[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Brokering between developers and paying customers
From:       Richard Dale <Richard_Dale () tipitina ! demon ! co ! uk>
Date:       2005-06-20 15:30:42
Message-ID: 200506201730.42780.Richard_Dale () tipitina ! demon ! co ! uk
[Download RAW message or body]

On Monday 20 June 2005 17:45, Jan de Visser wrote:
> On Monday 20 June 2005 09:57, Richard Dale wrote:
> > > I can't imagine a software company outsourcing the development of a
> > > commercial piece of software to some contractor they met over the web.
> >
> > Why ever not? If you have a contractor with a web presence, you can read
> > their blogs, look at the code they check in, see how well they support
> > the users of their software, and see them speak at conferences. And of
> > course you can still interview them before awarding their company the
> > work.
> >
> > Do you really mean that getting a bunch of CVs and scanning for keywords
> > like J2EE, Oracle or whatever is a more reliable way to find someone
> > good?
>
> (We're straying way of topic here, but it's fun, so who cares :)
>
> I'm not doubting you can get good quality people over the web, What I'm
> trying to say is that, were I to run a company whose business plan involved
> selling software for profit, I would be reluctant to outsource the
> development of my prime asset to some other entity not bound to my company.
> I can see getting a couple of disposable "warm bodies" in to do the grunt
> work, but I'd like to keep the major development in-house.
Sorry, the sort of person I was describing isn't a 'warm body doing grunt 
work'. That's a commodity programmer with standard skills which look good on 
a CV, not a consultant. I specialise in writing language bindings, and 
wouldn't be employed by a recruitment consultant scanning CVs. Not that any 
market for Qt language bindings consultants actually exists sadly.

I did contact a recruitment consultant the other week who was looking for a 
permanent programmer, and asked him if I could fill the gap as a contractor, 
giving a summary of what I'd been doing recently. When I spoke to him a few 
days later it was obvious he hadn't searched for my name on Google and didn't 
know anything about me. So when he said 'send me your CV and I'll run it past 
the client', there didn't seem to be much point.

> As I said, this is off-topic, since Manuel did not elaborate the level of
> people involved in his service.
The people who tend to get involved in the KDE project have a level of ability 
which is way above the norm, and it would be nice to capitilise on that, by 
making it easier for them to get paid work.

-- Richard
 
>> Visit http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel#unsub to unsubscribe <<
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]