The trick is to do these sort of engagements as a fixed price contract. You could have probably done an assessment in a hour or two. Then you charge on what you estimate is the value to the company.
I should have, but it would have been obvious that I pulled a fast one on them as the fix was really quite simple. Instead of building a Hadoop cluster I replace a sql sub query with a bitmask. It really only took an hour to figure it out but they let me charge the whole day.
Ok, it doesn't sound that bad to me? You learned something about consulting, got paid 1600$ for one hour work, got good recommendations and now have time for another interesting opportunity.
Don't waste your time and clients money on pretending to do work that you don't. Its ethically wrong (maybe even criminal) and it sounds like you would be bored to death wasting your talent.
Don't blame the company for not wasting its money either. It did pay for the whole day and gave you good recommendations.
You could do fixed price. Or split the difference (on both sides of the estimate), which provides good incentives for both parties.
>but it would have been obvious that I pulled a fast one on them as the fix was really quite simple.
If they were ready to have you on for 6 months, You'd still probably be one of the most honest contractors if you stretched that out to a week, or even month. It's a shame honestly isn't always rewarded proportionately to suggesting an entire rework of their infrastructure.
Even with this I would argue that fixed cost would have been the way to go. They were losing $X every day for that six months that it wasn't working. They hired you to fix it, and even if you charge them way more than your day rate you're not solely charging them for the change - you're charging them for "knowing which screw to turn".
The hardest part of getting into contracting was the guilt of feeling "I'm charging too much for a simple fix!". If the fix was so simple and the client didn't find it in those six months then maybe your assumption that the fix was simple and obvious was incorrect. Regardless, your fix provided value, and you should be compensated for the value that you provided, not just the number of hours worked.
cjbgkagh|2 years ago
Lutger|2 years ago
Don't waste your time and clients money on pretending to do work that you don't. Its ethically wrong (maybe even criminal) and it sounds like you would be bored to death wasting your talent.
Don't blame the company for not wasting its money either. It did pay for the whole day and gave you good recommendations.
You could do fixed price. Or split the difference (on both sides of the estimate), which provides good incentives for both parties.
johnnyanmac|2 years ago
If they were ready to have you on for 6 months, You'd still probably be one of the most honest contractors if you stretched that out to a week, or even month. It's a shame honestly isn't always rewarded proportionately to suggesting an entire rework of their infrastructure.
phone8675309|2 years ago
The hardest part of getting into contracting was the guilt of feeling "I'm charging too much for a simple fix!". If the fix was so simple and the client didn't find it in those six months then maybe your assumption that the fix was simple and obvious was incorrect. Regardless, your fix provided value, and you should be compensated for the value that you provided, not just the number of hours worked.
cced|2 years ago
Also, can you describe the problem? It sounds interesting.