Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail From: Lew Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: General Consulting Advice Urgently Needed Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:02:32 -0800 (PST) Organization: http://groups.google.com Lines: 54 Message-ID: <827532.751.1322632952528.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prgi20> References: <30155783.624.1322597084233.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prfb10> Reply-To: comp.lang.java.programmer@googlegroups.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 173.164.137.214 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: posting.google.com 1322633926 24881 127.0.0.1 (30 Nov 2011 06:18:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:18:46 +0000 (UTC) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=173.164.137.214; posting-account=CP-lKQoAAAAGtB5diOuGlDQk0jIwmH0T User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-Google-Web-Client: true Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:10348 Novice wrote: > Touche! I certainly deserve that for this mistake.=20 You have an excellent attitude and you will succeed brilliantly in software= development. As for contracting, you are showing wisdom in doing some research first. I= will add that there are books and articles out there, none of which I can = recall at the moment, that specifically address contractor concerns. Mostl= y the folks in this thread have already recapitulated the high points, thou= gh. I wouldn't overthink the details of how the other guy will react. I've don= e a fair bit of consulting, both successful and unsuccessful contracts. I'= ve learned that you need to make yourself comfortable with the terms of sat= isfaction. How do you know when you've done the job right? Forget the money - you can= charge almost anything, down to telling the guy, "You decide at the end ho= w much I was worth." Focus on the job - what do you need to accomplish, an= d by when? If you cannot succeed at that, the money will either not come to you, or wi= ll flow from you to the client. If you do succeed, the money will flood to you. So insist on complete disclosure of absofuckinglutely everything you need t= o know about the task, first (well, after signing an NDA). Spend the time = up front, for free, to understand exactly what "done" will look like. Don'= t take the job unless you can do that. By when they want it. You may not know how to do it yet. That's fine. You just need to know wha= t knowledge you will need. That is, you need to know what questions to ask= , not necessarily their answers at this stage. But you know how you learn,= and depending on the scope of WHAT THE PROJECT NEEDS, about how hard it wi= ll be to learn it. Try not to learn too much for any one project - you sho= uld have a pretty good grasp of 75-80% of the technical matters to start. = More is good, but any decent programmer can fill in 25% without having to a= gonize over, "Should I charge for learning?" OF COURSE YOU SHOULD CHARGE FOR LEARNING! Read the passage in /The Bonfire of the Vanities/ where the law partner exp= lains how you bill your client for the minute you thought of them just befo= re you teed off on that fourth hole with the dogleg. Doesn't matter. All that matters is that you complete the project on time = in a way that your client likes. So you'd better have a pretty clear idea of what they like before you bid. --=20 Lew