Hire me
So glad you came by. Hopefully you’ve read some of my blog posts, or you were recommended by someone. In any case, welcome!
There are a few things that I’d like you to know before we start talking about your project. This is so we’ll know whether I’m the right person to hire, and what to expect when working with me. I’ve collected these in a FAQ style.
What sort of projects do you take on?
Backend and API solutions written in Go, or in PHP using Laravel. I have 5 years experience with Go as a language and have used it in a number of enterprise settings.
I’ve been using PHP since version 4 point something, and Laravel has been my choice of framework since version 5.
I also enjoy bug fixing and data repair for existing large sites, and hunting down performance bottlenecks and fixing them or working around them.
Adding OpenTelemetry or adjusting measured data there is also something I’m up for.
What sort of projects do you NOT take on?
I purposefully do not take on projects that involve front–end work. If it’s a brand new site, I have people I would want to work with, they’d do a full assessment of your requirements and needs, and deliver what your project needs, but I will not do CSS and Javascript work that’s geared towards the look and feel of the site. It’s not where my skillset lies.
I also no longer take on projects that are based on WordPress.
I already have a half done solution, I need someone to finish it
Finishing something that someone else started rarely goes well. If that’s the case, I’d rather we start from scratch, and we’ll need to look at the entire requirements from the beginning discarding everything that has already been implemented.
If that sounds tedious, I’m probably not the right fit for you.
How do you work?
First we talk about what you want to have done and why. I’ll try to see why you need a custom solution to that, and will see whether it can be done by other off the shelf solutions.
If it can’t, we’ll do an in–depth analysis of your criteria and produce a requirement document, which will have the scope in it. Anything not specifically mentioned in the scope counts as out of scope. If something obviously should be part of the scope that it’s not worth writing down, I’d rather it be written down. Assumptions are bad.
The document will also detail deliverables that you need to provide for me by certain dates. If the deliverables aren’t provided by then, the resulting deadlines are also extended.
Because I work on a number of projects at any given time, any delay might cause running out of time in the window your project was scheduled in, and thus would need to be scheduled after the next project. Please keep these deadlines.
When do you work?
I’m based in the UK, but have a full time job at the moment, so outside normal UK working hours, 9am—5pm London time. (GMT or GMT+1 depending on daylight savings). This can be flexible though, as my day job occasionally needs me to shift my working hours.
Are there any restrictions?
My contract has a conflict of interest policy which limits me from working with individuals and companies that are connected to my current full time job at F5 Networks.
How can we keep in contact?
- email is best
- if needed, and in the initial phases Zoom is good. Anything we do talk about there will have a recap email outlining what we talked about and what the decisions made were in those conversations
How do you price projects?
For shorter or variable engagements, I use an hourly rate with a minimum of 10 hours. Currently my hourly rate is USD 200.
Payment terms
For smaller projects, 50% up front, 50% on completion. For larger projects, 25% up front, and then we go in phases. Next phase will not begin until previous phase is paid for.
If for whatever reason you want to abandon the project, the current phase needs to be paid in full.
If all of that sounds good, drop me a message here!
Looking forward to hearing from you!