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I found this funny (but pathetic) post in one of my Lockergnome Channel emails today... There's a story about people outsourcing programming homework on Rent A Coder.

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2533

A commenter mentioned that it's happening over on Yahoo! Answers, too.

I have two thoughts about this one.

First, I think these students should be in IT Management courses, not Computer Science!!! :-) I commend them for being resourceful. This is kind of a stepping stone to IT reality. We've all had to farm stuff off to subcontractors or consultants, and this is, in some ways, no different. In fact, much of the IT industry couldn't exist without subcontracting, and it's probably a good thing to learn these lessons sooner, rather than later. It's also a good networking lesson, too.

Second, and this is my main thought... Assuming that subcontracting and networking (not the computer kind) are not part of the lessons taught in this course, how pathetic is this??? Are these students doing this because they aren't learning, or are they too busy emptying out a kegger? This is a sorry example of the society we live in today. If you are in school to learn programming, you should try your best to LEARN programming, and not circumvent the system by getting someone else to do it for you.

The people that are going this route will have trouble finding, and especially KEEPING, an IT job.

Alice of Real Tech News added, "Ok, let's take this out another notch: what if workers themselves with decent paying jobs started outsourcing their own projects and deliverables? So instead of killing yourself on that big project, you just bid it out and enjoy those quiet evenings playing video games while someone works overnight on your assignment. Has anyone done that?"

In a fulltime job, no, but in a consulting role... absolutely. I don't know why a person would be willing to do something like this in a fulltime job, but I would assume there'd be reasons to try (some possibilities listed below). It would seem foolish to me, especially if you are eligible for overtime, to try to do everything yourself. I am not eligible... I am salaried, and there are times when I am swamped, but if I am, that's my manager's decision on what to do about it, not mine, and I am certainly not going to pay out of my pocket to get my work done... that's insane!

I could only see doing this if you are incompetant, have no chance of being able to do what is expected and are doing it to keep your job, you are up for a big bonus that would make up for the cost, you are going up for a promotion, or are trying to build something for your job on the QT that would get you the promotion or bonus and figure it's going to be worth it to get it done faster (or don't have expertise in the area you need to get it done).