vb.net developers

[Bob]

How difficult is it to hire a good programmer with both DotNet and SQL
experience? I'm not interested in hiring (well, not at the moment at least);
when I set up a new site with a custom software package I always have to
give the customer an idea of how replacable I am should I become
unavailable. Back in the day I used to tell people "vb programmers are a
dime a dozen". Now with DotNet I'm not really sure. If it matters, I'm
mostly concerned with the greater Boston area.

I'd also be interested to know how many of you share my own experience with
setting up custom software for small and medium-sized businesses.

Bob

 

[Bernie Yaeger]

Hi Bob,

I'm asked the same question all the time.

It's not that hard to find a good vb .net/sql server programmer, but there's
a big difference between ok - good - better - best. The problems start
however with customization and specialization - ie, no one knows the
peculiarities of a system like you do and it takes time to uncover these,
even by the best of programmers. That translates to 'it will take 2.5 hours
for someone else to do what it would take you 1 hour to do' at least for a
while.

Boston should not be a problem. My daughter is one such programmer in that
area, but the place is rife with young, intelligent programmers, so I don't
see it as a concern.

Just my thoughts.

Bernie Yaeger

 

[Bob]

She single?

I know... I should get a life.

 

[Bernie Yaeger]

Hi Bob,

Sorry; fraid not.

Bernie

She single?

I know... I should get a life.

 

[Rob T]

I'm a VB/SQL programmer (and the IT manager) in the Boston Metrowest area.
There is plenty of young VB programmers out there. The problem is that
there are few that have a good business sense on how to program efficiently.
There's always debates, even with more seasoned coders on where some code
should go, ie if you should use stored procedures on the SQL server or do
the procedures in the VB code. I've seen some pretty bad SQL database
structures out there!

Back when I used to do some assembly language stuff...I actually had to
count how many machine cycles the code could run in and how much memory it
would take up...every bite counted. Now, it seems like no one cares much
about this, but they should. If you start getting a couple thousand hits to
a web app, you can choke your server or your Internet bandwidth. Then
everyone sits there with their thumbs up their a--es thinking they need to
buy a bigger server instead of writing better code. It drives me crazy!

I've been a programmer for a long time...as a youngster, I use to write
games in BASIC on the Commodore Pet and TRS-80 model I....moved to ABasic on
a CPM based Osborne and Kaypros, then to GWbasic on the pc's.......ah, the
good old days... When M$ started to put Basic into macros like Access and
Word...everyone thought they could program....probably where the
dime-a-dozen term came from.

I'm currently writing an ERP system for my company....I'm currently 2 years
into the project, planning on going live in Jan 06. It's a totally self
sufficient package with no 3rd party software. You can't get more custom
than this package! Do they pay me enough? Probably not, but it's constant
work and when it's done, I will start to reap the benefits. We're currently
spending $90K/year in licensing fees for our ERP package....that will
basically go down to $0 when we turn this sucker on. Also we have
"specialists" that work on this system, which will go away with the old
system too.

Enough babbling... Are you replaceable? yup...we all are. I think the
real question is can they replace you with the same quality for the same
money.......?

 

[Bob]

My ERP system is already deployed but I would be very interested in sharing
work and ideas with you.

Bob

 

[Rob T]

Feel free to contact me outside the newsgroups at the walchem..com email
address below.

-Rob T.