Ask Slashdot: How To (or How NOT To) Train Your Job Replacement?

An anonymous reader writes "I am a contract developer from a major U.S. city. My rate has never been the lowest, but it's nonetheless very competitive considering the speed and quality of the work I have always delivered, as well as the positive feedback I've received from most clients. In the past ~3 years, I have been working on a sizable project for a major client. For the most part it has been a happy arrangement for both parties. However, for various reasons (including the still ailing economy), starting this year they hired a fresh college graduate in-house, and asked me to teach him all 'secrets' of my code, even though they have the source code by contract. The implicit (although never openly stated) goal is of course for him to take over the project and hopefully reduce cost, at least in the short-term. I say 'hopefully' because I am pretty sure that, because they are unfamiliar with the software industry, they underestimated what it takes to make quality, production-ready code. I am not afraid of losing this particular client, as I have many others, but I want to ask Slashdot: how do you handle this type of situation — training someone whom you know will eventually replace you at your job?"

Comments

You're a contractor. Your "secrets" are yours

[Anonymous Coward]

Give him the source code. Have him go over it. If he has any specific questions, answer then succinctly and accurately. But keep in mind that as a contractor you have no obligation to share any of your coding "secrets" with anyone, or teach anyone else how to code. Don't let your ego and desire to brag about how clever your coding solutions are make you forget that you are under no obligation to train anyone to take your place (no matter how much junior may flatter you).

You've given them the deliverables, you've presumably fulfilled your contract. Nowhere in said contract does it say anything about training other coders, I presume. Be professional and polite (don't refuse to answer questions they have about the code, for example). But also be firm about the limitations of your contract (it doesn't include answering questions like "Hey, can you teach me how to do this neat trick like you did?" and "Can you teach me how to do good memory management?").

Re:You're a contractor. Your "secrets" are yours

[Fluffeh]

Can't agree with this more. We had a similar experience withinmy company when a lot of the in-house support and dev guys were replaced with (much) cheaper contractors. They did the entire handover nicely, showed the new guys the ropes and moved into other roles or other companies. The new contractors of course are giving the quality of service as is being paid for - so many of our systems are suffering constant delays, SLAs are being missed and there is a strong push from within the business side to re-hire some of the folks that were let go. Of course, now to get them back, the salaries will have to be extra competitive as we want those exact folks back.

Sometimes cheaper is not really cheaper. I would say do a great job of handing over the project as best you can, let the new guy take the reigns. If it works out, great, if not, the company will probably want you back in short order anyhow. You can even look at it as an opportunity. Why not offer to stay on with a retainer, let the new guy handle all the gruntwork, but offer to explain or guide him/her for an hourly fee if needed. Assuming the do improve over time, you will be able to work in a new company at your normal rate and still get a small fee from this older company.

Re:You're a contractor. Your "secrets" are yours

[sgt scrub]

I disagree. If they are entering into an agreement that includes training he is indeed needing to "train him in comp sci". The article doesn't mention that there was a written agreement; but, if the customer is verbally specifying the desire for training there is an oral agreement. They both should take the time to write down specifically what needs to be done. It has been my experience both are going to end up very unhappy if they do not.

You train them

[Anonymous Coward]

I am always in-favor of being a trusted agent. This way you might get a lead on the next contract as someone who can be trusted.

Let the new developer lead the training.

[Dareth]

If you actually are willing to take on the job, then I would suggest you let the new developer lead the training. See if the new person is self motivated and willing to learn. Guide the conversation where it needs to go, but make the new developer do the homework and show they got the prerequisites.

I love doing that, actually

[rebill]

My primary goal as a contractor is to "put myself out of a job". It can be scary to let go of an existing income stream, but no job is a guarantee. If I walk out of a site with a happy customer, they have an incentive to hire me back ... and I get to work on something new (to me), rather than being stuck maintaining the same code for years.

There are risks, but if your replacement flames out, they can always come back to you, later.

Re:I love doing that, actually

[Anonymous Coward]

+1

Another way to look at this: Your value to the client goes up a huge amount when you're no longer a liability.

I begin documenting my projects for the inevitable client take-over as soon as possible, and the hand-off process is great all around.

I am almost always kept around as a senior resource ( this is more fun ) or as someone to escalate to, but when I'm not, I consider it a job well done and move on.

Not being able to move on, update skills, etc is the kiss of death in tech consulting. Fear the golden handcuffs, not the young replacement.

Re:I love doing that, actually

[MillerHighLife21]

Totally agree. I've always gone into projects with the goal of automating things (right down to outage buffering, failover, etc) to the point that they don't need me anymore. I take it as a point of pride and my work reflects it.

If you're taking any other approach, namely one that will force your client to remain attached to you I'd have to question your ethics, motive, and ability because what you're doing is creating a dependence on you that is borderline blackmail (if that's something you're doing).

So to the original question, help with a smile on your face, show him how the more complex pieces of the code work, document where possible and generally make sure that the tools are there for the project to continue to go on without you. They're either going to recommend you to other people because of how professionally you handled the transition and what a good job they did or they're going to be calling you back shortly when new guy isn't delivering at the rate you did. Drop off a copy of Mythical Man Month when you leave. Just leave it laying around the office somewhere. :-)

Be a Professional

[Anonymous Coward]

Your a contractor. You should have lots of business ahead of you if you try and be professional with each and every client. Teach these developers as well as you can and to the best of your ability. (Unless you dislike training others enough you don't even have a rate you'd be willing to charge...) The people you have done business with in the past will likely want to do business with you again if you are professional and priced correctly. This includes the developers you train. They may end up wanting to hire you when they are in another job later.

Don't be a jerk. Be honest with your customers, too. If the developers have limitations try and express what they will be able to do well without over selling them.

Re:Be a Professional

[TheRaven64]

It's a shame this is at 0, because it's exactly what I would say. If it's a major client finishing up a piece of work, you want them to consider you for future pieces of work, and that includes building their next system, or extending this one when it's beyond the ability of the person that they've hired to maintain it. And even if this customer never needs more work from you, people move between companies, and you want them to think, next time they embark on a big project, 'at my last company, we had this really great consultant who shipped us working code and then trained our in-house staff to maintain it. We should see if he's available'.

Re:As a contractor

[Anonymous Coward]

This can be categorized into 'how to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs'.

Developers get fired all the time - and yes the company, the manager, the new developer will all go through a period of fighting fires. But you will never be irreplaceable. At the end of the day, they dont wanna keep paying $100/hr for ever, they will hire a $80K developer for sure.

If you are good and try your best to at least give the new developer some idea of how to do things, they may call you back for other business. Otherwise, they will remember you for screwing them over. IT industry is a big world, but slowly reputation does travel.

So tell them how much time it will take in addition to what you have allocated for development, and then copy the development manager and send the developer the docs & source code and ask him to ask you questions anytime. Set aside some time for one-on-one meetings to help him understand the code if possible. Keeping the development manager in the loop about training is probably the most important part of this deal.