[techtalk] Sorta OT, but still Linux related: Consulting

[Mary Gardiner]

On Wed, Jan 31, 2001 at 07:04:06PM -0500, Kath wrote:
> This year I'll be graduating high school.  For the past year, I have been sysadmining the linux server and doing a variety of other tasks, including the website (Which includes HTML/PHP/MySQL).
> 
> Now that I'm gonna be gone, should I ask to be compensated for continuing the maintence on the server and site and any other future servers they might want?  What would be a fair rate to charge?  Should it be a salary or per hour deal?
> 
> Thanks,
> Kath

Well, it sounds like you *want* to be compensated, and so you should
definately ask - most likely they are not going to suddenly volunteer to
pay you.

Make sure you have a good game plan: try and make some estimates of the
amount of time you have spent on the server, what kind of maintainence it
is likely to need in the next year, what will happen if it isn't
maintained. State your hourly rate - I'd suggest asking a few consultants
in the area, and make sure you are substantially (but not
ridiculously) lower than that rate. Quote both rates to them.

If they aren't too keen Plan B could be to be paid to train a new
sysadmin, and do emergency fallback maintainence for a few months. My
boyfriend was the second sysadmin at a residential college, after the
first, who built it, and maintained it, moved overseas. The first sysadmin
got paid as a teacher/maintainer for a few months. (My boyfriend,
incidently, had 25% of his residents fees in lieu of payment, which was
pretty good at the time.)

Mary.

-- 
Mary Gardiner
<mary at puzzling.org>
GPG Key ID: 77625870