[ziles88]

This was only a slight problem a few years ago. Now the landscape is quickly changing. You'll find a lot of employers specifically seeking "onshore" workers. They usually state it's because of timezone differences, but their off the record comments clearly point at them associating offshore with low quality work from past experiences. The trick to spot them is look for employers that have had many job postings already and whose posts show they care about the technology. If it looks like the product owner themself posting, or they are talking specific modern technologies, or asking for github accounts for reference, then there is a good chance they respect quality. I have had amazing success using this strategy. The first two jobs I took both employers almost forced me into taking a higher pay they were so happy to finally find somebody who can deliver quality and communicate effectively. The market corrects itself, I watched myself as my former employer fired and hired 4-6 cheap workers in a row until he finally became fed-up and reposted the job for triple the starting rate.

So yeah, spot the guys who have done their fair share of hiring, the ones who have been burned already, and hit them with your best quality focused pitch. I take this controlled approach, bid high, and do my research.

I think if these sites need improving at all, it's putting the spotlight more on the employer. These lowballers will become more visible to the seasoned developer who will avoid them, thereby only attracting the lower quality workers who don't even bother to read past the title of the job post. Half the battle is these employers just don't always know better yet, let em loose a few thousand and they'll come around quickly.