5 ms·

A lot of it comes from experience. After outsourcing for a year, you can judge pretty accurately within the first paragraph what a person is good for. The way t

A lot of it comes from experience. After outsourcing for a year, you can judge pretty accurately within the first paragraph what a person is good for. The way they communicate will tell you a lot.

icey 17y ago
I'd definitely be interested in hearing more about this.
- zaidf 17y ago
  I always felt like someone should write a quick, to-the-point ebook for outsourcing newbies on working through the outsourcing world. May be I'll pen that one day:)
  - icey 17y ago
    One of the things that I really like about HN is that I feel like most of the people here have information worth sharing, and information that's valuable enough that I'd pay for a PDF of that information. I'm kind of surprised we don't have an HN ebook marketplace going yet, to be honest.
  - allantyoung 17y ago
    Zaid - I love your blog so your future ebook will probably be good too. If you have extensive experience outsourcing, I want to learn from your trails. So please do it. Here are some helpful links to get you started. I'm looking forward to reading your ebook. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/03/you_should_writ.html http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/03/you_should_w... http://www.squidoo.com/howtomakeanEbook http://www.squidoo.com/howtomakeanEbook http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/09/16/thirteen-steps-to-write-and-publish-a-free-ebook-in-thirteen-hours/ http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/09/16/thirteen-steps...
    - zaidf 17y ago
      Thanks for the encouragement Alex. I will start putting together my ideas and bring it together one of these weekends!
      - maxklein 17y ago
        I'd most certainly buy it too!
- mattm 17y ago
  Me too. I have done freelance work through oDesk (at one point full-time for a couple months). I see postings looking for programmers where they are willing to pay max $4/hr. I try to move on and not get frustrated but it's difficult. I would be really interested in hearing just what kind of programmers you hire. From the little you mention, it sounds like you need to treat them like kids/code-monkeys - spelling everything out, not wanting their creativity, etc. I have thought sometimes to just spend a couple hundred bucks and hire a couple cheap programmers to work on a made-up project just to see what it's like. It would make for an interesting blog post at least.
zaidf 17y ago
A lot of it is also expectation control. I am always mentally ready for a programmer to bail out on a project. New folks who try outsourcing often give up after their first or second failed attempt. There's no secret - even after years of doing this, I pick the wrong guy every now and then. Few days ago I made a full-time offer to a php programmer in India after extensive interviewing. Finally, I sent the contract. He went missing since getting the contract. Not a huge surprise - he probably used it to get a better offer at another company. I just went down the list to the next candidates.

A lot of it comes from experience. After outsourcing for a year, you can judge pretty accurately within the first paragraph what a person is good for. The way they communicate will tell you a lot.

icey 17y ago

I'd definitely be interested in hearing more about this.

zaidf 17y ago
I always felt like someone should write a quick, to-the-point ebook for outsourcing newbies on working through the outsourcing world. May be I'll pen that one day:)
- icey 17y ago
  One of the things that I really like about HN is that I feel like most of the people here have information worth sharing, and information that's valuable enough that I'd pay for a PDF of that information. I'm kind of surprised we don't have an HN ebook marketplace going yet, to be honest.
- allantyoung 17y ago
  Zaid - I love your blog so your future ebook will probably be good too. If you have extensive experience outsourcing, I want to learn from your trails. So please do it. Here are some helpful links to get you started. I'm looking forward to reading your ebook. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/03/you_should_writ.html http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/03/you_should_w... http://www.squidoo.com/howtomakeanEbook http://www.squidoo.com/howtomakeanEbook http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/09/16/thirteen-steps-to-write-and-publish-a-free-ebook-in-thirteen-hours/ http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/09/16/thirteen-steps...
  - zaidf 17y ago
    Thanks for the encouragement Alex. I will start putting together my ideas and bring it together one of these weekends!
    - maxklein 17y ago
      I'd most certainly buy it too!
mattm 17y ago
Me too. I have done freelance work through oDesk (at one point full-time for a couple months). I see postings looking for programmers where they are willing to pay max $4/hr. I try to move on and not get frustrated but it's difficult. I would be really interested in hearing just what kind of programmers you hire. From the little you mention, it sounds like you need to treat them like kids/code-monkeys - spelling everything out, not wanting their creativity, etc. I have thought sometimes to just spend a couple hundred bucks and hire a couple cheap programmers to work on a made-up project just to see what it's like. It would make for an interesting blog post at least.

zaidf 17y ago

A lot of it is also expectation control. I am always mentally ready for a programmer to bail out on a project. New folks who try outsourcing often give up after their first or second failed attempt. There's no secret - even after years of doing this, I pick the wrong guy every now and then. Few days ago I made a full-time offer to a php programmer in India after extensive interviewing. Finally, I sent the contract. He went missing since getting the contract. Not a huge surprise - he probably used it to get a better offer at another company. I just went down the list to the next candidates.