Hawaii's Science, Technology and New Media Community
Craigslist and the $12 per hour standard for freelance projects in Hawaii.
I recently checked out Craigslist Hawaii in the info/web design section to see if any interesting companies were looking for people or if there were ads for interesting freelance projects. Amazingly, several ads were looking for a "student" or intern to manage a business web project or program Flash, Flex HTML, XML, and on and on and on ....for $12 per hour.
In contrast, there was an admin assistant job posted that payed $15 per hour and they hoped the candidates graduated from high school.
Reality disconnect?
The most amusing was an ad from a local business asking for designers, in shotgun fashion, to "make us a webpage and we'll select the best one and pay them". Work on spec, no client contact for input or content? amazing.
Bottom line, if you do freelance work craigslist Hawaii is probably not a good resource unless you're a student.
In contrast, there was an admin assistant job posted that payed $15 per hour and they hoped the candidates graduated from high school.
Reality disconnect?
The most amusing was an ad from a local business asking for designers, in shotgun fashion, to "make us a webpage and we'll select the best one and pay them". Work on spec, no client contact for input or content? amazing.
Bottom line, if you do freelance work craigslist Hawaii is probably not a good resource unless you're a student.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gus Higuera on -
Hi Keven,
I take it you were the one who recently replied to one of the job postings on Cragislist. I saw that thread and I'm totally with you. If I hired a $15 per/hour intern at a web company I wouldn't expect their level of proficiency in web development to be anything above beginner or average.
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Permalink Reply by Scott Murphy on -
I also with you. I'm am incredibly against spec design. It doesn't help our profession and it actually doesn't help the client either.
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Leuck on -
Craigslist is definitely not a good source for web design or web app dev leads in Hawaii. A great site with good SEO will produce some good leads, but the best way is to network, network, network.
No serious designer or programmer works on spec. As for $12/hour work, well, you generally get what you pay for :-)
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Permalink Reply by Brian Russo on -
Craiglist is a good place to find a used couch or something.. that's about it really. Perhaps in other cities the jobs listed there are decent but I've never seen much good there. I got one lead from there once and the customer didn't really seem to handle spending any real $$ either. Haven't tried since, decided it's not worth it.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Luttrell on -
I appreciate all the discussion offered here-- of course craigslist is a total waste of time for actual leads (at least in Hawaii--the SF version is another matter entirely) but its a great place when you need some primal scream therapy or a good laugh. I guess that was the point of my original post.
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Permalink Reply by John Barrett on -
I will add even if you are a student craigslist is filled with scams!
Well maybe not scams if you would to create a website for $10/hour, but then they will only pay once they see you can actually do it. I was desperate enough for money to answer once, sad it is true:(
did not find out until I got there that is was $10/hour. The meeting lasted about 2 minutes I laughed, then I left.
I would warn everybody to stay away from craigslist.
In general I found that they were looking for expert web designs/developers but wanted to pay you like it was a job at resteraunt! In general you get what you pay for, if you only pay people $10/hour for a website, it will come out poorly, as nobody in their right mind would do this for such a little amount of money.
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Permalink Reply by Nate Sanders on -
Here's another one:
(copied/pasted in case it goes away):
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Looking for a Matlab tutor to help with a two week project, assisting in writing pseudo code and in implementation. Pay is $50 for the two weeks, and tutoring time should be limited to three meetings. Please let me know your experience with matlab and tutoring, thanks!
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Permalink Reply by Russ Ogi on -
The sad truth of the matter is that Craigslist postings are a barometer for the value of web and multimedia design in Hawaii. It all starts with the educators. Schools (high schools and colleges) are churning out multimedia designers and unleashing them, a lot of them half baked, into the real world.
Case in point, I spoke with a local high school teacher who had a student come back from summer break excited to talk about his summer job. He built a website for a medium sized insurance company for $200.
No one is teaching these up and coming designers any level of business skills. No one is teaching the importance of networking and not undercutting. These students are competing with existing companies and the only way they can do it is to work for pennies. The initial thought being that they just need a foot in the door. What they don't see is that by undercutting the industry, that's all they or anyone will get paid and you can't live or run a company by making $200 websites.
The professionals in the industry understand the value of going to a professional, the average business doesn't. They don't understand the real work that goes into a website or a graphic design. They will go with the cheapest person and assume that everyone else is a rip off. In general, the multimedia industry needs to get involved in education and make sure the educators and students coming out are not just programmers and artists but commercial programmers and artists.
© 2010 Created by Daniel Leuck
