As an Overseas Contractor in New Zealand... (Score 1)

I've been working the "Other Side of the Fence" for a few years now. We do mostly work for Japanese companies, who are happy to take advantage of the exchange rate differences to get cheaper labour. (Currently 41c to the US dollar) We support all our code - to the limit that the client Management is willing to pay. A lot of the time, once the project is signed off, that's the last we see of it. We've done grunt work before - and it's a grind. I don't enjoy poring over hundreds of xls sheets looking for y2k bugs any more than you do. Being in a different country doesn't change the meaning of boredom :) Honestly, I don't think we would get any particular job done faster than an inhouse team with the same number of people. But we are cheaper by the hour, and we can put more people on a job. (sometimes - depends on the company) The biggest problems we have are communication, and shifting sands. We've learned to ask a lot more questions about what the client really wants, and not to assume anything. But we can get a lot of emails sent between NZ and Japan in a day. It's important to have a liason who can get answers to our questions at the client's site. On occassion, we've gone over budget, sure. The usual reason is that scope creep is an insidious beast. Tell me you don't get scope creep in in-house jobs, and I'll sign up tomorrow! I like filling overseas contracts, I take pride in a job well done. If you're getting poor, unsupported code, then you're not using the right business.