Re: Embedded contract work wanted.

>Can anybody tell me how can I find part-time embedded system contract work? >I have more 15 years experiences in embedded system design, and my >expertise is as follows:

(snip)

While you are looking, why not make a name for yourself? Go to

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and write some code that helps the project. Also see
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and
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Getting your work out there for employers to see is a great way to get a good job.

--
Guy Macon, Electronics Engineer & Project Manager for hire. 
Remember Doc Brown from the _Back to the Future_ movies? Do you 
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Reply to
Guy Macon
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Post your resume up on job boards like Dice, Monster, and Hotjobs. Out here in Silicon Valley, most of the embedded jobs seem to want the skills you have. There seem to be lots of router/switch related jobs as well as wireless stuff. If I had the skills you list, I wouldn't be unemployed. I'm envious!

Reply to
Gary Kato

...

My $0.02: Work which can be done anywhere in the US can be done anywhere in the world. Your best long-term strategy is to focus on local hands-on contracts. Customers who see you interacting with their staff/equipment regularly know they can't easily send your work out of town/state/country/planet. This philosophy has helped keep us in business for over 20 years.

On the other hand, sometimes a little commodity programming fills in the downtime. Here is where I have successfully whored myself out:

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At $18/hr you should be quite competitive.

Disclaimer: We are a 2RentACoder affiliate, but we only benefit from buyers who initially click through from our website. So far we've made nothing from being an affiliate, but I did one small programming contract that worked out well.

-- Chuck Cox, SynchroSystems snipped-for-privacy@synchro.com, snipped-for-privacy@fas.harvard.edu,

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Reply to
CC Cox

Hmm. What sort of projects did you do? Was it actually worth it?

The site seems to contain many projects where the clients are expecting to pay well under $500, in many cases for substantial bodies of work. In my experience few standalone projects in the under $500 category are really worth it, what with all the time needed interacting with the client and getting things properly specified.

--
Grant Taylor - gtaylorpicante.com - http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/
   Linux Printing Website and HOWTO:  http://www.linuxprinting.org/
Reply to
Grant Taylor

Yes, most projects are not worth bothering with. I have my bid filter set to exclude anything under $500 minimum bid. That does exclude most projects, but not all.

It is also true that a lot of projects are cancelled, so you don't want to bother putting too much effort into a bid unless you are confident it is legit. My experience is that the better the specification, the more real the project. If the spec is weak, you can send a message requesting clarification, this is a good way to find out how serious the buyer is. Keep in mind that buyers can post projects at no cost or obligation until a bid is accepted, so use your common sense.

I did a little $500 script generator application for a law firm. Not embedded work, but similar to a test script generator and it was very well specified. It took about a day to write & test. Worked out to about $50/hr after commission, not bad for slack time. I have bid on about a dozen projects and about half of them were actually awarded to someone.

Although they have offered embedded projects in the past, they only recently added a specific "Embedded" category. Hopefully the number of embedded projects will start to increase.

-- Chuck Cox, President SynchroSystems snipped-for-privacy@synchro.com, snipped-for-privacy@fas.harvard.edu,

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Reply to
CC Cox

That's not so bad an experience, then. It's always something of a pain to fill in the nooks and crannies between larger gigs.

Yes, there are only a few that really qualify for the adjective. Furthermore, overall I'd say that most of the projects are either partly or grossly miscategorized. But that's par for the course; potential clients always need a good interrogation before you can tell what they *really* want...

--
Grant Taylor - gtaylorpicante.com - http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/
   Linux Printing Website and HOWTO:  http://www.linuxprinting.org/
Reply to
Grant Taylor

You mean "...before you can tell THEM what they *really* want..."?? ;^)

========= For LAN/WAN Protocol Analysis, check out PacketView Pro! ========= Patrick Klos Email: snipped-for-privacy@klos.com Klos Technologies, Inc. Web:

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==================== What goes around, comes around... =====================

Reply to
patrick

Hi Guy Macon, Man you look like Dennis Ritchie in photo... too good... and impressive resume.

_shafi

Reply to
shafi

Compare:

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Seperated at birth? :)

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Guy Macon, Electronics Engineer & Project Manager for hire. 
Remember Doc Brown from the _Back to the Future_ movies? Do you 
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Reply to
Guy Macon

Yes, but by the standard rule of thumb he should be getting approximately twice what the hourly pay would be in an equivalent FT job, just to end up similarly off.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Man Guy, Your integrity is at stake... You increase your rate. $18 per hour seems to be very less and doubting. I am a fan follower of dennis ritchie and hence yours too...

_shafi

Reply to
shafi

You are confusing me with someoene else. I generally get $75 to $150 per hour, but will go lower for jobs that are interesting from a techical standpoint.

--
Guy Macon, Electronics Engineer & Project Manager for hire. 
Remember Doc Brown from the _Back to the Future_ movies? Do you 
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Reply to
Guy Macon

I am looking forward to the time when wages in India rise, work moves to another low-income country, wages rise there, work moves again, and so on until they run out of places with poverty. At that point robotics will boom, but there will still be many jobs that a robot cannot do because it takes a human brain.

Reply to
Guy Macon

Guy Macon wrote: ...

That is a normal human opinion, but can you give an example?

I am aware of a medical diagnostic system that (given the observations from humans) is better than humans at getting the right diagnosis, and a similar system for diagnosing Diesel Engines.

Some jobs (like roofing) are done by humans because humans are cheaper. - RM

Reply to
Rick Merrill

Those are tasks which can be done by robotics/computers. Here are a few that can not be done by robotics/computers now (there may be a breakthrough in the future, of course);

Design a toy for Mattel that 12-14 year old girls will find to be fun, while rejecting toy designs that are not fun.

Read the newspaper and, from that material, write jokes that are good enough for a Jay Leno monolog.

Lead a battalion of soldiers into battle against a capable enemy.

Decide whether to send those soldiers into battle, and against whom.

Interview a job applicant and decide whether she will be a good fit with the existing team.

Translate between Japanese and English at a quality level that is good enough for diplomatic use.

While translating between Japanese and English at a quality level that is good enough for diplomatic use, mistranslate slightly to favor the side that hired you, but not so badly that you lose plausible deniability.

Play a game of Go at a championship level.

Do an adequate job as a trial judge.

Do an adequate job as a supreme court justice.

Spell check a document as well as a human can without asking the author any questions.

Carry on a reasonable conversation on Usenet.

Reply to
Guy Macon

Why stop with "design"? Go right on to "paint a Picasso" :-) Note that the Cabbage Patch Kids were 'designed' in terms of combinations and permutations by computers and built by robots such that each one was unique!

There is s/w that will generate "new" jokes that it has not seen before but has seen similar ones. No guarantees in humor: even Jay 'dies' occasionally!

Care to define "lead"? What you're saying is that the things that are most difficult to define are "human" - i.e. what's left. Why not go all the way and ask for a program that will 'fall in love'?

That does remain a challenge!

Good list. I Really mean it. - RM

Reply to
Rick Merrill

that is true today...

Reply to
uguess

Better than an AI could write?

Reply to
Guy Macon

One industry that many poor countries have is agriculture. However it's often extremely hard for them to export profitably because they're competing against the billions of dollars poured into subsidised agriculture by the EU and the US. Is it any wonder that some poor countries have realised that they can compete in industries that aren't protected by subsidies?

If you want to fight outsourcing, start at home.

--
Burn the land and boil the sea,
 You can't take the sky from me.
Reply to
Geoff McCaughan

Piece of cake. Optical pattern recognition. switch(cup_size) { case 'A': break; case 'B': Do2ndTierInterview(); break; case 'C': Hire_Immediately(negotiate_wages); break; case 'D' Hire_Immediately(screw_the_wages); break; default: break; //possible OSHA issues }

thats a good one.

Bob

--
"Just machines that make big decisions
 programmed by fellas with compassion and vision."
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Reply to
Bob Stephens

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