Posted by The Natural Philosopher on 09/19/07 09:31

Sanders Kaufman wrote:
> So now, these PHP recruiters are calling out of the blue and from
> everywhere. My phone ain't rung like this since the Clinton years.
>
> And there's this one job - sounds tasty. It's like a temp service for
> doctors. Right now, they mail in their billing hours in crayola and on
> cocktail napkins... or something like that.
>
> They want a simple little web-based hours-tracking utility - well,
> simple before they start in with the creepy features... and you KNOW
> there's gonna be feature creep, because it was an agency recruiter that
> called me - and they bill by the hour, rather than the project, right?
>
> So I figure I'll setup something named "DocBilling.int" or somesuch and
> use my current working framework to let them login and log their time,
> and for the doc's bean-counters to be able to view a couple of reports.
>
> Here's the situation:
>
> I think they expect to hire me for an hourly rate, and expect the
> project to be finished sometime in January.
>
> *The problem is that I can build the damn thing in a weekend, but I
> don't want to miss out on all that extra cash.*

You may be able to build it in a weekend, but what about all the
documentation for the NEXT guy who has to modify it, and the user
documentation, and the training course and manual you have to write.

plenty of hours there!

Plus you just KNOW that as soon as they see it, they will want to add a
feature of three hundred..


>
> Let's say I'm getting $10/hr - and man, it's sooo much more than that! -
> but let's say. If I do it the way they expect it to be done, I can milk
> the contract for what - 8x40hr weeks - that's $3k plus. But if I do it
> in a 16 hr weekend - I don't even get $200.
>
> I was thinking that, when I talk to them next, I should suggest a
> project-based, rather than hourly-based, rate - and estimate at the high
> end. But I've never done that before through a recruiter, and I don't
> know how it'll go over. I just know I've *always* had problems with
> hourly recruiter jobs.
>
> Any suggs?

Stop thinking like a programmer, and start thinking like a doctor.

They don't want CODE. They want a clearly described simple SYSTEM to do
a specific JOB. You job is not to deliver code, but a complete SYSTEM.

Preferably with 30 nicely bound user manuals, and so on.

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