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I have been a full time contract programmer since 2001 and at that time I was 22 years old. I have always worked hourly and delivered software per the clients
by Firegarden 12y ago
I have been a full time contract programmer since 2001 and at that time I was 22 years old. I have always worked hourly and delivered software per the clients requirements.
The last 2-3 years I have made more money than I have ever made and it was coded 100% remote (from Hawaii). I had one meeting at the clients place. Made somewhere around 180K and this was me full time with a part time developer subcontracted out which didn't actually bring in much additional revenue < 10%. It did bring throughput.
As of about a month ago I was let go as the top developer in the Saas company because I was deemed too expensive by the board. I am pretty sure the CTO didn't want to give up me as a resource.
All of a sudden I have realized that overseas developers have become a priority and it is my feeling that as an hourly developer my days are limited in making $80-$100/hr (corp 2 corp contract).
It is my feeling that I have 2 possible directions.
1) Start an outsourced overseas development company and use my 'Software Architect" title (which is so funny to me because architect is thrown around so much in software) and manage resources overseas.
2) Start selling software on a per usage basis or in some value add model. I believe both of them are solid bets however #2 takes more commitment.
At this point I think the reason salaries are topping off is because of the global market. That is just my take from being in the industry. Thank you.
- j4pe 12y agoInteresting story. I had a similar one, but I was traveling while I did contract work and ended up meeting an array of these overseas guys. The best contract devs rarely end up in the outsourcing factories that would be hired by companies like your client; they're independent. Some friends and I set up a co-op last year; I bring in a lot of US work on commission.
- Firegarden 12y agoInteresting to know. Causes me to second guess the overseas development company options but I still wonder if being the solutions architect / US based agent to PM and sell the work perhaps I can capitalize. Eg. If I charge $40/hr for my work and sell the outsourced hours at $40/hr with a $30/hr cost basis I could run a team of 4 dev's and still make a decent hourly rate. I always thought I would find some efficiency in this model by reusing software libraries but that has never panned out.
- sharemywin 12y agoYou can probably charge like $60/hr for the architect time.
- navalsaini 12y agoCo-op sounds interesting. I would surely like to apply. Do you have a website?
- tootie 12y agoI think the offshore glory days are already slipping away. We have South American partners who are charging nearly the same rates as us.
- hackerboos 12y agoSome of our offshore guys in India earn more than we do. Thoughtworks are expensive though...
- mrlag 12y agoIs that true? I'm living in West Europe and it's pretty hard to find decent 50k+ jobs, even with a University degree and years of experience. Where are those remote jobs?
- loopbit 12y agoMove around, saying "West Europe" means almost nothing. You could be in Spain where your salary would max at ~40K € or you could be in the UK, where I'd expect a recent university graduate to start on £30-35K.
- tootie 12y agoThat isn't necessarily pay, it's bill rate for offshore partners. I have no idea what their overheads are and how much trickles down to their programmer's pockets.
- BerislavLopac 12y agoHave you tried London?
- desireco42 12y agoI have the same feeling, I did have a lot of fun as a consultant. I am trying to find my way around it, if you have some good ideas, feel free to ping me, I would love to hear it.
- sganesh 12y agoI ran into this issue couple of years and have been iterating on a model, that seems to be working. If you're interested in hearing more about it, ping me please. My email is in my profile.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- govindkabra31 12y agoHave you considered diversifying your skills? Mobile and big data, for example, are areas with lot more demand than there is supply.