Ask HN: Are micro-freelance code jobs possible? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are micro-freelance code jobs possible?

7 pointssoneca6 comments

I am a newbie founder learning to code and creating a web app to practice. Sometimes I am completeley stuck and no amount of Google and Stackoverflow solves my problem. What I really want is to some senior developer remotely access my code and (eg) correct the bug of how my app relate to my database now that it is published on Azure.

Something that I already spent 3 days trying to do it and I am sure a developer with experience on it would solve in no more than an hour.

I don't want to outsource my code, or hire a freelancer for a job worth $10,000. I just want one or two hours of his/hers time to fix a very specific bug. A marketplace like this would be very valuable for me. What do you think?

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See http://tweaky.com. It doesn't look like they do the kind of coding tasks you're talking about (yet). But I agree there's a need for a marketplace like that.

Great! Thanks revorad, that's it! Actually not for the problem I used as example, as their focus is more about front-end and some tools integration, and not much worried about developers having problems with more complex code.

But that will be a good resource to me! I'll check if they can quote a more complex problem there.

Check out fiverr.com.

I think the problem is that it's sometimes difficult to read someone else's code. What happens if it takes 2 hours just to read your code..or if it requires a complete rewrite to fix it properly? Would you be willing to pay for 8 hours of work to get your issued fixed?

For me, it just wouldn't be worth it.

$5? If I can't solve it with Google, it is worthy more than $5! :) I am thinking about rates between $30 and $150 per hour.

I think must be a protocol to understand the size of the problem. If it is something that will need more than, say, 10 hours, so it becomes a traditional freelance job.

But this risk you say happens on every freelance or outsource job of any size. A freelancer that expects to built a site in 2 weeks, can take 2 months if he didn't do his due dilligence right. A software factory that quote to do a system in 3 months, may take 1 year if the communication on the quote phase was problematic. This happens everywhere, it doesn't justify a "not worthy model" for me.

Senior level dev for $150 per hour? Maybe, depending on the niche. $30? I can't imagine someone of that caliber would be interested.

In my area the going rate is well above that, and that isn't for bug fixing.

I would post on elance.com I've had projects as little as $25.

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