How Do You Find Good People?

hiring, subcontract, subcontractor, php, mysql, employment

[Pamela_S]

Hi.

I am in a quandary.

I need to find a good, reliable, local PHP MySQL professional to work for me on a subcontracting basis. I don't have enough work to hire someone fulltime but I do have a considerable amount of programming work coming in. I've spent about $17,000 so far this year on programming subcontractors. So, this is a good opportunity if only I can find the right person.

I've tried placing ads on free sites and I have had a limited response. I am hesitant to run an ad in the newspaper or on one of the paid sites like hotjobs.com because I don't really know if a subcontractor would be browsing those types of places looking for work.

So, I am open to any advice or suggestions. I have a ton of work at the current time and I am really desperate to find that special someone.

Thanks in advance.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Hi Pamela_S, welcome to Webmasterworld [webmasterworld.com]

There is a forum for this very thing here at Webmasterworld, where I daresay there are plenty people qualified to do the programming youre after. The forum is here [webmasterworld.com], you can write what requirements you are after and the post will be locked, just ask someone to stickymail you or email you.

One option for you, I am sure there are more

[cfx211]

We recently went through the process of hiring a development contractor to help build out a few sections of the site. This is what we did:

1. we were looking for a perl programmer so we posted the job description in the jobs section of the main perl community website.

2. we got about 150 resumes, waded through them and found about 10 worth contacting.

3. my partner (the technical one) recognized a few of them from postings or modules they had written, the rest he asked to write a sample piece of code similar to what we needed done.

4. my partner looked over the code and we got down to 6 people we liked.

5. I setup phone interviews with those 6 people. Only 4 of them were easily reachable, so that eliminated 2 of them. No point in hiring someone you can't talk to.

6. The interview process and rates set by the 4 got me down to 2 people with one front runner. I got his references and called them up.

7. references checked so we hired him on, and everything has been good so far.

My suggestion is to post on sites directly related to the language you need. Many programmers claim (and some may) to be able to code in anything. Stick with people who work primarily in the language you need. That way you don't end up getting billed for someone looking up syntax all the time.

Don't waste time on people who are hard to reach.

Find someone who not only has the skills but you communicate well with.

Good Luck.

[lorax]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld Pamela_S,
As BOL pointed out - you've found the best resource on the net for the folks you seek. There are several of us 'contractor' types here. If you need background info on someone here, just do a search for their posts. The language they use, the dialog itself and the solutions they develop should help you zero in on someone whom you feel you could work with.

Ultimately, no matter where you post a request for help, you'll get some jokers. But don't let that deter you from posting here. As far as knowledgeable and qualified people go, I'd venture that WebmasterWorld has the highest percentage of any Board out there.

What is more is that the membership here is willing to help and I think that says alot about the type of people you're dealing with here.