disclosing contractors on resume/self-promotion

[erova]

hey guys...

it seems i've been a victim of my own success in some ways and am curious to know what course of action I should take:

basically my resume site, www.avore.net, has been receiving quite a few hits lately, for numerous keyword combinations, and one of my contractor's clients found my site while searching their own name (I guess also implying their search-engine optimization skills aren't quite as up to snuff as -ahem- yours truly).

anyway, they called the contractor who hired me and gave him an earful, which in turn got back to me. however, on my site it clearly states that i was working in a subcontractor role, and that the work is property of the paying clients.

what should my course of action be? the contractor shop has a clients page, and I only reference the work because of self-promotional purposes--there's no link or anything.

i like to think i charge a relatively modest fee for my services--however i'm thinking that if clients want me to keep my mouth shut and not promote myself for their work, i'm going to charge a premium for such action.

have anyone else ever experienced such a situation?

would love to hear how it's handled.

thanks,
chris

[MG315]

when I hire contractors I require them to put "While working for Aesthetic Studios" or something, so if a client finds it he doesn't get suspicious. But it sounds like you did that. Maybe just change the wording from "Acted as sub-contractor for Baltimore web and illustration boutique" to something that sounds more like you actually worked for the company.

If the client wants you to not be able to show your work you did for him, I'd definately charge more. Past work is a major selling point for new clients. They won't hire a web developer without web design experience.

So yeah, either word it so it sounds like you actually worked for them at that time or charge extra

[erova]

Originally posted by MG315
when I hire contractors I require them to put "While working for Aesthetic Studios" or something, so if a client finds it he doesn't get suspicious. But it sounds like you did that. Maybe just change the wording from "Acted as sub-contractor for Baltimore web and illustration boutique" to something that sounds more like you actually worked for the company.

If the client wants you to not be able to show your work you did for him, I'd definately charge more. Past work is a major selling point for new clients. They won't hire a web developer without web design experience.

So yeah, either word it so it sounds like you actually worked for them at that time or charge extra

yeah, exactly my thoughts.

plus i think it looks like the web guy's a chump when he writes something like "developed interface for Fortune 50 industry leader". makes me think to myself, "well, who is it then?"

fortunately i think that my resume/experience won't be too negatively impacted--it almost seems when i do get contacted for new work the questions these people ask make me think they've never read my resume in the first damn place.

thanks mg.

[MG315]

[offtopic]
I was looking at your resume site, very nice (now I'm thinking of doing that) and I noticed you spoke at Montgomery College. I got my hopes up b/c there's a montgomery college like 10 min away from where I live (in Texas). But after googling it I see its Maryland

[erova]

hehehe yup, it's a community/technical/2 year college here outside of dc.

thanks for checking it out.

i tell you what, while my flash site at www.erova.com is decent for people to look at, the search engine traffic of the resume site has been phenomenal. one of my biggest gigs right now found my site when they were looking for something completely different, but some of the keywords came together and brought it right up.

i'd highly recommend it.

[pheck]

small world erova. i do a lot of work with LWW too in response to your thread, i think what you have done is tactful and industry-standard. i wouldn't concern yourself too much about it.

[Hellsbellboy]

How did you promote your site so well?

I like your sites, their very clean, and professional.