[shameless plug]
I had the privilege of attending a Drupal meetup here in New York, at the end of the meetup they asked if anyone was seeking jobs, amazingly only about 2 hands went up. I was visiting from Jamaica (the country), I run a lot of the meetups there and if that question is asked, maybe 2 hands would be down.
I also went to Drupalcon Denver last time, thinking I was going to make some links to help fill these "shortages". However, after giving out a billion business cards, no luck, not even an email. Then you hear all this talk from Dries about a shortage of Developers and you wonder, WHERE?!
Subsequently, I grabbed a few short stints with a few Drupal shops who advertise for help on g.d.o/jobs then you wonder why more people dont hire because I tend to get the jobs done with no problem at all. Then there are those who are just afraid to telecommute, maybe its a control issue, but big companies like Lullabot seem to have it pretty good.
The next thing is that my local project tend not to pass a certain level of complexity which translates to a certain price. So I get stuck with no cash and little opportunity to grow my skills.
So here is my dilemma and what I am proposing. I am proposing that I will commit 1 week telecommute to any Drupal shop who is looking for help - FOR FREE. Now here is the catch, if you like my work - I get paid, if you dont like my work, you can forget that you met me. Also it cannot be a brochureware site from a basement startup, Im talking some serious site building, with or without coding. Sounds like a pretty good deal, well i think so. And if the moderator doesn't delete this post I would take it up if I were you. I mean, WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE?
[/shameless plug]
contact me at rohan at exterbox dot com
Comments
What you have to lose?
With my shop we're all telecommuting, so I'm clearly a fan. Some clients insist on people being onsite, which is a deal killer in general, most times. Assuming telecommuting is OK one issue can be with people being from another country. Among concerns with this are time zones, language, stability of your infrastructure and culture. Time zone and language aren't going to be an issue for you. No idea what the power and communications grid are like for you, but we'll assume fine. The culture issue is one where some people are not able to take initiative and communicate honestly. Talk to the clients, say when something can be done and can't, not try to take away work from the company hiring you.
The issue you're up against, too, is you're in another country, but your costs are likely much higher than India or Vietnam. You need to effectively communicate how you're different from them to get people over that.
So now about your proposal.... a great relationship with a client is one where you'll get work on an ongoing basis. So if one week of work goes horribly wrong, it could spell the end of the relationship. It's a big risk.
Josh McCormack
Owner, InteractiveQA
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