Access VBA Programmer Camarillo CA - Microsoft Access Developer Jobs


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Access VBA Programmer Camarillo CA

Richard Rost

4 days ago

An unnamed small company in Camarillo, California is seeking a Microsoft Access VBA Programmer for a part-time contract position paying $25 to $35 per hour depending on experience and skill level. The company is looking for someone with experience developing Microsoft Access applications using front-end and back-end environments. They prefer someone local enough to come into the Camarillo office for occasional sessions.

What the role entails: You'll be helping improve an existing internal Microsoft Access application rather than starting from scratch. The company specifically wants someone comfortable with Access development, VBA, front-end and back-end environments, teamwork, and knowledge sharing. They describe the ideal person as being as much a teacher as a programmer, and say the project could potentially develop into a longer-term relationship.

About the company: The company does not identify itself in the Craigslist posting, describing itself only as a small, stable, and friendly company. There isn't enough information in the listing to say what industry they're in or what their Access application does.

Rick's take: From an Access standpoint, this is a solid listing. They're specifically looking for an Access VBA programmer to work on an existing business application, so Access isn't just some random skill buried at the bottom of the requirements. Someone with strong Access Expert skills and Developer-level VBA experience should find this right in their wheelhouse.

That said, this is Craigslist, so apply with the usual healthy dose of skepticism. The employer isn't identified, and they want applicants to demonstrate their abilities with a task or tasks. A reasonable skills test is perfectly legitimate, but I'd make sure it really is a short demonstration and doesn't turn into doing substantial development work for free. Verify who you're dealing with before providing anything sensitive. Assuming everything checks out, though, this looks like exactly the kind of small-business Access development work that's still out there.

	Kevin Yip @Reply 4 days ago
30 years ago, my company paid $150 an hour for a consultant who knew an obscure operating system that few people knew, because we realized that we had to pay a high price for someone hard to find. Nowadays, I would think a good Access developer is in the "hard to find" category, so I would question that $25-35 pay. Or maybe it's just another sign of a bad economy and job market.

	Matt Hall @Reply 4 days ago
I am with Kevin on the pay. That pay range equates to $11.90-$16.67 in my area of the country, once you account for the cost of living. In Camarillo CA, with a cost of living 83% above the national average and 110% above southern Indiana, the pay seems super-low to me.

Richard Rost OP @Reply

4 days ago

I agree with both of you. Back when I did most of my consulting in the 90s and early 2000s, I was charging $90 to $100 an hour. In today's dollars, that is basically double. As I got busier over the years, I gradually increased my rates all the way to $500 an hour before I finally retired from consulting to focus on recording videos full time.

People would pay it, but I almost never charged hourly. I almost always charged by the project. The one exception was when a customer insisted on tinkering with the database I built themselves. Then I'd tell them, "Sure, I'll come in and fix it, but this is what I charge." Lol. Or it's Sunday night, and our database won't run. Everyone's coming in Monday morning and won't have something to work on emergencies, and then I added an emergency fee on top of that.

At the time, it wasn't incredibly difficult to find an Access developer, although most of my business came from referrals and word of mouth. Today, a competent Access developer who can build and maintain a real multi-user business application, write solid VBA, understand relational design, and communicate with users is absolutely a specialist.

$25 to $35 an hour is junior developer pay in today's market. Any Access consultant worth his salt should be charging at least $100 an hour, and probably more in an expensive area like Camarillo. Of course, an employee position is different from consulting, since benefits, steady work, and reduced business overhead have value. But for a part-time contract role, especially one that may involve coming on-site, that rate does seem very low.

The problem is you can go on websites that have developers from around the world that'll charge $8 an hour, $12 an hour, whatever their going rate is, but I always warn people you get what you pay for.

	Dave Clark @Reply 4 days ago
You would have to be local at that pay rate with a low cost of living.

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