[swagger]

I realize that this isn't San Jose or Los Angeles, but COME ON!

I've been trying, off and on, for over a year to find a local developer to work on a project we need to have done. Put a couple of ads on Craigslist, with the specific requirement that the candidate must be local. One local hit on the first, and one on the second. TONS of offshore or non-NV U.S. responses, though. Set up a meeting with the first responder at a restaurant - he was a no show. The second was taking several days to reply to an email, and wouldn't answer his phone when I called. Strike two.

I've checked every resource I can think of. I know this isn't a town known for it's "high tech" prowess, but we live in a metro area of 2,000,000 people, with an unemployment rate of 10.8%. SURELY there must be a competent developer or two out here looking for work! Why is it so hard to find them?

Besides the candidate pool being smaller, I've also noticed - and this extends beyond employment situations - that people in this town are, generally speaking, much flakier than elsewhere. What's up with that?!

I guess my main rant is just about how flaky the general population is here. I don't get it. I know it's "sin city" and all, but does NOBODY in this town have any integrity? Do what you say you're going to do, people! It's not a lot to ask.

BTW, this is NOT a thread bashing Las Vegas. I love Las Vegas. I'm just not sure why the people here tend to be so... unreliable.

[las vegas drunk]

Transient town=flakier people. Simple as that.

[aggrofish]

People in the job market may well move here with good intentions, but then they adopt the fugg it Vegas attitude after x number of months.

I'd suggest running ads as a test in the OC and LA sections of Craigslist. There may be someone willing to move out here depending on the duration of the project or, worst case it's only a couple hours away and in the same time zone.

It took me TWO YEARS to get a competent group of engineers, two years. Eventually someone decent will respond.

[WestieJeff]

I don't know any software developers in town looking for a job.

I couldn't even get any of my contacts to interview at my job when we were hiring. Everyone seemed happy with their current gig.

There is definitely a small tech boom going on in Vegas at the moment.

I've never had issues with flakes when hiring developers, but the places I've worked at, pay well.

[aardogfsu]

I can't even find a professional website developer.

[Robustus]

I'm local, a software developer, self-employed, and specialize in web development. :-)

But it's looking like I'm going to be pretty booked for the next few months, and may need to sub-contract some work, so I may be looking for someone too!

I understand your frustration, OP. I've tried to find local guys to subcontract to before, and I just ended up doing things myself because everyone I found flaked out. For what it's worth, while this may be worse in Vegas than in more tech-oriented towns, it's bad everywhere. Unless you're willing to pay more than $100/hr for a contractor, it's going to be hit or miss. I had the same issues in Jersey until my company started paying top rates.

@WestieJeff: Yes, you're referring to the VegasTech scene. Lots going on, for sure. Some great stuff coming out of it. Here's my contribution: Listsanity - Make Your List | Home . We're currently working with UNLV and some local businesses. It's been pretty fun so far.

OP, what exactly are you looking to get done (eg; is it a web-project? About how many hours/weeks/months work do you estimate? etc...)? I'll be at a tech meetup downtown tomorrow; your project may be a fit for someone. You may consider attending one of the these meetups ("jellys" as they're called) yourself to recruit: /usr/lib (click "events"). DM me if you want more info...

Hope you find someone.

[BBMW]

I'm in the middle of an HTML5 course. Maybe it's time to move out there.

[LV2ndHome]

Curious as to why is being local a requirement? I can't imagine anything regarding software development that can't be done almost entirely from afar. For example, there are numerous software options that can provide him/her with use access to your computer just as if he were sitting beside you and likewise essentially turn your computer into his if needed, and you (and he) can limit others access to specific areas of each computer (designated files, folders, or drives, etc).

I've used and like Teamviewer and Join.me as a couple of examples. I've worked through a lot of deals where the other person was far away, but we would both be sharing the same screen and simultaneous control of the analytical software just as if we were sitting side by side as we evaluated various options, looked at the "what if" scenarios, and brainstormed in live time. With the trend of software moving to a "cloud" structure, it's getting even easier in many cases to work from afar and from multiple locations.

As another example, I'm part owner in an industrial plant that is highly automated by the use of numerous PLCs networked thoughout the plant that are getting inputs from proximity switches, motion detectors, electric eyes, temperature/pressure sensors, etc. and running custom written software. Whenever we add/upgrade equipment or need a custom software revision for any reason, our software guru's always do it from afar. If a PLC, PC, or local server blows up, we have a new one shipped in if we don't have a spare already in stock, plug it in, and they take it from there at their location. If we do a major addition or upgrade, a hardware guy may fly in for a day and do the hardware install. We have no one on our employee payroll to do software revisions and we contract it out to independent 3rd party businesses we selected from references. We have software people that have taken care of us for years that we have never met in person.

[swagger]

Originally Posted by aggrofish

It took me TWO YEARS to get a competent group of engineers, two years.

That does not bode well.

Originally Posted by Robustus

OP, what exactly are you looking to get done (eg; is it a web-project? About how many hours/weeks/months work do you estimate? etc...)?

We need to have an application built from the ground up to basically handle the entire order/fulfillment process. We're going with something web based so we can use it no matter where we are - our work day starts at home for the first few hours, and then we come into the office around 7 or 8. We also need to be able to take care of something using only our smart phones after hours if we need to, when a customer is dealing with some sort of emergency.

I'm not really sure how long I should expect it to take. It's a very specialized thing we do, and there's going to have to be some time to demonstrate to the developer how our work process flows, as well as explain the different types of data we need to store and how to use it. I figure it should take somewhere around 1-3 months to get into production, depending on how well the developer understands what it is that we do, and then some ongoing work for tweaks and fixes.

Originally Posted by Robustus

I'll be at a tech meetup downtown tomorrow; your project may be a fit for someone. You may consider attending one of the these meetups ("jellys" as they're called) yourself to recruit

I hadn't seen that before. Definitely worth checking out. I'll see if I can get over there tonight. Thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by LV2ndHome

Curious as to why is being local a requirement? I can't imagine anything regarding software development that can't be done almost entirely from afar.

There's a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I want to keep the money in the local economy.

What we do for our customers is fairly simple, but the data we use is very unique, and how it needs to be used inside of a piece of software can get kind of complicated. I thought about taking it on myself (I screw around with PHP as a hobby), but I have neither the time nor the inclination to deal with a project of this size. For those reasons, I believe that we need to have the developer sit down with us, at our office, so we can visibly demonstrate exactly how our process works, talk to them about all the bits and pieces of info we use, etc. We also want to have weekly progress meetings.

I've also found that there's a lack of accountability that tends to go with working remotely. I know that it's very common for software developers to work outside the office or from far away - I have a number of friends that do it, but none are web developers. But I've dealt with and had friends that have dealt with having web applications built, and there always seems to be some problem that comes up that (amazingly!) doubles or triples the cost, despite the fact that the specification hasn't changed at all. For instance, on one project for an online auction system, the requirements stated that the software must include full accounting functionality. Pretty obvious for an auction site, right? Well, when the developer delivered what he said was the final product, there was no kind of money or transaction management whatsoever. When we brought it up with him, he said that he thought "accounting" meant that the system would allow people to have user accounts...

I've thought about bringing in someone from L.A. to do it, and if I absolutely have to, I will, but I'd really prefer to have someone local, for all the above reasons.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by swagger

... We need to have an application built from the ground up to basically handle the entire order/fulfillment process. We're going with something web based...

Why would you want to build a custom app? this isn't rocket science; the problem has been solved many times before & there are plenty of companies who sell products/SaaS in this space.