Elance Programmer That I Hired

Hard to tell if it's normal as everyone is different. I assume you went through several contacts before hand before hiring?

Just because someone is a programmer does not necessarily they know everything about it. I can make changes to the script and CSS files but that's about it. Did you ask the client who they have done work for before and contacted them to get their thoughts?

Always test the waters until you find a suitable programmer especially if you're looking long term. Maybe it's time to find another few prospects and give them tasks.

Don't always think that US programmers are the best. You have to watch out because some are out and out crooks.

I had a programmer that I hired in an emergency situation and this guy outsourced the job to another programmer. He did not do the job himself. He would also come up with reasons why he needed more money to complete the job. He Knew I was in an emergency situation.

I have hired many programmers and you have to keep right on top of most of them. I have one guy now that I just hire for peace work that has the job almost complete but has to make a couple of little changes and I haven't heard from him for a week now.

But I did find a programmer from Vietnam that is getting his PHD that has been my main programmer for 6 years now. I think this guy speaks better English that I do. Never heard him talk but in his writing.

He has been working on the largest software project of his life and he has come up with ways of doing things that I can only dream of. I'm a programmer of sorts myself but when things started to go places I have never gone I found this guy and he has been great.

So just because you hire a US programmer that you are going to get quality work. When you get a good programmer, do all you can to hold on to him.

I hope this has been helpful,
Steve Yakim

Maybe he is outsourcing the code you hired him to do and he is using a different developer for this second job.

Without knowing the particulars of the two projects, it could be the case that the programmer didn't know how to do the second one. If you believe that programmer is half assing it, get another programmer.

It doesn't matter what country the coder came from. I'm in the US, and I've seen my fair sure of bad US programmers. Hiring a US programmer isn't an indication of quality.

Make sure that you are writing a detailed project summary and make sure that you are testing the work thoroughly before accepting it.

If you do wish to continue with the programmer, Elance does have a monitor app if the project is hourly, so you can make sure that the work is being done.

Hiring people is a struggle. A great programer can be great on one project and not so great on the next.

I hope you are using Elances' escrow service for the project. I would convey to the programmer that you aren't happy with the coding and it's not up to par with the first project.

I once hired someone from the Philippines and found some work was great and some very poor quality. I suspect that each job was divided up among friends. That is the only way I can explain it.

It is very difficult to find great programmers. Just because he is from the US doesn't mean that he is any good. I have hired perhaps 25 people from all over the world and the only thing I have learned is that you need to be able to communicate with each other and you need to do a test project before starting anything of a larger scale.

yes, a paid test gig it a great idea.

Also I never employed US programers. Since I never could justify that expense, there are other part of world good for that.

Eastern Europe for example

US for me its just for content outsourcing.

Well, did you ask him why? There could be many different reasons, and he certainly knows why, from lack of time to poor specifications, or the second project involved skills he doesnt have, etc...

The best thing to do is to ask why it was so different.

A reason could be that your projects needed different languages and he is not that skilful in the language used in the second project.