The Backburner

Since I lack the resources and bandwidth to pursue all of my ideas at once, I have to keep a queue - often referred to as The Backburner. As of now, The Backburner has 8 projects in it and, if the project is small enough, I’ll write the code myself - otherwise, I’ll look for help.

Early in March, I listed a job on RentACoder hoping to find a developer to help with one of these Backburner projects. If you’re not familiar with the process, a job is listed with RentACoder and developers have the opportunity to bid with their cost estimates. Poorly written bids are one of many red flags that disqualify developers from winning jobs. If I’m interested in a developer’s bid, I’ll reply and start a dialog. If not, I hide his bid and forget it ever existed. The developer receives no notification that he’s been disqualified, he just submits estimates and waits until one replies.

Enter Bulgarian Bob

“Bob” is a developer that just can’t catch a break on RentACoder. He’s not just a hapless coder unable to write a convincing bid, he’s also got a short fuse. His profile showed that he had been a RentACoder member for a while, but had no work history. His name, “Bob,” seemed odd after seeing that he was from Bulgaria. These red flags, combined with his terse and boilerplate reply, made it pretty easy to quickly disqualify him. He wrote “Hello, I can do it. Let me know your questions and comments.”

Thanks Bulgarian Bob. Needless to say, ”I can do it” doesn’t actually make me that confident that you can actually do anything. When you’re competing against dozens of other developers, it’s worth your time to think of a thoughtful response - and since the description is pretty vague, ask questions too. I moved on without giving him a second thought. After stewing for about a week, an angry Bob sent me the following:

Why all you scammers - just post a bidding request and about 50 people with skills and qualifications bid on your low prices and you just don’t reply??? That’s just stupid. Go ahead report, i don’t care.

Poor Bulgarian Bob, sitting in his apartment cursing at this broken system in which scammers put up fake jobs and developers waste their time bidding. The fools!

Tips for bidders

Bob’s note worked and I sent him a reply a few minutes later outlining why I ignored his bid. It read as follows:

1. Your bid displayed no understanding of the project. It didn’t even show an attempt at understanding by asking relevant questions. The bidders I replied to didn’t write me something like “I can do it.” I replied to bidders who wrote something thoughtful, explaining similar work they’ve done in the past. The best replies compared my project to another service, showing that they actually understood what I’m asking for.
2. You bid was too low, showing again that you don’t understand the scope or even point of the project. Even though you don’t have all the details, you don’t say anything about a rough time estimate - 1 month? 6 months? What?
3. Your profile is very weak compared to others. Look at some of the coders who have had many jobs and copy their format.
4. You have had no jobs yet and I don’t feel like taking a risk on someone without work history. Part of that probably has something to do with your approach to winning jobs. I obviously made the right choice. It seems likely that you’re not a person who would be easy to work with.
5. Your profile says that you’re in Bulgaria, but you signed your post “Bob”. That may be your actual name, but I doubt it.

He never replied to my advice. As for the project, I exchanged emails with a few bidders but ultimately couldn’t pull the trigger on someone who felt mediocre, so if you’re reading this and have the development chops, email me.