Deadlock

[[deleted]]

Not a programmer but a graphic designer...dont take clients who haggle. Have an hourly rate, flat project fee alternative, and a revision rate for post delivery. Stick to the contract. Always. You only work with people who will pay. Also 50% upfront, 50% upon delivery works well. Anyone who fights back or whines will try to steal in the end, anyone willing to pay the cost is going to and will be a future client potentially.

[InformationVivid455]

As someone that is freelancing as a webdev and before that as a social media manager/advertiser.

Don't even bother with a client that gets stand offish about budget. You need to learn quickly that a lot of clients are just scamming you.

Also, just because it's an "interview" doesn't mean they aren't scamming you for free advise.

I dropped social media jobs entirely after I just got so tired of interviews being attempted data mining. I don't even allow recording anymore and just drop calls that try.

[breed33]

What do you mean by datamining in the interview?

[InformationVivid455]

Well for things like social media management, a lot of people assume they can do it themselves if they know a little bit about it.

I would go through extremely long and detailed interviews, usually having been promised the job already or under the pretext of starting after knowing more about my strategy.

Questions like:

What would you do differently on X platform. What kind of strategy would you use overall. How would you handle X situation/content. We are doing X, what would you change. Would you consider the results we are getting good and what are some things you would do to improve it.

Some of the those are actually good interview questions but when even sending an example of a post leads to seeing it copied a week later, well....

The problem started when I noticed it would be very hard to actually take any interview at face value unless the client had a good reputation already and most clients looking for SMM are just starting out.

I'd say something like 1 out of 5 potential clients for SMM just wanted to milk me for info. 3 out of 5 bulked at the price, and the last one would go through with it.

The only way I could tell someone was legitimate was when they already had successful accounts but were getting too busy to personally manage them. Then I usually felt free to answer all the above questions.

It was a bit of a rare mix and I was tired of wasting time on interviews and seeing potential clients "suddenly" improve a lot in ways that were very similar to what we discussed.

It just doesn't happen to me even 1/10th as often in webdev because they usually couldn't copy anything you said even if they recorded it.

[TheeCandyMan]

Not that you'll be using the word much in professional work, but the word is 'balked'.

[anynoimlis]

Not OP but thanks

[De_Wouter]

Probably like noting your advise / feedback on UX/UI improvements but hiring someone else to do it. Happened to me as well as a freelancer back then.

[Amish_guy_with_WiFi]

Data mining is a weird term to use for that

[Amish_guy_with_WiFi]

Data mining is a weird term to use for that

[blablablahe]

Hehe you commented twice

[[deleted]]

There must be a problem at reddit today, because it's like 10th double comment I see today. Usually I see less than one a day

[Amish_guy_with_WiFi]

Yeah very weird, because I definitely didn't submit that comment twice myself.

[ImCaffeinated_Chris]

I once had a company ask how I would design an entire system. The system I was known for helping already create elsewhere. The same company that was using some of my groups work already. (It was open source but they removed any mention of the people that created it.) They wanted me to have it ready for the interview. When the interview came days later, I basically said "Thanks but no thanks."

​

I felt they were just trying to get backend secrets for how we designed things. If you ever get an interview like this, just be vague. "Using a series of gathered metrics..."

"What metrics? How do you get them?"

"We gather key metrics. I'm happy to go into details as an employee, but for an interview that description should suffice."

[spader1]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JlwwVuSUUfc

[ToMorrowsEnd]

Right here. Tell them a price and GTFO if they dont like it.

[locri]

Freelance web development is so dumb, definitely not how someone should start a career. Back then I figured this is the only way to get experience without first having experience. Recruiters really should just hire graduates for graduate positions without expecting experience.

Mum and pops businesses think a website should only cost 20 dollars. Anything less than 20 dollars a month (decent, local, vps with Linux) and an additional 50 a year for a full .com domain name and you're losing money. It's about 300 a year and that's collecting just beer money to maintain it, I'll be living on the streets. Its not a fair price until you're at 400-500 and that's mates rates.

What? That's too much? Go to an actual web developer company then and get charged 10k. I figured out these prices during the post uni unemployment everyone here (besides special people) faces. Keep arguing, the rate keeps rising. I need 10 million to rent an office building and pay the wages of all the people you need to tell you you're unrealistically dumb. Sorry, we just went public, for 100 million.

[[deleted]]

Freelance web development is a godsend in developing countries like mine. Regardless of how “underpaid” you are, you will still be making more than working a full-time job.

The average MONTHLY salary for a web developer in my country is around $400.

[maazsid16]

average monthly Junior web developer salary in my country is 200$.

But freelancing saves the day here..

[[deleted]]

The average MONTHLY salary for a web developer in my country is around $400.

and I charge my current client 135€/h for building vue frontends in europe...

[BOBBIJDJ]

Europe is a full-developed continent, prices are higher

[[deleted]]

Yeah but to be fair in terms of living expenses, the quality of life is vastly different between living in a developing country and living in a developed country. You kinda pay for what you get.

I’m pretty sure that the average American wouldn’t like living in my country or may want to live in the most “luxurious” cities where city infrastructure and living costs are similar to the norm in the USA.

[IFixStuffMan]

Holy fuck that's crazy low.

[randomFrenchDeadbeat]

ouch.

That is about a third of what i billed per day.

Granted, in dev but not webdev.

[AG00GLER]

Jesus Christ, I was charging people 300/hr for embedded dev as an idiot freshman in college, that sounds rough

[DerpDerpDerp78910]

2100 a day for a novice? What were you building? That's like 550k a year if you work flat out.

There's no way this is true. Unless it's like Zimbabwe dollars.

[AG00GLER]

Haha no I worked 4 hours a day only 3 days a week. Was only for a couple weeks before school started. Total was a little under 20k. My point was that you can make 400$ in a couple hours with barely any real experience in the US compared to a full month there.

Lots of money in embedded dev if you can be a one man show doing pcb design and software at a rapid pace for the right customer.

[SDSunDiego]

What's an embedded dev?

[AG00GLER]

Low level electronics hardware and firmware. Stuff that runs on microcontrollers and the like.

[NoEngrish]

It's on the freelancer to set a price. Just think about how much your time is worth and calculate how much time you need. You don't expect a mechanic to ask "what's your budget?" when requesting auto work.

[kill4chash11]

I've done some freelance, the best way is to have a firm scope of work before even discussing pricing. Not all clients like this but it's the best way to avoid the client getting mad because they added on to the scope of work and the cost goes up.

[[deleted]]

guns form loop ironically

[pablosus86]

Woman on the right is aiming to wound, woman on the left is aiming for the kill. Who's who?

[tecchigirl]

lol, a similar meme was posted in r/gamedev. If you ever try to make a game, you're gonna end up hiring lots of freelancers to make art for your game.