[ale] Current contract market rates for LAMP programmers

[George Carless]

Hello all,

First, a quick introduction:  I'm George, I'm English, and I work in
Atlanta as a webmaster doing PHP development on Linux.  I run Linux at
home on my router, as well as inside my MAME arcade machine.  I like beer,
music and literature.

As far as development rates go -- I would say "it depends".  There're many
so-called LAMP developers out there, many of whom simply don't know what
they're doing.  Accordingly, I'd say that there was something of a glut of
such developers -- certainly, finding work wasn't too easy for me, though
no doubt my difficulties were exacerbated by the fact that I need a visa
to work here.

However, in my experience a *good* developer who has a decent
understanding of database theory, who can document and communicate well,
and who has a broad understanding of technology -- and, most importantly,
who can _think well_ -- can earn a reasonable wage.  I don't claim to be
the most fantastic of coders (my tentative grapplings with OOP, as a
traditionally procedural developer, put any such thoughts to rest), but
I've worked in the UK for 25 pounds (roughly $40) per hour, and have known
of developers in the US making comparable wages.  Of course, the job
market isn't too hot any more, and I would suggest at least considering
full-time employment rather than contracting: to my mind, it's a more
sensible option in this day and age.

Incidentally, though, I've long thought that the disparity between
salaries of tech developers and those of mailmen (and their like) was..
somewhat silly.  Programming -- especially web programming -- just *isn't
all that difficult*, when it comes down to it, and is made still more easy
by the wealth of source code (of admittedly varying quality) that's out
there.  If mailmen are indeed making comparable salaries, I say all power
to them -- it's naive and somewhat arrogant to think that 'web jockies'
are doing anything all that special or that they somehow deserve to be
making a lot more money.

Finally, don't give up hope.  There *are* good employers out there who
will pay a decent salary.. and ultimately, remember that how good you are
is less important, in the early stages, than how good you can make
yourself look -- by a strong resume, an impressive client list, and clear
communication with the potential employer.  We developers are in a rather
uniquely fortunate position of being able to craft impressive statistics
from next to nothing: work done for friends can easily be represented as
large projects for clients; time spent setting up Linux boxen for home use
can easily become 'experience in configuration and administration of web,
email and firewall servers'.  Having said that, though (my, this email
just keeps getting longer): taking on a job for $10 or $15/hr might just
be worthwhile, since it can provide new experience and open up new doors
-- and opportunities for positive word-of-mouth and references that can
prove invaluable in securing new assignments and moving up the wage
ladder..

Regards,
--George

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