Hey this is the Daily Overpass. My name is Eric and I make apps. Now today, let's
talk about the problems with hiring part-time freelancers.
Okay, at the last livestream one of the questions I was asked a couple of times
was, "How do I hire a developer and keep them from screwing me over?" right and I
had to say, "What do you mean keep them from screwing you over, how are they
screwing you over?" and said well I'll hire somebody on Upwork they take a
long time to do the project, they're producing bad code I end up
chasing them the whole time all this kind of stuff right and it was and it
was kind of saying like what you need to make sure you have somebody who's
dedicated to it and everything like that right but I also say that I don't
genuinely hire people from I don't usually hire people from Upwork not
unless it's like a small project like it's a really small task like maybe a
couple of days maybe it's a translation task maybe it's a design task maybe
there's one little bit of functionality I need but I don't usually hire people
on Upwork for a large scale projects unless they have like really
good reviews I mean if they have really good reviews that's something that you
could trust but you know a lot of the times it's working with part-time
freelancers that can be very difficult. So in fact just the other day I was
contacted by a person I used to work with like 12 years ago, I mean it was we
were working at an investment bank 12 years ago and I heard from them in ages
and he said he contacted me saying, "Eric who I have a chat with you this is kind
of important" and I said, "Yeah but I'm afraid I don't remember those old
systems very much, it's been so long." He said, "No no it's not that I have to ask
you ask you something." So I said, "Okay" so he said, "I've been working at this place
for 15 years", he's still at the same place that I used to work he said and
"I've got lots of experience and I want to do some freelance work on the side. Do
you have any clients that could use some of my expertise for freelance work?" and I
and I looked at it and I said,
"I'm afraid we don't" and there was a fruit a few reasons why I wouldn't but I
didn't want to go into those I just I'm sorry we don't have anything at the
moment but the main reason is I have always had a problem hiring part-time
freelancers and I've also been hired back in the past as a
part-time freelancer and it's been really difficult and what I mean by
part-time is I mean they have a full-time job which they're working
9:00 to 5:00 or 9 to 8 or whatever a normal full-time job and
they're just trying to take on a few hours in the evenings which is fine if
you're working in a in a shop or something like that.
For software, a lot of times you need real dedication.
There's one time I took on a part-time job or I was working a full-time job
my last permanent employee job and I took down this freelance job on the side
and it was like this website to do for a client and so I went to work on
this website and it was all pretty well they were really happy with. I mean we
just everything was really simple, I set everything up and then it came up all
these little changes and then they're like lots of questions and it got to be
this point, where they were asking me so much I just didn't
have time to do it because I had my full-time job, I had family I had this
and it got to the point where I hated whenever my phone rang I was saying,
"Please don't be them, please don't be them." and "Yeah, Eric we have
this problem or we have this change or we have this thing or we you know we
were thinking about something." and it got to the point where I just didn't have
time to support and do everything and then I said this before, I think
every software project is the Pareto principles in effect you got the
80/20 rule. Where you produce 80% of the code with 20% of the effort and it's
that last 20% takes 80% of your effort because you're like
bug fixing, checking on different devices. If it's a website you're checking out in
different browsers and that's when you need that part-time freelancer the most
and that's when they lose interest, that's when they move on. That's when
they start complaining about. It just gets resentful on both sides.
This is just something about experience. Now, when I say part-time freelancer.
I'm not saying somebody who does freelance work, like they have several jobs
going on at the same time, like they just like that way of life that's different.
Like if you hire somebody on Upwork and that's their totally dedicated to
Upwork and they're just doing like loads of different small jobs, that's one thing
but if there's somebody who just has a couple hours in the evening and they
just want to help you out a little bit because it seems kind of easy and their
skills and everything like that. It's really difficult when they're not
available whenever you need them especially when you're in those crunch moments.
This is just something that I find, my team in the Philippines they are
full-time freelancers so they're, 40 hours a week. I've also hired
people for 20 hours a week or I'll hire them for just
certain projects but it depends on the urgency of the project.
So this is just something that I found
and let me know what you guys think. I mean for those of you who have hired
part-time freelancers, have you had the same kind of problems I have and I just
know this from the experience of having been done a part-time project on my own
for another client. How resentful we got towards each other, towards the end
and it was just not a good experience. Anyway, that's why I had to say no to
that person. And anyway, that is it for today. I'll talk to you, guys,
again tomorrow.