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As a consultant I like to read the job & gig postings on Craigslist and elsewhere just so I can stay on top of what the market is doing. Occasionally I run across these atrocious examples of posters having no idea what they're asking for. It's typical for some to expect an "expert programmer" for $10-$15 an hour (chicken scratch - even if you live in the Midwest, not to mention NYC), but these posts really take the cake. I'll be posting these as I come across them so I can share them with the PHP community and we can all laugh at the unfortunate posters, and hope that some day they will educate themselves and realize that software development takes talent and dedication.
A few common threads on Craigslist, in particular:
- Posts that say, "I have a project. Need a programmer. Send me your resume and rate." I'm sorry, but no good developer is going to contact you based on such incomplete details. What language? What functionality are you looking for? Responding to these sorts of posts is a complete waste of any developers' time, and I can promise you that you're only responses are going to be from a) India, b) Bad developers out of work (for a reason) or c) India.
- "This can be done in a few hours." Sure. How about you let the professional decide how long it's going to take?
This example tickled me because the poster obviously has no idea what "one or two days" worth of work consists of. Additionally, two days worth of work for $200 equates to about $12.50 an hour: not exactly a living wage in New York. I must add that this post is a far cry from the worst I've seen, but due to the fact that Craiglist eventually removes expired listings, the most humorous posts I've seen can't be accessed.
From Craigslist, originally posted April 17, 2008:
Reply to: gigs-645618145@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-04-17, 10:42AM EDT
Must be able to develop a module for exponent cms (http://www.exponentcms.org) and then upload to our live website.
Pay is $200.00 and for a good programmer its no more than a day or two of work.
Here's what you will be responsible for developing - if you are interested, please reply asap!
Create: Exponent CMS Payment / Subscription Module - New Module
- Updates user permissions when a payment is made and adds them to a group with "full" access. Those that do not have a plan, can have an account, but will be part of a different group with different permissions.
- List different "plans"
- Lists different access for each plan (editable text)
- Make a payment via yourpay API in the module (http://www.yourpay.com)
- When a purchase is made, a receipt is generated on the screen, and copies are sent to the administrator, and also to the user.
- Reporting - The admin should have the ability to view and filter sales reports and receipts
- User has the ability to cancel a subscription
- User can view their current plan, upgrade, downgrade, or cancel.
Sound good? Lets get started! Contact us ASAP if you are able to discuss making something like this. This is a great resume builder and will require PHP/MYSQL programming and knowledge of modules and how the exponentcms.org structure is organized.
Other posts that I found interesting:
That is pretty funny indeed. My company WROTE Exponent CMS (OIC Group, Inc.), and that functionality in the project post is about a $8K-$13K project at a minimum - and that's coming from the people who the system, so I dare say we know it better than anyone else. Crazy what people expect sometimes.