Comments on: Why New Developers Should Consider Contracting

By: 为什么程序员新手要考虑接单？ - 博客 - 伯乐在线

为什么程序员新手要考虑接单？ - 博客 - 伯乐在线 — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:47:35 +0000

[...] 　　Via：Code Squeeze　　编译：伯乐在线敏捷翻译组 – [B][B]祝佳[/B][/B]　　校稿：@关关-伯乐在线 [...]

By: Max Pool

Max Pool — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:56:35 +0000

@Jeff –

Very good point, in fact, I have had a post in the making (for about a year now) called “Consultants Don’t Care About Your Product (And Never Will)”.

My only argument is that then they were bad contractors for not taking those thoughts into consideration…but I have seen the exact same thing you are speaking of…

By: Jeff Peichel

Jeff Peichel — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:49:41 +0000

As a software development manager for a fortune 500 company, I would like to add the following observations. Developers who start out consulting, right out of school pick up some bad habits. The nature of consulting, is like a gun for hire. Go in, solve an immediate problem, and get out, without worrying about the long term effects of the bandaid you just created. We’ve hired several emplyoees who were former consultants, and they all had exactly the same traits. They write code, thinking only in the short term, much of which is difficult, if not impossible to maintain later. In the corporate enviroment, they are slowing learning that it is better to write good code up front, mostly because they now have to deal with fixing it or enhancing their own code later, which they never had to do as consultants. Its a hard lesson to learn, but a very important one. Even as a consultant, you are likely going to have to work on someone else’s code at some point, so do yourself a favor and those that come after you and learn to develop with the future in mind, instead of just the present.

By: Rick Umali

Rick Umali — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:14:20 +0000

Very interesting advice!

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:35:19 +0000

Great points, definitely top on my list would be:
1) not locked in to a company and their technologies
2) you learn a lot from a variety of people you meet along the way
3) money is better, you just need to get yourself out of the mind set that “what if I can’t find a contract”? If you are good, you’re needed somewhere!

By: Finding a Career in Web Development and Design | WebDevLounge | design, development, SEO and wordpress | articles, discussion and community

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:01:29 +0000

[...] to work from home, freelancing is generally a great way to start off. If you have some experience, contracting should be a consideration. The latter tends to require onsite work and does usually mean you need to develop your [...]

By: What Career Type Are You? | WebDevLounge | design, development, SEO and wordpress | articles, discussion and community

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:06:50 +0000

[...] types of freelancing (writing, web development). They all have their downsides and benefits, especially contracting. In the end, you have to decide what’s more important to you: job variety and schedule [...]

By: Weekly Link Post 65 « Rhonda Tipton’s WebLog

Weekly Link Post 65 « Rhonda Tipton’s WebLog — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:02:38 +0000

[...] Max Pool explains Why New Developers Should Consider Contracting. [...]

By: Mihai

Mihai — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:32:07 +0000

I like the thinks you’ve highlighted in the article, but I don’t see myself being able to pull off a 8h work day + side jobs + family :P.
Anyways I’m still a student and doing a 4h + school work.. so that keeps me pretty busy ;).
Plus the school work is sufficiently diversified.
I’ll keep this option in mind though, since I’m the type that likes to be challenged now and then :D

By: Max Pool

Max Pool — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:13:39 +0000

Good points Todd, but I feel you are demonizing the entire consulting community, not every consulting company is full of snake oil. However, I too have seen a couple of those [and you are right] they would promote those bad habits if you ran with the wrong crowd.