Cyber Programmers

The economy over the last ten or so years has done a lot of strange things to different industries. And for IT specialists which includes programmers, systems analysts, data base administrators, network managers and project leaders, the impact of economic changes has been particularly rough. The large lay offs that have taken place in a lot of cities around the country has dumped thousands of highly trained and skilled systems developers on the street to flip hamburgers or park cars at the airport.

Within organizations, the need to be “lean and mean” has also meant that very often management has big dreams and plans for sophisticated software innovations but because of the internal budget, the staff to make those dreams a reality just isn’t there. So some resource has been needed to match up these displaced technical workers with companies needing their services. And as it often the case, it is the internet to the rescue providing you with some good online resources to connect up with systems developers who are finding a second life as cyber programmers using their skills for companies via online outsourcing.

Some of the premier project clearing houses online like Rent-a-Coder and Elance have an outstanding reputation of offering high quality workers that have built long resume’s of successful project work and giving you the vehicle to get in touch with them. The good news about these sites is while they do charge a fee, that fee is usually structured into what you agree to pay to the selected contractor you may find there so you don’t have any real out of pocket expenses in using an online contract labor broker.

The internet clearing house has all the protections in place to assure that you as “buyer” gets good value for your money and the programmer is protected so he or she is paid if the project was successfully completed. Here is how it works.

1. Systems developers log in and establish profiles and résumé’s on the site listing their skills and their backgrounds so you can easily see which developers have the background you need.
2. When you establish your account as a buyer, you simply open a project on the clearing house and detail the specifications for what you want done. There will be categories so you can define the project as systems development, testing, programming, analysis or documentation and the right set of developers can find your project.
3. Over the next few days you will receive “bids” from the developers in which they will discuss their qualifications for the job and the price they will charge for the work you want done.
4. You select the bidder who has the best credentials for the job and fund the project. Your funds are put into escrow so the developer knows the money is there and can get to work.
5. When the project is finished and delivered, you review and test it before approving the payment.
6. You approve the project as done and the web site pays the developer and everybody wins.

It might seem strange to outsource portions of your development workload to a cyber developer. But you have all the protections you need to help you learn how to use this resource well for specific kinds of work. The best projects or tasks you can put on an online job board are tasks that are limited in scope and easy to isolate to pass to a developer. Web developing projects are outstanding choices for cyber programmers.

You can build long term relationships with internet developers and even find solid technical talent to hire down the road if it works out that way for you. But using internet job boards, you can get some of your project work load done efficiently and usually economically as well.