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Outsourcing your programming work: vworker.com

Meanwhile it's obvious to everybody: The economy not as healthy as it should be (not only here in europe). This usually hits smaller business much harder and I overhear in my circle of acquaintances, about people loosing their jobs and companies cutting costs.

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And, as if this would not be bad enough, some specialists are finding evidence that work will change dramatically in the 21st century anyway. I just wrote a blog post with a book recommendation some days ago, whereas the author Daniel H. Pink is one of these specialists.

And while I'm thinking about the future of work, I'm getting this newsletter from a web platform that I have already used some times. Last time was February 2006 where I hired some designers to find a new look and feel for my websites. The newsletter was nothing special, they just announced that they have changed their name from RentACoder to VWorker because they don't focus on coding and programming any more (as they did not in the past, because they had designers there in 2006).

I took this opportunity to have a closer look at their site. The basic look and feel did not change very much (unfortunately). I'm still missing user friendly dialogs and entry forms, but apart from the unpleasant user interface I had positive as well as negative experiences when I used the platform last time. Anyway, I believe it's worth a second look.

Engaging as a worker on this platform seems not very lucrative for me, since most offered projects have a very tiny budget. Here in Germany, the cost of living is so high that nobody could work for these. But using it as an employer could be interesting for small or middle sized companies, especially because you can get projects delivered for very little money.

Anyone who wants to post a project there should be aware of one thing though: This is not a time-saver at all. Whoever needs something urgently and fast, should not consider it. But if you are on a tight budget and you can do extensive correspondence with people, sometimes from the other side of the world, may see an advantage here.

Also important: you usually don't want to give confidential project data to a stranger. There is an option to have an NDA (Non disclosure agreement) signed before someone bids on a project, but if this would be litigable in the coder's country may be questionable.

These reasons explain why I don't have a problem to recommend a site like that in public. I'm also suffering from the financial crisis but I still get new customers who I'm recommended to from existing customers or online friends.

If you are interested to learn more about outsourcing, feel free to talk to me. You can contact me via e-mail at heddesheimer@gmail.com or you can post a comment directly under this blog entry.

07/09/2010 14:09:05, von Marian , 483 words, 3665 views   Categories: quick tips

2 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: Alistair Rigley [Visitor]

I think changing the name from Rent-A-Coder to VWorker was a wise choice, it reflects the diversity the site has. They've had graphic designers, photographer, writers, and copyeditors there for a long time.

As a freelancer myself, I'm excited to see what VWorker does in the coming months.

07/16/2010 @ 21:46

Comment from: Marian [Member] · http://www.heddesheimer.de

I totally agree with you. According to Daniel Pink (see my book review) we need more creative workers in the future. So I believe the movement from coding to virtual-work is a good choice, even if it's only in the name.

07/17/2010 @ 08:50