My experience hiring programmers in America is that they claim to have time to help you when they don’t. I had five instances in a row where I was offered 20 hours a week, and in all five cases 20 became zero. They didn’t even return phone calls in several cases. Baffling. Then, there were more conservative people who were more noncommittal. They also offered me time that they didn’t have. So, how do you know if your American programming company will give you what they promise when they generally don’t keep promises?
My answer is to hire more than one company at the same time. If one doesn’t have time, perhaps the other one does have time. Or, hire one American company and hire someone in a foreign country. Communication is the biggest problem with Eastern Europeans and Indians. But, they generally have time to get the work done. That doesn’t guarantee that they will be honest or accurate, but at least they are doing something!
In my experience, probably only about 10% of software companies are what I would call honest. Maybe my figure is off. Perhaps I am too optimistic. If they don’t lie about one thing, they are probably deceiving you about something else. Perhaps only 5% are honest. But, if you find someone who is “not that bad”, and gets the job done without screwing you too painfully, you are winning the game!
I had a dream where one Russian company said,
“We are not going to screw you more than a little bit today. You look like you have been screwed enough in the last few months”
On the other hand, if someone is handling your domain registration or hosting, any problem there can put you out of business. You need to trust your programming company / software company with your life. When hiring companies, ask yourself:
“Would I trust this company with my life?”
“Would I take a 3 day car ride with these people?”
“Would I let these people marry my daughter if I had one?”
If the answer is “Oh, hell no” to any of these three questions, keep shopping. Finding a good software company is like finding a needle in a haystack. You are more in danger of catching hay fever than pricking yourself. Let’s be realistic.
You might also like:
It is done — said the outsourced programmer
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/10/10/it-is-done-said-the-outsourced-programmer/
Leaving the job half done
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/07/17/leaving-the-job-half-done/