Do my homework, LJ!

[rivka]

I'm Googling around trying to find an answer to this question, but it occurred to me that some of my friends probably have the information at their fingertips.

What's a fair hourly rate to pay a database engineer to write a script that pulls information from an already-established database? He estimates that the task will be "easy" and will take a few hours' work, less than a day.

Comments

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

You might want to look at a lump-sum billing instead. Find someone who comes well-recommended, and offer him a flat fee to write the script and make sure it works to your satisfaction. Your available budget will of course be the ultimate limiting factor, but I'd be surprised if an offer around $300 wouldn't get the job done.

There's some degree of paperwork involved, and the University may have some people already vetted and in their system, which could minimize *your* level of paperwork. Does it have to be done by a database engineer, or could someone with a less-lofty pedigree do the job just as well?

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Nod. A lump sum, for a decent hourly rate for a reasonable number of hours, can work out really well.

But before doing this, I'd advise you to be sure you can define the problem carefully. It'd be lousy for both of you if the problem was completed, and then found to be incorrectly defined, so it requires a rewrite.