[LRUG] Ruby Jobs

[George Palmer]

> Seconded: it's a great book (now reading his second, the Seven Day Weekend).
>
> Also check out Dan Pink on motivation:
> http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
>
> Bottom line though: a) good people are expensive, and b) it's worth the money.

As one of the more expensive freelancers out there price is something
that interests me a lot and I've read around a fair bit.  Right now in
London there's a lack of skill and simple supply and demand will
dictate that price will rise, as has happened the last few years.  As
Ruby becomes more widespread and penetration into the corporates
starts (this is starting now), quantity of skill will rise and
wages/day rates will stabilise.  There is always the question of
whether paying for a mid-level dev or a senior dev is better value for
money though.  It's a difficult question to answer for which I don't
have a conclusive answer as a lot depends on what the company is
after.  Falling into the later camp though the feedback I consistently
hear from clients is I'm more than worth the extra due the experience
I bring (less mistakes) and increased productivity (this is admittedly
a personal trate as I obsess over productivity, batching up email,
twitter, rss checking etc).  The last point is quite important as it
makes sense for a business to pay 20% extra if the increase in
productivity is 25%.  This numbers aren't easy to measure though and
it's quite difficult to quiz somebody about their productivity in an
interview!

The TED talk is well worth a look and highlights how important a good
working environment and focus is.  The correlation between my day rate
and motivation for a project once past the first few weeks* is small.

Also the perfect opportunity to plug my freelance availability after
christmas :)

George

* - I always find the first week or two interesting - getting to know
the app, getting to know the new team, examining others code, making
recommendations for improvements etc
-- 
George Palmer
Founder
http://www.digitaldeliveryapp.com