If your company is headquartered in the US or Canada, you will no doubt have a strong urge to recruit developers from another country to save your organization very expensive development dollars. So, what can I say to convince you to work with a self-employed US-based Java or PHP programmer rather than an Asian contractor working abroad?
You would expect an offshore contractor to cost less, but as the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” (You get what you pay for) certainly applies here. From my own experience I have noticed that this is usually the case. You can hire freelance programmers from across the ocean at a low cost, but you will struggle to communicate with them due to differences in language, culture, and time zones. You also have no control over their academic background.
Programmers who live in the US will charge you more to go to an educational institution in the US and get a degree there, but I can guarantee you that it will be much easier to communicate with them. Honestly, does it end up costing you more after all is said and done? And because Asian countries’ economies are thriving while ours falter, well-known offshore developers can charge prices that are competitive with the US. When your application doesn’t work the way you want, programmers who charge an affordable fee may end up not being such a good deal.
If one of you is reluctant to work into the wee hours, working with someone on the other side of the world will slow your progress considerably. Communication is difficult unless you or they start working into the wee hours because they work while you sleep and vice versa. I once did some work for a man who lives in Australia and while the language barrier wasn’t an issue, the jet lag kept the project dragging on for weeks. If we were in the same hemisphere, our instant messages would be sent faster. Because of that incident, I now insist that all my customers are from the US or Canada.
I’ve also seen a large number of freelance developers working in the US are seniors with 20-30 years of experience in the information technology industry looking for jobs that will supplement their retirement income. It’s unreasonable to assume that people over 62 don’t keep up with the latest and groundbreaking developments in their field, especially if this is their life’s work. Over the course of their careers, they have perfected their work habits and mastered the ability to perform tasks.
It’s a good idea to ask for samples of the code they use. You can check that it is organized, easy to understand and has sufficient documentation. If at some point in the future you want others to be able to update your project, these coding features are essential to having code that can be supported. The bad experience with changing code with no documentation, variable names written in a mix of pseudo-English and Russian, and methods over 30 lines is something I have to go through. It seems unlikely that things will get resolved without a full rewrite. If you are not familiar with the format of decent Java code and don’t know what it means, take a quick look at the Java website section on coding conventions. When choosing a freelance programmer, there is more to consider than just choosing the lowest-priced offer. Doing some initial research and screening before buying will save you money in the long run.