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I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

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Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#311

Post by jbob2000 »

holler wrote: post #25
jbob2000 wrote: post #15

Pfft that's nothing. We just had a contractor charge us $50k to setup a simple HTTP proxy. I looked at the code; it's a .NET starter app with our endpoints in it that route to other endpoints. $50k and it probably took them 2 hours, which was probably mostly just packages downloading.

did you pay it? that's crazy!

It’s really gross how big companies operate. Our VP was more than happy to pay it! I would even go so far as to say that our entire solution was structured in favour the contractor. A smarter solution didn’t need their proxy at all, but this was the direction we “had” to go with.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#312

Post by twic »

aequitas wrote: post #231

A valuable lesson I learned at a young age from one of my first 'customers' when doing computer repair jobs for friends and neighbours was is that you don't get paid for what you can or do but for the value you add or time (money) you save someone. Most of the time the problems I had to solve where easy ones. Install printer, update software, remove toolbars, email settings, etc. All 5 minute work jobs, seldom totall…

> it was easy for me because I had spend years in training to acquire this knowledge

"knowing where to tap":

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#313

Post by imtringued »

derefr wrote: post #200
rocky1138 wrote: post #10

This is how corporate works. They have budgets for things. The money doesn't come out of the pocket of the person who cuts the cheque. You send in an invoice and it gets paid. If it doesn't, the company is insolvent or they are at risk to lawsuits which will cost them more than your paltry $18000. But they don't even think about the lawsuit part. Bill comes in, cheque goes out.

How do they prevent paying random people who decide it'd be funny to send them an invoice?

Isn't that what most spam targeted to businesses is?

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#314

Post by blunte »

llamataboot wrote: post #257
blunte wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't hate the player, hate the game. And if you want to compare income, look at C-level executives... don't look at devs who are actually doing work.

Oh, don't worry, my comment was directed against the game :) I advise all programmers to grab as much money as they can until it stops making them happy and then give a bunch away during an existential crisis...

Haha, that’s the way.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#315

Post by busterarm »

mrguyorama wrote: post #191
busterarm wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3x salary is the general advice given to contractors starting out.

$156k is 3x my salary from a few months ago and I'm building out business critical systems, not dreamweaver level websites

Having been severely underpaid myself in the past, please know that you are _severely underpaid_.

You should definitely look for somewhere else that will pay you more money. If you'd like to discuss it offline, I'm happy to.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#316

Post by netsharc »

dorgo wrote: post #258
TeMPOraL wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I used to think that was sketchy. It wasn't until much later that I realized that B2B enterprise sales people do that stuff ALL THE TIME even with their onerous kpi's, forecasting and fiscal quarter expectations! Depending on how it's done, it still is, and enterprise salesmen doing it doesn't make it less so. As a customer, I don't necessarily seek absolute minimum price, but I want it to be a fair price that I ca…

How do you determine whether a price is targeted/individual? Do you check in different browsers / on different devices?

I think he means prices where the webpage just says "contact us for a consultation". Here they'd probably google your company and see how much they can get away with charging you.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#317

Post by dymk »

paublyrne wrote: post #287
reaperducer wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, it's very common for travel sites to charge higher prices for Apple users.

Any examples?

https://news.northeastern.edu/2014/10/23/ecommerce-study/

The actual paper: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/cbw/static/pdf/imc151-hannak.pdf...

"As shown in Figure 11, Travelocity alters hotel search results for users who browse from iOS devices." (In particular, alters the prices shown to the user).

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#318

Post by mprev »

osrec wrote: post #12

You should try working in an investment bank as a contractor. You need to find the right team, but a lot of them are massive collections of people doing virtually nothing but getting paid great daily rates. The trick is to look busy and wrap your team/yourself in a perceived sense of enigma and complexity. If you play your cards right, you can end up in a situation where no one will ask questions as long as you fire…

Ugh, but who wants to do nothing all day? You get one life; why waste your days?

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#319

Post by imtringued »

cmcginty wrote: post #209
rhacker wrote: post #97

Sometimes I do kinda wish to get back into consulting because of situations like these. In almost all cases the work is never used, but instead of bailing the company out, it's really just bailing some situation out. It's all internal politics. Back when I was in my 20s during my walks from the light rail to the office I would have constant thoughts about how idiotic programming and office work is. The ONLY reason it…

Taking a left turn here, but how is it "easy" to setup solar? At the minimum you'll need a master electrician to sign-off on your install and might be hard to find after-the-fact.

Parent is probably talking about some sort of solar lease where you get paid/receive electricity for providing roof space to install the panels on but you don't actually own them.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#320

Post by robocat »

misiti3780 wrote: post #148
duxup wrote: post #18

I know someone working as a contractor for a big company. 1 year contract. 6 months have gone by and they've done ... nothing. Their boss keeps saying "Don't worry we'll get to you, we're just swamped right now, you're good." They're already talking about extending the contract.

i worked for lockheed martin 10 years ago (give or take) on a client site. I was W2 (although I wish i was 1099). Anyways, when the government changed from W -> Obama a lot of the DOD contracts were changing because everyone anticipated the Obama was going to cut defense spending (which he did). The project found out that the DOD was not going to be able to re-fund the project, but we had to continue to the end. I en…

Maybe a result of cost-plus?

Anywhere where employee hours are getting charged out, a company can increase profits by increasing headcount.

It also seems to happen more indirectly. A contracting company is often motivated to increase red-tape (such as complex and unnecessary health-and-safety, because everyone agrees safety is good). That has a double win: less competition (side effect of complex requirements) and more hours charged (each hour charged increases profits with little risk).

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