OT- Suggestions on finding IT "kid" to hire ?

Milacron · May 12, 2008

Lots of improvements I'd like to make on this site and my company website that in theory I could do myself but just never get around to. Need to find some local whiz kid and just fishin for suggestions as to where to ask or advertise.

And yes I know it could be done remotely, but I really need someone right here in the office where I can say "do this, do that" and can check progress as it happens and then "change that", "improve this"...etc.

And I say "kid" because I can't afford to pay full time wages.

Kyle Smith · May 12, 2008

You might check out the computer science dept. of your local university. Strike up a conversation with the dept. secretary they usually have the answers. Classes are about to end could be a good time to hire someone for the summer.

toastydeath · May 12, 2008

I second the college idea, and try not to get a freshman.

Don't go to highschool; while the intentions are good, the majority of kids there are not yet mature enough to do unsupervised computer work.

Mebfab · May 12, 2008

Remember, lots of blinking lights and popups.

Dave Johnson · May 12, 2008

Milacron said:
but I really need someone right here in the office where I can say "do this, do that" and can check progress as it happens and then "change that", "improve this"...etc.

Local JC's are a good start. 4 yesr's are a bit snooty IMHO.

Dave

SteveF · May 12, 2008

Just make sure communications with whomever is very clear. There is a very common miscommunication between business owners and web developers that you say "I want you to improve the site to make it more useful and informative for the visitors" and they hear "I am going to get paid to find the newest web software and play around with it to improve my resume". Make sure they understand they aren't there to make the screens fade from one to another or make a banner that follows the cursor on the screen or change the system so we all have to load FlashPlayer v47 in order to keep using it.

Steve.

Jim Williams · May 12, 2008

Don't discount the high schools. My youngest son was the whiz kid that helped the teachers with computers back in the early 1980's. He went on to get a Master's degree in Computer Engineering. He has worked for more than 15 years for a big company and is appreciated there.

Jim

PCali · May 12, 2008

Only suggestion of mine that hasn't already been covered;
BACKUPS!

Make SURE you have copies of the site backed up someplace your IT Kid does NOT have access to them.

Not saying he'll be deliberately nefarious, but it only takes a couple clicks at 2am to say "oh, s***!" and accidentally delete the entire site.

I'd favor the junior college idea.

SteveA · May 12, 2008

I always suggest - and don't know of anyone who's listened - making the *developer* try out his creation on dialup. I feel like there's a lot of stuff that looks very cool on a fast connection but doesn't really add to the content, and slows everything down on slower connections. I rate this forum's speed a little better than just okay on my dialup, but am careful about saving the threads with big pictures for the computer at work. The content here gets an A from me, no question!

Steve

dp · May 12, 2008

I do this for a living and like any highly skilled professional machinist that sees his or her hard work sent out to low-ball inexperienced "machinists", as a professional in this industry and based on what I know about it I think you are going to get what you pay for. There is no way, except by going into this with low expectations, that you are going to get a satisfactory product. If you go into it with low expectations then you deserve what you get. If this were easy anybody could do it, and anybody simply cannot. That's already been tried which is why you're looking to improve it.

SteveF · May 12, 2008

Another angle on dp's point is that a competent person, experienced with this software is going to be able to get the job knocked out in far less time than an inexperienced one. The large difference in hourly wage is going to not look quite so bad when the experienced person can get the job done in 25% of the time.

Steve.

David Utidjian · May 12, 2008

To what DP said I would like to add that you should also get someone that knows Linux, Apache, and the database backend you use. That is what the site runs on. You may get the most fantastic Microsoft, IIS, MS-SQL,web developer in the world.... but if he/she doesn't know LAMP* you will not get the results you want. If your other website uses Microsoft based software you will need someone with both skill sets (or two people). Sorry if all this is obvious already.

*LAMP = Linux Apache MySQL Perl/PHP

-DU-

CatMan · May 12, 2008

I like the try it on dial up idea. I also suggest trying the website on different versions of Internet Explorer, as well as Mozilla and Firefox.

I think you could do OK with the college crowd, but going straight to a professional does make sense. Why don't you see if somebody you know knows someone who does it for a living and is interested in doing a little something extra on the side ?

dp · May 12, 2008

David Utidjian said:
To what DP said I would like to add that you should also get someone that knows Linux, Apache, and the database backend you use. That is what the site runs on. You may get the most fantastic Microsoft, IIS, MS-SQL,web developer in the world.... but if he/she doesn't know LAMP* you will not get the results you want. If your other website uses Microsoft based software you will need someone with both skill sets (or two people). Sorry if all this is obvious already.

*LAMP = Linux Apache MySQL Perl/PHP

-DU-

And virtual machines for dev/test. Can't come up with a cute way of saying VMWare

. But speaking of LAMP, I sure do like working with XAMPP on virtual machines - literally takes just a few minutes to start from nothing and have a complete running environment.

David Utidjian · May 12, 2008

dp said:
And virtual machines for dev/test. Can't come up with a cute way of saying VMWare .

Oh certainly. Nice easy way to check many different systems compatibility with a page. Be hard to work without VMWare. I have been using it since their first public beta.

But speaking of LAMP, I sure do like working with XAMPP on virtual machines - literally takes just a few minutes to start from nothing and have a complete running environment.

Not sure if Don uses Mac OS X. No reason he couldn't start though.
I run a few subnets with a couple hundred Mac OS X clients systems. Even though I have been using Mac OS X for about 9 years in total I don't find it as useful as Linux for running and/or debugging network services (file, name, domain, authentication, print, web, database, dns, dhcp, etc....). I dumped Mac OS X server about 7-8 years ago. I have signed up several times to go to an Apple seminar and learn more about the current version but something else always seems to come up. I will get around to it one of these days though.

-DU-

joecr · May 12, 2008

Speaking of webpage quality, the Airpot company had a little breakdown on their webpage.
They have a nice full color magazine ad for the sole purpose of advertising sample kits, and it lists their url www.airpot.com

Took a look and indeed there's a "request a free sample" link

which loads this page: http://www.airpot.com/cgi/config/request?type=catalog&from=cookie

that presents only the underlying perl script :bawling:

.
Whatever they paid for that ad, was wasted.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

require "ctime.pl";
$time = &ctime(time);
chop($time);
$time=~s/ Canada\/Eastern / /;
## print "$time<hr>\n";

require "../cgi-lib.pl";

&ReadParse;

# print "in = $in<hr>\n";
# goto end;

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

&get_cookie1;

sub get_cookie1{

## print"Content-type: text/html\n";
## print "\n";
## print"Here is your cookie (munch munch):<P>\n";
## print "cookie = $ENV{HTTP_COOKIE}<P>\n";

$cookie=$ENV{HTTP_COOKIE};
$cookie=~s/%3A%3A/::/g;
$cookie=~s/%40/\@/g;
$cookie=~s/_/ /g;

@b=split(/airpot=/,$cookie);

@a=split(/::/,$b[1]);

$name=$a[0];
$company=$a[1];
$address=$a[2];
$city=$a[3];
.
.
.

pfarber · May 12, 2008

If they say 'javascript' or 'flash'; kick them in the mommy-daddy bag and move on.

javascript = 'i steal code from other sites'

flash = 'if you cannot amaze them with brilliance, dazzle them with BS'

really

dp · May 13, 2008

David Utidjian said:
Oh certainly. Nice easy way to check many different systems compatibility with a page. Be hard to work without VMWare. I have been using it since their first public beta.

Not sure if Don uses Mac OS X. No reason he couldn't start though.
I run a few subnets with a couple hundred Mac OS X clients systems. Even though I have been using Mac OS X for about 9 years in total I don't find it as useful as Linux for running and/or debugging network services (file, name, domain, authentication, print, web, database, dns, dhcp, etc....). I dumped Mac OS X server about 7-8 years ago. I have signed up several times to go to an Apple seminar and learn more about the current version but something else always seems to come up. I will get around to it one of these days though.

-DU-

Mac X server OS has caught up with a lot of Linux. Netinfo is gone (There is a gawd) and the BSD roots show through better than ever. It has dtrace from Solaris, ZFS is in the works, the 0-1024 services are solid and easy to set up, and remote access has never been better. And there is no easier way to set up grid computing. You could fill a refrigerator with Mac Mini's and grid them all together with an X server storage box and have one hell of a system

dp · May 13, 2008

joecr said:
Speaking of webpage quality, the Airpot company had a little breakdown on their webpage.
They have a nice full color magazine ad for the sole purpose of advertising sample kits, and it lists their url www.airpot.com

Took a look and indeed there's a "request a free sample" link

which loads this page: http://www.airpot.com/cgi/config/request?type=catalog&from=cookie

that presents only the underlying perl script .
Whatever they paid for that ad, was wasted.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

Oh dear - that's an easy fix, a common problem, and utterly embarrassing for the web d00d.

rimcanyon · May 13, 2008

Consider finding someone who knows what they are doing rather than hiring a novice, then depend on them for their expertise, don't micro-manage them. If you get someone who is good, they can do in a few hours what might take a novice weeks and still not get it right. They will own or know which tools to use to get a professional result.

-Dave

OT- Suggestions on finding IT "kid" to hire ?

Administrator

Stainless

Hot Rolled

Diamond

Aluminum

Titanium

Stainless

Aluminum

Aluminum

Banned

Titanium

Titanium

Hot Rolled

Banned

Titanium

Hot Rolled

Cast Iron

Banned

Banned

Diamond

Similar threads