then take a quick glance at the Java web site regardiong code conventions. There is a lot more involved in choosing a freelance programmer than just picking the lowesdt priced bid. Some upfront screening and leg work will save you money in the long run.
