Programmer's Income?
- Thread starter tafreehm
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Wildcat Media
Well-known member
I was in the web development business, freelance, starting in 1997. I still do a few side jobs, but this is exactly what happened to my business. Why is someone going to pay me $35 to $75/hour for my expertise when they can get their whole site built offshore for $150 total? True it will look like crap (compared to my high standards) and forget about getting support, but in this economy, price alone dictates who gets the job. The other competition was high school or college kids with Dreamweaver (probably warez sourced) offering the same services on Craigslist in exchange for what is essentially beer money. A buddy of mine took a unique approach: he remained competitive by offshoring the grunt work (which I admit is tedious, and my least favorite part of the job), but gave the client the package deal with his own marketing, business and SEO background.
The few good clients I have left know what I bring to the table: 25+ years business and marketing experience, attention to detail, and support when they need it. Would I recommend anyone else get into web development? Not in this day and age. If I were to do it again, I'd probably outsource the programming to those who keep up with it: being only one person, I'm only able to keep up with PHP and SQL, but still have to "borrow" a lot of the JavaScript and AJAX code I want to use. The big firms that build sites these days likely have programmers who specialize in just a couple of specific areas, and can afford to work on multiple projects. For me, I'm one person...every day I'm trying to make a sale, I'm losing a day's worth of development work. Can't afford to hire anyone, and there aren't many out there I'd trust to assist me. (The ones I do trust have full time jobs elsewhere, for a real company.)
These days, any new projects I do are more as an enabler: I will set up a site with a forum, or a blog, or a CMS, and restyle it to their specifications. I no longer write anything from the ground up. I'm essentially out of the whole development/programming business. I'm "retooling" by going after what our school calls a "Business Information Technology" degree, something more flexible where I can apply myself and adapt as the I.T. world changes. I still dabble in my pet web projects, and administer several forums, but I won't ever do this for a living again.
tafreehm
Well-known member
well it is now confirmed that it is really hard for US/CA resident to get freelancer job.... Because Pakistanis, Indians, Chines etc etc have dominated freelancer jobs...
I found out yesterday, when I posted a job there... 99% of offers were made from Pakistan and India.... They both offer lowset price and minimum time, but when i hired one Indian guy, he knew SQL but he didnt know linux, so i gave it to someone from Solovakia; and he did it, actually he is doing it right now.. ( but i can see he is almost done )
I found out yesterday, when I posted a job there... 99% of offers were made from Pakistan and India.... They both offer lowset price and minimum time, but when i hired one Indian guy, he knew SQL but he didnt know linux, so i gave it to someone from Solovakia; and he did it, actually he is doing it right now.. ( but i can see he is almost done )
Sean S
Active member
I work as a designer in a software development company in Chicago. And I can tell you that our company is not that big to begin with and our senior programmer makes about $90K a year. He is under paid, but the job is pretty secure and comes with great benefits. One of our newer programmers who graduated 2 years ago started with $50K a year. Both of these programmers focus mainly on ASP.NET applications.
I know of couple companies in Chicago including mine, who offer a pay increase on the spot if you get couple programming certifications that they require.
Like mentioned in other posts it really comes down to your skills, knowledge, and experience. Having the right and positive attitude always helps to keep your job and possibly make more $.
I know of couple companies in Chicago including mine, who offer a pay increase on the spot if you get couple programming certifications that they require.
Like mentioned in other posts it really comes down to your skills, knowledge, and experience. Having the right and positive attitude always helps to keep your job and possibly make more $.
Mattie Num Nums
Active member
We pay full time "programmers/developers" 60k-85k a year.
Jason
Well-known member
I don't necessarily disagree, but you get what you pay for. I do some "freelancing" on the side, and I've lost count of the number of times I've been hired to "correct" software that was originally outsourced to the lowest bidder. I mostly do iOS/Android development on the side nowadays, and thankfully more people seem willing to pay good money for quality mobile apps. There is more work than there are developers, atm.
Back to the OP, like most everyone else has already stated, it depends largely on your skill set (e.g., how long have you been programming, what languages do you know (the more, the better -- great programmers learn as many as they can), quality of your work, etc.), location, industry/market, and what you'll be doing. The average salary for SEs where I work is $75k and $85k for SETs, with Sr. SE/SETs averaging in the $110k+ range. Cost of living here isn't cheap either, though.
Truemedia
Member
Yes people are less trusting to the cheaper option now since theres a notorious amount of scammers and mess workers that dont do the job right and leave people with a mess they need to pay to fix. So that is a disadvantage that might get you work, and also I find making impressive open source tools and showing them off to potential clients really can make a deal on its own.
These are very good advantages that work well to getting you a lot of work.
These are very good advantages that work well to getting you a lot of work.
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