Hang In There!

That phrase sure does make sense now. The reason I have been AWOL for so long is because I had a sudden burst of projects. For a couple of months, things were looking pretty dim. All of a sudden, project after project just fell on my lap. Now I'm sitting here, 9pm on a Saturday night, overwhelmed by how much there is to do.

This is a good thing, obviously. I prefer worrying about how to get all the work done than worrying about how to make ends meet. However, I think I am at my limit. I definitely need help with all these projects. Finding a good programmer at a decent rate whom I can work with is NOT going to be easy.

I did learn a lot from my previous mistake of hiring some random guy:

1. Do NOT give them the broad concept and tell them to make their own decision about the minor details. What they do might work, but more than likely it isn't going to be what you want. Instead, take the time to thoroughly plan what they need to do, with multiple checkpoints throughout the day to see if things are going as planned. It is much easier to make minor adjustments to steer a ship in the right direction than it is to have to stop and make a complete 180.
   
   
2. You get what you pay for. If you aren't willing to pay higher per hour, you are going to get a lower caliber employee. On paper this might be ok, but someone getting paid $30 / hour can probably do in one hour what a person getting paid $10 / hour can do in 5 hours. Doesn't seem like such a good deal anymore, does it?
   
   
3. Test them. You can't just believe everything they say. We all exaggerate, and nothing requires more exaggerating than a job interview. Give them a small project to do (paid, of course) and see how they are with estimating times, working habits, and quality.
   
   
4. If they make a mistake, first look at your management actions to see if there was anything you could have done differently (such as being more specific with what you expected). It's up to you to bring out the best in them. While some people are just not cut out for the job, there are plenty of people out there who are capable of a lot more than they are doing. Management gets too arrogant, which is a very slippery slope.
   

I'm sure there is a lot more, but right now my brain is overheating. Know any good PHP/C# programmers? :-)