[thelist] RentACode.com and offshore development

Michael Friedman Michael.Friedman at TTCInfoAge.com
Wed Sep 3 13:10:40 CDT 2003


Thought I would weigh in on the whole "RentACoder" argument.

 

I work for an IT company in China.  I live in Shanghai, one of China's
most expensive cities.  I spend about US$1,500 per month and I live well
- 1,200 square foot furnished apartment, broadband, daily maid service,
mobile phone, great food, taxis whenever I want, you get it.  Everything
else I save.  I don't make as much money as I could in the US, but I
live far better and save far more than I ever did in the US.

 

Programmer to PM salaries here range from about US$250 per month to
US$1,500 per month.  People with very specialized skills (ie. SAP
implementation specialists) can make more, but not that much more.

 

US$250 a month sounds pretty rough, but I have a guy working for me who
supports himself and his non-working parents on that.  I don't think he
lives well, but I do think his parents are better off now than they were
10 years ago, so they aren't unhappy.

 

Now, with costs like that, I have to admit we're trying out RentACoder.

 

I've done a high quality proposal template.  I and one of my PMs will do
all the proposals for US$5,000 and up.  I have an admin who will do the
ones from about US$1,500 to US$5,000.  We won't bother with anything
less than US$1,500 - not worth our time.  Even for us it is very clear
that we will never be the low bidder on a RentACoder project - there's
always someone offering to do the project for US$100 - but if we put
some effort into our infrastructure and leverage my (expensive) time
well we can submit a lot of very professional looking proposals for
projects in the US$1,500 to US$20,000 range and make a nice return.

 

So I guest I'm one of the guys doing offshore development that some of
you guys want to put tariffs on, etc.  But let's get real, guys. how can
you put a tariff on software?  It's not like garments that have to come
in at a port and go through customers. 

 

But why don't you guys take a look at some of the RFPs on RentACoder.  A
lot of them were done by IT professionals.  Those are the jobs for
people onshore in the US.  You all should be looking for that kind of
work.

 

Or get creative - link up with guys like me, and then go out and sell
projects in the US.  You gather the requirements and liaison with the
customers and let the cheap offshore coders do the grunt work.  Heck,
send me an e-mail if you have an opportunity - I'll work with you!

 

Or, finally, get mobile - do what I did.  I'm no fan of India as a place
to live, but Shanghai, Beijing, and Manila are all great places.  And in
the Philippines they speak English.  Come out here and manage a team -
teach them how to do work at the US level.  It's a great experience, you
live well, and you learn a lot.

 

Thanks
Mike

  _____  

Michael Friedman
Director of Enterprise Solutions, TTC InfoAge
www.TTCInfoAge.com <http://www.ttcinfoage.com/> 
mfriedman at TTCInfoAge.com
 
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Shanghai, China
Phone: +86 21-6507 1228
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