Yeah, such projects happen and it always surprises me - why can't such shops find in-house devs (with regular salaries) for such projects?
Meanwhile. This project required some imagination and multi-disciplinary knowledge. Sure the company have some geniuses but the company is huge multinational and for one department of their branch it was probably way simpler and cheaper to get someone from outside then shop their other brunch. Big companies are very bureaucratic
I've seen a lot of talent go in and out. Usually it goes out like this:
- PM is seeking resources internally, you could be reached out and be told on what they are trying to do. - The project can be complex or easy. Honestly it doesn't matter within the context of working for a company. As far freelancer, you can go on a nitty-gritty with the client on what it takes to do and justify your rates to them... for a already-hired developer:
- There's absolutely no guarantee they will incentivize you after all the efforts (working as a developer for a company). So it really doesn't matter if the project is super complex or not. Management is pretty stupid most of the time and they can't see the level of effort in things even if you break them out to them. Or they can simply be ignorant about it.
- I've said no. Usually I'm very driven with new challenges but I've learned the hard way that it doesn't matter at all. These days I just say "I don't know, sorry." and "yea I just never worked on that". I've seen people gone the road of talking about training courses so they could stall management a lot if they don't have many options.
Why? Because there's really no end goal. You are already hired within the company. Employers take for granted that that's reason enough for you to do it.
Honestly it could go many ways. Not all companies will be as awful as mine. If you are lucky enough to land with a company that recognizes your efforts and incentivizes you for it good for you. I don't think many people are that lucky.
I'd say, believe me there are quite a lot of geniuses, but I've yet to meet a fool that takes the bait of taking more complex work in without proper incentive. (excluding fresh graduates and those still in their starting years)
I did not say they were not. Some products said company did develop do require a genius. But from my experience those tend to compartmentalize in appropriate departments and the rest is just average.
Of course there are always exceptions.
The thing is, it's not just some Kentucky Postal Service inc. but it is quite common in such BigCo's as Microsoft, Google, etc...
It turned out they couldn't produce their compliance documentation and that was delaying the release of a new drug.
The solution wasn't that complex but it did involve the intersection of several different skills. They had in-house devs but none of them wanted to touch it, to them it looked like a problem, to me it looked like an opportunity.
> To them it looked like a
> problem, to me it looked
> like an opportunity.
I currently work as a lube tech for a local dealership. (Saving up for the future, and they have better hours and pay than $LocalFastFood.) My coworkers dislike A) vacuuming vehicles and B) doing tire rotations- because both of them take time and effort.
I like doing both of those- they take time- which means I get paid (job security!) and also helps the customer want to come back (arguably more important than any time savings from skipping a rotate or not vacuuming underneath floor mats.)
It wasn't an opportunity for them. The Risk/Reward was probably insanely bad. If they fixed it, they are just "doing their job" and get a pat on the back. If it was that big of a deal though, if they screwed it up its possible they would get fired.
The difference was that they worked for different big shots.