Why hire me?

The simple answer is: because I'm good :-)

I'm good at what I do, and committed to the work I take on. It's simple: if I'm not good at something, or able to commit myself, then I won't take on the job. Or at the very least I'll tell you clearly and leave you to decide whether to hire me.

Software engineering requires people and planning skills

Good software engineering is more than just writing a program. Most businesses I've had a contract assignment with, know what their problem is, but don't exactly know how to solve it in terms of software functionality. They should not have to. It is my job as a 'business analyst / software engineer' to work with people inside the business, get the necessary information from them, and then translate that information into a project plan.

Even though I spend most of my time 'in my own world' looking at the screen and programming away, I'm good at working with people where it matters. I like hearing from application users what they really need and working out the best solutions for them.

All of this within the parameters of my assignment, of course. The project plan can be as detailed and rigid or open for intermediate changes as you want it before I start programming. I can take as much or little freedom to listen to user demands, depending on your time and budget constraints.

Hiring a self employed person vs. personnel from a larger IT company

The quality of a software project depends on the quality of the people involved. The continuity of a project depends on the degree and quality in which knowledge is shared and carried over. This is irrespective of whether the people who share / carry over the knowledge, work for the same IT company.

Continuity in terms of 'ability to work with --and carry the project over to-- other persons', depends on a developer's quality of the code he writes, his ability to write good documentation, his communication skills and his willingness to cooperate and share his work.

Given the fact that I have a good track record in all those fields, it is unlikely that you will have more continuity problems when hiring me, than when hiring a larger company.

Of course the availability of people to hand over any work to, may be better solved by a larger company, if you want to hire several people at once or want to arrange for a long term future of a project from the start. I do not currently have a personal network of people to involve in projects. Several intermediaries who have put me to work at larger companies --see my CV-- may be able to achieve this as well as a large IT company. Since I may have better 'hands-on knowledge' for judging the necessities of a project than these intermediaries, I welcome any inquiries for free advice on this.

In administrative terms, it is not necessarily harder to work with a set of self employed people. You can let an 'intermediary' take care of handling all legal and financial matters involved in hiring contractors, so you have one point of contact for those, for a certain fee. (This is what some larger companies, like ABN AMRO, do.) It is however a well established fact in this market, that we can both save costs considerably if you (or I) let this intermediary know that you want to hire me through them, as opposed to going to the intermediary asking if they have a contractor for a job. (In the last case, i.e. if they find me and hire me to work for you, their fee is considerably higher.)