the north carolina state energy office is looking for someone to redesign their site:

http://www.energync.net/

it doesn't display well in firefox, so if you go there, it won't look right...the person whose responsibility it was to work on the site is no longer there, so they're looking for someone to work on a contract basis for a redesign

if you go there, you'll notice that it's VERY information intensive (mostly text)...you'll have the freedom to design it from scratch if you want, or tweak what's already there - the only stipulation is that it must meet W3 standards (as it does not right now)

the main goal is to give it a "fresh" look...i do not know what the pay will be, as this is a government contract position and pay is determined by experience, projected time for completion, etc

ideally, the NCSEO is looking for a student for two reasons - 1.) cheaper, of course and 2.) resume builder...of course anyone who is not a student is welcome to apply, but realize that the pay will not be equivalent to the going rate for a "professional" (the person who was doing it was paid $10/hour, but as PHP requires a bit more knowledge and experience, pay may be higher depending on work experience/portfolio)

shoot me a pm if you're interested - i am not in charge of hiring anyone, but i would be more than happy to send you information for contacting the person who is

[Edited on July 13, 2006 at 6:09 PM. Reason : .]

7/13/2006 6:08:37 PM

FYI very few students have the knowledge to handle a project like this.

And the ones that do won't even consider it for 10 bucks an hour. They need to put some real funding into the website or train some existing staff to do it properly.

7/13/2006 6:32:15 PM

bullshit

7/13/2006 6:33:47 PM

i actually agree with gargs if he's calling bullshit on Noen...i've already passed this on to several comp sci may grads that are interested...i think their work is actually very good (subjective opinion, i suppose)...i'm pretty sure i said in my post that it would be higher than $10/hour...a lot of people like the challenge of a new and different project, in addition to added experience and resume credentials

7/13/2006 6:41:18 PM

i'm damn near desperate enough to do it

[Edited on July 13, 2006 at 8:39 PM. Reason : if i could do it from home]

7/13/2006 8:36:14 PM

you can do it from home...you only need to go in once or twice a week to go over it with the person who will be your NCSEO contact

7/13/2006 9:25:45 PM

I'm not saying you won't be able to find people.

I'm saying you will have a very hard time finding a qualified person. And if it's an information heavy site, you really need someone with information design experience on top of that, and preferably some usability and interface design knowledge. None of which you are going to get from a fresh out of school Comp Sci major, even if they took all the applicable comp sci classes to that effect.

Just make sure you do some good on-site evaluations, or at the least get some sample code from applicants. PHP is really easy to mask butchered code.

7/13/2006 10:41:51 PM

^why in the hell would anyone with those kinds of skills work for $10/hr?

7/13/2006 11:30:39 PM

I'm going to have to agree with Noen ... sure you can get somebody to give the site a "fresh" look, but that's about it. Nice and shiny on the outside, same crap under the surface.

If you want somebody to truly "redesign" the site, you'll need somebody who is good at project management, customer-service interaction, constructing frameworks, talking with various departments/people, etc. etc. Where I'm at, they hired a guy internally and an external consulting company to bring everything together (http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2005&itemno=1132). Not sure how large the website is (I'm going to assume relatively large), not sure if this is possible (or even desired) due to $$$ constraints, but just throwing out my $0.02.

[Edited on July 14, 2006 at 6:36 AM. Reason : .]

7/14/2006 6:32:51 AM

i DO appreciate the advice, and i will forward these comments (as input from those who work in the field) to the person in charge of this...let me reiterate that this is paying more than $10/hour, though...i, personally, can't promise a specific pay rate, but if i had to GUESS, i would think they'd pay around $20/hour (NO PROMISES)...i've got 2 people interested already, but i'd like to get more candidates before i pass along names

Noen - i agree with you about the skillset required for a job like this...however, the file structure i've seen makes a lot of sense to me, and the information has already been placed where it needs to go...i really think that it won't be as hard as it looks initially

thanks for the input, everyone...if they don't find one who meets the requirements, i think tdub might actually come in as useful in persuading them to up the amount of money set aside for the project

7/14/2006 10:02:20 AM

Yea if you can nudge to 20 an hour, you can find people worthwhile. Considering that's double the pay, that makes a pretty big difference

If you want/need any help with interview/skill evaluation practices shoot me a PM, I'll see what I can do for you. Also, post the job to some targeted spots, go talk to the CSC senior design mentors and CSC advisors, they can usually tell you who the standouts are.

7/14/2006 10:20:28 AM

bttt

7/14/2006 9:20:16 PM

What a pile of garbage. My prediction is they didnt learn their lesson from the first designer and go the cheap route and get burned again.

[Edited on July 15, 2006 at 1:13 AM. Reason : .]

7/15/2006 1:13:03 AM

bttt

7/16/2006 8:49:21 PM