Rent-A-Coder

[Grok]

I normally don't approve of advertisements on our forum, but I came across a site that I'd like the young programmers on the forums to know about.

http://www.rentacoder.com is a website that hooks up programmers with people needing small jobs done.  The pay is typically very small for the amount of work -- you'll likely be making minimum wage or less.  However, there's no better way to learn how to interact with customers on things like specifications and delivery of projects than by doing it and making mistakes.

Especially those of you in college or still in high school ... Bid on some of the smaller projects, bid the minimum, and get the job.  Be honest about your abilities to the person buying the work, and then try to deliver the project.

More advice -- no matter what, don't get upset with the customer over the specifications.  He may or may not be a dirtbag trying to take advantage, but more likely he's a small business owner that doesn't know how to write a specification for what it is he really wants.

Those of you who are programming but not yet professionally employed can build an impressive resume of completed projects and equally as important -- long list of satisfied customers to use as references!  That's worth more than the $150 per project you'll get paid for a week's work.

DO IT, and respond to this topic with your individual results.  I'm going to do one as well so I can understand their entire process and be able to help you guys out with questions.

Now go make money and learn!

[Noodlez]

Thanks Grok! I've been looking for a summer job :-P. (what's wrong with this country? they don't hire 15 year olds!)

[Eibro]

I've always thought of RentACoder as a website with a sea of coders and very little work. None the less, i'll give it a serious try sometime.

[Yoni]

www.rentacoder.co.il - Cannot find server or DNS Error

hmm

[Grok]

I've always thought of RentACoder as a website with a sea of coders and very little work. None the less, i'll give it a serious try sometime.

Maybe.  But if you look, the bids are extremely low.  Companies are pretty much getting free work relative to what a professional would expect to be paid.

So such projects are perfect for people trying to get experience and even a little money along with it.

I could never make a living with what is being paid on rentacoder projects.  What they're offering $150 for I normally get paid $2500 or more.

Still, it's gotta be great for many of the forum's programmers who are in high school or college.  Work from your home, either deliver the product or don't get paid.  Your work gets scored by the customer and the website resolves any disputes in agreements vs actual work vs pay.  The customers prepay to the website, so they can't run off with your work and not pay for it.  The program submits his work to the customer through the website, so the programmer can't get away with nondelivery.

[iago]

hmm, I'd completely forgotten about this site.  I stumbled across it a couple years ago when it was in its infancy (it's run by pscode.com or vice versa, I believe).  I bidded on a couple projects but never got anything, and then I forgot about it.  I know WAY more about programming now, though, so I'd probably have a much better chance

When I was there, 95% of people posting projects in c++ were trying to get people to do their homework for them (must be done by: Friday at 9am)

[Yoni]

Hehe... If you'll pay someone to do your C++ homework, chances are you're going to fail the test anyway.

[Camel]

I stumbled across it a couple years ago when it was in its infancy.

Didnt' we all? I just kinda said "ugh, fuck it." Much like I did today, as well.

[Eibro]

I finished my first job earlier...
I bid $8.00, but the customer said he thought the job was worth much more than that, and he'll give me more depending on how well he likes what I did. I submitted my work a couple hours ago, no word yet on whether he accepted or not.


It was a utility to pause/resume/kill processes, as you can see from the above picture. It would have been much easier to do in C/C++, but he insisted it be done in VB. I more or less ported Jeff Richters SuspendProcess() function from Advanced Windows to do the Suspend/Resume.

[l)ragon]

Great stuff i was looking for this site for a little while now for someone else i know 8p

You seem to find all the links i look for, can you like read my mind 8\

[Camel]

If you can read dRAgoN's mind, tell us what song he sings in the shower!

[l)ragon]

If you can read dRAgoN's mind, tell us what song he sings in the shower!

whatever littleman did i ask for your gay comment, I don't see anywhere in my post asking for a 1337 nub Camel remark.

[Hazard]

Thanks Grok! I've been looking for a summer job :-P. (what's wrong with this country? they don't hire 15 year olds!)

McDonald's does. Caspers Corporation doesn't give a damn about all those "child labor laws."

!~!HaZaRD!~!

[Camel]

If you can read dRAgoN's mind, tell us what song he sings in the shower!

whatever littleman did i ask for your gay comment, I don't see anywhere in my post asking for a 1337 nub Camel remark.

obviously you didn't read that thread and failed to get the joke

[Moonshine]

If you can read dRAgoN's mind, tell us what song he sings in the shower!

whatever littleman did i ask for your gay comment, I don't see anywhere in my post asking for a 1337 nub Camel remark.

obviously you didn't read that thread and failed to get the joke

Obviously he did read the thread and get the joke, he just didn't find it funny.