[ale] Current contract market rates for LAMP programmers

[matty91 at bellsouth.net]

Ryan Matteson - UNIX Administrator | GPG ID: 92D5DFFF
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On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, George Carless wrote:

> 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

I would also add to this personality. If you are a nice person and easy
to work with, an employer is more apt to hire you. I have always made
it a priority to help others and be friendly. This gets you a long
way in everything you do.

> 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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