Sunny in San Diego

Recently, I’ve been working on a few projects and most of it involves coming up with some ideas, plans, designs, etc and then implementing some theories, diagrams and content. Or maybe research something a little more. At the same time I look around for some help regarding web development, software engineering, artistic design, etc. What I’ve learned is that most people are either idiots or con artists. That’s not exactly true. The majority of software engineers seem to be an intelligent bunch. Except for one guy who probably wasn’t even a software engineer. This guy was a trip. Read my other blog posting(Project Risk to hire this Manager) about this individual.

Back to the original point. I can see why a lot of people assume Information Technology professionals or more importantly, web developers, are nothing special or a pain in the behind. I shouldn’t throw most people under the bus. Like I said, most of the software engineers seem respectful and know what they are talking about. Then again it’s because most of them went to college and learned about computer science. They actually come up with original thoughts and analysis or maybe they have what’s called critical thinking knowledge. But it’s almost a lost cause when it comes to web developers/designers and graphic artists. I know the technology and I hear people trying to sell me a bag of goods regarding what they can do for me, how they can market my website, and how much a site like mine would cost. Of course they claim to give me some huge discount. And it’s funny how half these ‘people’ send replies that refer to themselves as ‘we’ and so on. Hell I even had one person inform me that they haven’t used Flash in years, but they could relearn it again if I needed them to. Yeah I’d pay them to learn something. If I were to do that, I might as well just learn it myself and save the damn money.

Another project was designing a logo and banner. The damn logo and banner were already drawn, designed, etc. All we needed done was for somebody who knows photoshop or illustrator very well to digitize it and maybe show a few different color and font options. A few people claimed this could be a thousand dollar project. Thousand bucks for what? They didn’t’ come up with the idea. They didn’t even freaking draw the thing. They really didn’t do a damn thing. Yes, their time would be worth money. But their time isn’t worth what some of these people think. To top it off, some of these people email a sample with watermarks that had nothing to do with the original concept or drawing. Do people even read?

Even after hiring somebody to do some artwork, it takes over a month to come up with a simple damn update. Like I said everything was already done for them. They only needed to touch up the drawing and digitize it a little better. But half the time they don’t bother reading what the requirements are and what you need done. Or they come back with (i can do this for this much, but anything more will cost a little more). It’s one thing if they came up with the concept, drawing, design, etc, but a month for a logo that was already done? How stupid.

Oh and there are plenty of ‘artists’ who seem to ignore your requirements and then design something on their own time you don’t like or want and then claim, ‘hey I spent such and such time on this so I deserve such and such money.’ That’s like going to a job interview, it doesn’t go well, they go home and decide to make something up, and then email that company and ask them for a paycheck. People are really stupid.

Hell, on another project I threw out an idea of what I wanted and needed, so I could get a feel for what some artists could design for me or if I needed to change my idea altogether. You know what, half the people who got back to me asked me to come up with a sketch so they could get a better idea. If I’m drawing the damn thing(i’m not an artist) why the hell am I paying them? All I wanted was for somebody to come up with a concept and design after I gave them the original idea and concept.

I understand people should charge for their services, but it really seems there are a lot of unprofessional people out of work who are really out of work for a valid reason. You ask them for something and they don’t bother reading what you asked for or they ignore it altogether or they think their 5 minute unoriginal half assed job is worth thousands of bucks. Go figure they need small jobs. They shouldn’t be doing what they are doing.

I’ve come to the conclusion that people might as well not hire web developers or designers or even artists/graphic designers. Not for what they are charging. Or maybe that’s why people offshore and outsource work. Just look at some of the examples of these people and it’s obvious they seem to throw together a template that takes about 10 minutes(hell you can buy a template and edit it yourself for under 100 bucks and you don’t even have to know much about programming or even html). Don’t go around claiming some simple 5 page website you threw up using some other persons template, that took you under 5 minutes to do, is worth $5K. It’s not. Or maybe most of the web designers/developers and graphic artists need to inflate their egos because the reality is their work isn’t worth much in the real world anymore.

Nobody should be paying somebody $30/HR for somebody who knows html and wordpress. Yes, if you need a shopping cart, a content management system, some flash, and a ton of original real programming work done to some complicated e-commerce site or backend system, it might be worth it. There is actually programming or real design involved. But somebody selling some $30/HR unoriginal template cheap ass work is a scam. Plain and simple.

Whether it’s a website or a graphic doesn’t really matter. Playing on people’s technological ignorance is what a lot of people seem to do. Everybody needs to make a buck, but when your work is worth $1 and you charge $10K….then it’s just a scam. A con. A rip off. And in all honesty people like that should be thrown off a cliff never to be seen again. End of story.