I have been searching for a good programmer to work on certain projects with for the better part of the last six months. I’ve gone through four. All came highly recommended or seemed like good candidates based on their resumes. They all listened to what I expected of them and said they were willing to accept the jobs. They all responded that they understood when I explained that I needed a firm commitment – that if there was any reason they thought they could not complete the assignment on schedule I would rather them back off before we started. All four have screwed me – causing me to miss various deadlines.
I never thought that programmers could be prima donnas. I was wrong.
You people are costing me time, money and credibility. If you say you’re going to do something… DO IT!
Don’t give me excuses right before a deadline. I don’t want to hear them. I can’t publish an excuse. I can’t send it into a client. And I certainly can’t show it off to a potential business partner. Put up, or shut up.
Don’t tell me your computer went down. I’ve had computer issues a handful of times. I’ve had them during crunch time before deadlines. I’ve always gone out of my way to make sure I remedied the situation. In the US, if my connection goes down I go to Starbucks. Yes, it costs me money to get online, but it’s more important to do what I say I’ll do and swallow the internet fee. I’m not IN the US – I’m in Bulgaria. You know what happened when a publisher and I were having issues and my internet wasn’t cooperating? I drove two hours to another town to use the internet there. It wasn’t working there, either? I drove two more hours back in hopes that the old connection was back up. Why? Because it’s my professional duty to make sure I do everything in my power to get my work in on time, and to spec.
The biggest one: communication. Answer your email or I’m going to kill you if we ever meet in person. Tell me you’re having issues. Heck, lie to me for all I care. Don’t you dare keep ignoring me – not when you’re past a deadline and only 20% of the way to the finished product. I started working online while in a war zone and I did fine. If I can answer emails between dodging mortars and convoys, etc… Well, then you can keep in touch with a guy that wants to send you thousands of dollars.
Give me one, just one, adult and I’ll show you someone who is worth their weight in gold.
The rest of you suck.
Tags: freelancing, rant