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HN Contractors: Add Yourself
Over the last few months, I've seen a lot of HN members talk about being contractors, and why - designing to bootstrap their business, building an iPhone practice, moving to China to work and live, etc.
I'm often on the other side of that transaction, where I need to hire contractors for one or more projects, and I'd like nothing more than to hire from this group of experts, but I don't remember to bookmark every talented and possibly hungry person. I'm sure there are many other people on both sides.
So here's a Google Spreadsheet for adding yourself and your expertise so that folks who need to hire have a quick way to find HN folks: include your contact info [if you want], etc.
Spreadsheet is at https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlD_6iEb8Ed9dGs3clVJYi0yYVBka181Z0ZKRW9kQ0E&hl=en, I promise to leave it there and hope that nobody's a jerk about it.
(If someone has already done this, by all means let me know or add to this thread - I just want the list, not the credit.)
- Rust 16y agoClickable: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlD_6iEb8Ed9dGs3clVJYi0yYVBka181Z0ZKRW9kQ0E&hl=en https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlD_6iEb8Ed9dGs3clV...
- noilly 16y agoI bolded the top row if you don't mind... sans serif font + italics = no go
- vgurgov 16y agoits funny to see how amazingly cool google docs shows how some 30 ppl contribute to this spreadsheet at this moment ))
- ableal 16y agoNow 37. A bit twitchy ... filled some info, but will check back tomorrow when it's calmer.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- pmjordan 16y agoSomeone just blanked the whole table, is there a way to make this add-only? I vaguely recall being able to set up a form with Google docs. Even better: some way of undoing the vandalism?
- ableal 16y agoTry reloading. I also thought that (Firefox 3.5).
- pmjordan 16y agoLooks like someone restored it.
- scottru 16y agoRight, thanks to the anonymous person who fixed it. I'm trying to keep an eye on it.
- ableal 16y agoOut of curiosity, was it really wiped and restored ? I thought the browser just might have tripped and lost track, being machine-gunned with (correct?) updates, thus showing a mostly blank sheet ...
- pmjordan 16y agoIt was wiped as I was almost finished entering my data. It was restored back to the point where I was about halfway done. I did try in multiple browsers before it was restored.
- jasongullickson 16y agoYes you can easily share the sheet as a write-only form and for this purpose it seems like a perfect solution.
- illumin8 16y agoYou're better off doing this with a Google form that feeds to a Google spreadsheet automatically. Then, you can publish the spreadsheet read only and not worry about anyone blanking it or corrupting the data.
- quickpost 16y agoI agree with you, but in the worst case scenario, Google provides a full revision history so it would be easy to recover from something malicious (or accidental).
- scottru 16y agoThanks. I thought about that, I just thought we'd get more participation (and more consistency) if people saw what others were saying, and I trusted the group (which seems to have mostly worked).
- papersmith 16y agoI am actually thinking of making a web app for this, perhaps along with non-freelance profile/job postings, if anyone's interested. :)
- kungfooey 16y agoAren't there already other apps meeting this need? The problem with a "directory" format is that it lacks personal depth. I've never gotten a qualified business lead from a directory (and I'm listed in several thanks to some certifications I've earned int he past). They are always looking at the rate and keywords rather than "Is this person good to work with?" At the end of the day, personal referrals are the way most people do business. It's inefficient, yes, but so far I've never seen a suitable replacement.
- papersmith 16y agoThat makes sense. Though I wonder if the problem of freelance match-making is similar to the problem of online dating.
- scottru 16y agoBTW, I will clean up some disorganization once the editing slows down.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- Ixiaus 16y agoI have to say, watching everyone add data in real time is pretty cool...
- vital101 16y agoThis might be useful to add under the "Jobs" link on this site. I know that it is meant for people looking for work, but I feel that it could work just as well in the opposite direction.
- bensummers 16y agoI love the way HN provides free load testing for Google Docs! Although usually we trigger the low bandwidth version. :-(
- scottru 16y agoWe did. :)
- markmywords 16y agoLots of low rates ...
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- nopassrecover 16y agoI doubt that very much. I would say you're going to get far more than you pay for from any of these.
- zkarcher 16y agoThat deleted comment was mine, the text was: "You get what you pay for ;)" I admire your attitude, nopassrecover. And you're right, even as contractors we can shape the outcome of our projects. Software development seems linked with cynicism (see: http://thedailywtf.com http://thedailywtf.com and others) but it's better to be proactive and help guide projects to completion.
- NEPatriot 16y agoAnyone doing this in order to find a co-founder/project to join?
- carnive 16y agoYes
- aheilbut 16y agoThis is extremely useful just to be able to see rates across different areas and skillsets.
- scottru 16y agoFor anybody who's tracking, we're up to 140+ folks, and the spreadsheet has moved into high-traffic mode. Thanks all - this will be great and I'm happy for it to be linked from a more permanent location.
- ajju 16y agoAwesome. I am on the other side as well, and the next time I need a contractor, I'm going straight to this spreadsheet. Aside: Best answer to "Why are you doing this" is by cmos: "To support my cat" :)
- nopassrecover 16y agoAre spreadsheets private? For instance does this data appear in Google results or is it cached indefinitely or anything like that?
- SMrF 16y agoAre contracting rates really this low? I would have expected $150-$200/hour range for serious programming skills, which most on this list seem to have. Instead it looks like the number is somewhere between $75-$100.
- nopassrecover 16y agoI'd imagine anyone on this list is in the top 5% of programmers at least but I don't think you'd get work here in Australia at $150-$200.
- xenophanes 16y agoA) people are scared of asking for more B) how much you can get isn't just a matter of programming skill. it also has to do with contacts and networking, which many people here are bad at
- oscardelben 16y agoPersonally for me is hard to find work at that rates (I live in Italy). I think I have the skills but I'd me more than happy to work for ~$50/hour part time remotely.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- johnswamps 16y agoMaybe a form of selection bias. If you're a talented contractor worth $200/hour you probably already have work and aren't advertising on a google spreadsheet
- BrandonM 16y agoI didn't realize that rates were that high. I've only been charging like $25/hr for the freelance work I've been doing. Then again, I live in Ohio where the cost of living is pretty low and no one seems to have a lot of money.
- puredemo 16y ago
- bpick 16y agoI am going to go on a hiring spree for all of my ideas. It'll be a knock-down drag-out round robin tournament of start-ups. At the end of each week (month?) we have elimination. Survivor: Silicon Valley
- dejv 16y agoJust for fun: quick word cloud visualization of core consulting skills form the spreadsheet http://twitpic.com/1fe1zt http://twitpic.com/1fe1zt
- aonic 16y agoWhat did you make that with?
- dejv 16y agoIBM Word-Cloud generator: http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/wordcloud http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/wordcloud It works quite well, but you will need to tune parameters to get good output. I am using simple script which generate few variants of settings and than hand pick one image.
- yuxt 16y agothere is also a http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html
- abiczo 16y agoMy guess is: http://wordle.net http://wordle.net
- maxaf 16y agoI've actually been building an app for this, though I suck at making CSS word clouds. Worry not, the source is on GitHub. Here's mine: http://www.cvloud.com/max http://www.cvloud.com/max And here's the source: http://github.com/maxaf/cvloud http://github.com/maxaf/cvloud
- kadavy 16y agoThis is why I love HN
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- whalesalad 16y agoLooks like this thing is getting pretty full! If you hit the "Insert > Add Row" at the end you can enter your info.
- kungfooey 16y agoWow, wouldn't this be a recruiter's dream? What prevents them from harvesting this and spamming us all?
- matrixownsyou 16y agois anyone making a google app for this? hncontractors app id is not available
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- rbitar 16y agoI love this. So much, in fact, that I made an app for it tonight http://hnhackers.com/ http://hnhackers.com/ Let me know what you think! you should be able to claim your profile using the forgot password link. Email me at rbitar [at] gmail if something doesn't work. I'll get to it in the morning.
- sheraz 16y agoThis is a great idea. Let's see if we can get those other areas filled up as well under marketing and design. Surely there are more?
- rs 16y agoThis is absolutely fantastic! Exactly what I wanted at the right time. I don't have much bandwidth to work on the UI & design side of XP-Dev.com as I'm focusing more on functionality and other products, and in bad need of a web designer http://bit.ly/9FafRq http://bit.ly/9FafRq