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Is it Just Me or Has Freelance Developer Talent Cratered Recently? (alien.top)

submitted 9 months ago by FollowMe22@alien.top to c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space

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I used to be able to source high-quality developers for small front-end projects from Upwork.

Simple things like build a custom page in Shopify that we already have designs for in a Figma file. I would pay above market rates to get the best talent.

The last 5-10 projects I've tried hiring freelance developers for have been total failures. I'm talking about "Top Rated Plus" developers unable to build a simple page with no interactive elements within a week, and quitting because they can't figure out how to finish the project.

Does anyone here have any suggestions for good developer marketplaces? I've learned after this current project that I'm done with Upwork, because even filtering for devs who have billed 1,000+ hours, are top rated and based in the US and they're still totally incompetent. It's truly strange.

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[–] gimme_pineapple@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm a freelancer but I'm not on Upwork. IMO the nature of your job may be a problem. From a top-rated devs perspective, a recurring long-term job would take precedence over a one-off issue for a new client. If you're advertising your jobs as one-offs where the freelancer could net a few 100 dollars at max, your work is not high-priority for the dev. Maybe try reframing your job post as a long-term job with a fixed weekly payment plus a variable amount of pay depending on the workload. Something like a retainer?

Also, the regional filter seems stupid to me. Freelancers working from places like Eastern Europe and SE Asia are great. I'll admit that there's a lot more low-quality devs in SE Asia, but it's pretty easy to filter them out. If there's one thing you can learn from your experience, it's that you'll have to filter out people regardless of their location.

[–] FollowMe22@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago

Yeah that's a good idea. Most of the jobs are one-off but I'm looking for a consistent contractor to work with as we have ongoing dev work, it's just sporadic.

The best dev I ever worked with was in the UK and we worked together for around a year on a freelance/contract basis but then he got hired to a top firm for a full-time gig.