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m-odeh7
Community Member

As a client, what really makes you hire a freelancer?

As a client, what really makes you hire a freelancer?

Share with me the reasons that makes you hire or interview a freelancer and the reasons to not or decline.
looking forward for your experiences.

34 REPLIES 34
amlord
Community Member

I think this is a great question. I know everyone is different, but I'd be interested in hearing what clients have to say about how they choose who to (or not to) hire.

t-hall
Community Member

I look for people who 'get it'. meaning they ask questions, understand my business, and try to intiate conversation about how they can make my project better.

 

I avoid people who are short in discussion because it generally feels like they don;t care or couldn;t be bothered. Just looking for a pay check.

 

That aside, I look for credibility and trust. can this person back up their claims?

 

If they are sky to get on Skype, I'm left to wonder why. Although I rarely do Skype video, if you apply for any job in hte B&M world, you meet face to face and you both have a chance to know eachother. You can tell a lot by someone's live answers to your questions and their facial expressions.  Just 'talk' to me. People who hide usually have a reason to hide, and that takes away from the trust factor in a big way. i realize some freelancers don;t think it should be nessesary to have a Skype video chat, but honestly.... would you hire someone locally if they refused to come meet you and insisted on talking only over the phone or email?

 

Address MY needs. Don't tell me how great you are and talk about all your experience. Most of the time that can;t be validated anyways, so there is a lot of 'fake'.

 

Work on the relationship side of things. We are not robots. Become friendly, but be professional at the same time.

 

Tell me how you understand my needs in a way that I didn;t think of asking. Be assertive and confident.

 

Want to get the interview when your peers aren't? 'Talk' to me in your cover letter.

 

I land interviews much more often than my peers because I treat the client as a human being, not a wallet. I take their ideas and add to them. I talk about doing what's economically best for them today, while keeping the future in mind. I look at their big picture, not just the posted task.

 

Hope that helps. Could probably write a book on this topic, but this is the main difference between getting an interview or not for decent sized gigs. If you cut/paste a cover letter, don't 'talk' to the client, and generally show little concern for their well being... you'll probably end up with clients who care just as little about you as you have shown them 🙂

 

Cheers

t-hall
Community Member

and yes, I make a lot of typos, lol. Deal with it 😄

dgsunder
Community Member

Hello! Just wanted to give a bit of perspective re: skyping as a freelancer. I am a young woman in my twenties and I don't really love to skype with people I am interviewing unless there seems to be a good reason to do so. But that's because I have no idea what the person on the other end is going to do and as a young woman there are a lot of skeevy possibilities =/ So unless there is something that ought to be discussed over skype that can't be easily explained over messaging, I'm not so keen on it!

I'm in voice work and editing, by the way. Just another perspective!!

t-hall
Community Member

Yeah, I understand. That's the problem. No one trusts anyone. As a client, I wouldn't want to spend my money on someone who doesn;t trust me, nor someone who I'm not sure is actually them. I've come across a couple people in my time here who aren't who they say they are. The lack of trust is a BIG reason why I wouldn't ever post an important job on a freelance site. Too risky.

t-hall
Community Member

And FYI:

 

As a freelancer, I've only had to get on video for one client in my time here. The client did a Google hangout staff meeting every week.

 

As a client, I haven't used video yet. Although I have worked live with a freelancer via Skype voice chat together. When training, I've spent entire shifts for up to a week screen sharing and talking on Skype. it realy helped build our relationship and because I became more trusting, I also become more lenient.

I disagree with your statement "that people who hide have something to hide" as being a freelancer I am not too comfortable having a video chat with a client and the reason is plain simple I am stay at home mom and my house is most of the time messed up (thanks to my dd) and she will jump on me as soon as she will see I am on a phone call or will scream in the background which will be quite embarrassing for me . Although I am new here but I once declined an interview because the client wanted to video call but I am ok with voice call which I occasionally do with one of my client.

Which is undertandable.

 

Also consider that a professional client, looking for a professional freelancer, may likely want them to have a professional dedicated working space, free of distraction. So if you told your potential client that is the reason you cannot do a video interview, they may understand but decline you for those reasons. If I'm giving my money to someone, I need to know they are focused on the task and not juggling other things in the background.

 

Think of it this way. It doesn't matter if you are a freelancer or a local employee. The work ethic from both sides should remain just as professional. Would you hire someone as a cashier if they brought their kids to work with them? Of course not.

 

Freelancing does come with a lot of FREEdom 😉 , but for ongoing work with a solid client, it also requires a certain level of professional environment, accountability, and even stronger wrok ethic as there is no one keeping an eye on the employee to make sure they are productive and focused on the job at hand.

 

Some won't agree with me and that's absolutely fine. There is a very good reason why some people make $1/hr and some make $100. This is one of them.

 

All of this ties into the original question by the OP. If your client feels this level of professionalism during the cover letter and then interview process, you stand a much higher chance of landing that gig than someone who isn't as focused on their career.

 

There are exceptions to every rule, but I'm talking about a generalization here to land more interviews and land long-term gigs with the best of clients.

Again I disagree with you , I am looking after my child that's why I can't go out and work but that does not make me incompetent , I think I have become more competent , smart , problem solver, multi Tasker with motherhood, experience & I only work when I have alone time that's why I don't take assignments which require set no of hours. So far I have done 2 jobs and both my clients are satisfied with my work.

"... and she will jump on me as soon as she will see I am on a phone call or will scream in the background which will be quite embarrassing for me "

 

"... & I only work when I have alone time. ..."

 

Do you see the discrepancy here?

 

I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but this is what I'm talking about. At one point you decline a client's wishes for a very specific reason, and then the next moment you disagree, countering with a statement that goes against your very own words.

 

As freelancers, we all need to be honest, to the point, mean what we say, and do what we claim. If I were a client considering to hire you, and you contradicted yourself like this during our conversations, you would not get the job.

 

Don't take that personally. I'm trying to help with a dose of reality.

 

When you contradict your own words, how could I put faith in other things you tell me? Do you tell me what I want to hear, or do you tell me the reality. Trust is absolutely KEY to getting interviewed and to land quality jobs from quality clients. I can't stress that enough.

 

I didn't come to oDesk with a great education or amazing experience. I came here with a strong work ethic and a desire to learn. Overnight, my hourly rate went from $10/hr sales jobs to $35 minimum.. with absolutely no life changes other than finding a place where people found a higher value to the skills I have to offer.

 

How did I get my first few gigs to build up a half decent profile? I was honest with my clients and treated them professionally and as real people. I did not call them 'Sir', I did not claim to be anything I wasn't. In return, they gave me repeated work and great reviews.. aside from a couple that I actually dropped due to their corrupt actions.

 

Trust. Trust. Trust.

 

We all have made mistakes in the past, and we all have done stupid things that would make people not trust us. What we do going forward is what counts. Any words or actions that take away from trust takes you 1 step father from landing that quality job.

 

 

Omg ! Tony H pls don't misunderstand me , wat I am trying to say is when a client want me to have video interview I cannot give him certain fixed time for that as I don't know what time will be peaceful to talk but if the client says that you have to finish certain task by tomorrow than I can work when I am at peace anytime of the day . Again I would say I am new here so only had one instance when I denied video call . I am still trying to make a mark and you are much more experienced then me so maybe you can give a better advice to fellow freelancers but I just didn't agree with one of your point that's it . I was not trying to offend you .

Just trying to inject a bit of balance here...It's entirely possible to be a fully competent, highly professional freelancer without your client knowing what you look like or what your workspace looks like. Yes, it's all about trust, but if it involves a client who doesn't trust me till they've seen me on a video, then really I wouldn't want to know them anyway.

 

I've built a fine professional reputation on here by the quality of work I provide and the way I communicate with my clients - but I don't and won't do Skype (partly because of bandwidth problems; partly because I hatethe way it tries to take over your computer and your life; and party because I just don't like it, and can work and communicate very well without it), and I certainly will never do a video interview. We discuss a job and a deadline; I do the job to the deadline, keeping the client informed at an appropriate level; I deliver the job; and I wait till the client says they're happy, including any post-delivery changes. New clients trust me to do all this because of my profile and work history. They don't need to know whether I've got a beard right now, what a cross between a Lancashire and a Donegal accent sounds like, or whether my desk is cluttered.

No offense taken

 

There are no emotions when it comes to business 🙂

 

My point is that there should be no difference between a home work environment than there is of an employee who is expected to be in the office. It takes even more dicipline to work professionally from home because no one is watching.

 

The bigger the company hiring you, the less they care. You either do the job or don't. If you have any circumstances that affect your ability to do the job, they can easily find someone else who doesn't. This applies to not only the tasks within a contract, but also in the interview process. If they want to 'see' or get to know who they are giving money to, and the freelancer says no for any reason - there are 50 others looking for the same job and who will do what they want.

 

The best way to put yourself on top of that pile is to do what they ask, and be absolutely clear and trustworthy. It's seriously not hard to do, but seems to be an area where the freelancer ego often gets in the way. We can be our own bossess all we want, but that doesn't mean clients have to put up with it or hire us in the first place.

 

Defying a potential client's wishes is more often than not a product of our ego. For ANY reason, the more we say "I can't", the more we will hear "Thanks for applying, but ______".

 

An employer does not want to hire some middle aged man sitting on the couch in his boxer shorts, watching the Simpsons in the background with last night's open pizza box on the floor.

 

A bit of an exaggeration for the sake of a laugh but that's my point.

 

Without other committments, such as family or a local job, I've been fortunate enough to be available for scheduled times at my client's discretion. I've set my alarm for 3am many times for a 10 minute call, or even to start a full day of work.

 

That's another good point to talk about. Availability.

 

We're also much more likely to get hired if we are available at the whim of the client. It sucks, I know.. but that's life.

 

Many freelancers do this part-time. In between other committments. There is a decent sized market for people like that, but on the whole we are much more likely to get hired and retained the more we can make the client the #1 priority.

 

With that said, I'm not personally the ideal freelancer either. I do things on my terms for the most part - and the more i do that - the lesser chance I have of making good money as well. I know this and am OK with it though, because freelancing for me isn't important for the big picture.

 

People seem to feel that freelancing is being your own boss. In reality it is not. the only difference is that you MAY have an opportunity to get work done in batches by a specified due date. Those are good gigs. When a client tells you to submit xxxxx by the end of the week, and you get the work done when you feel like it, and spend the rest of teh time on the beach. That's my preferred style and I did exactly just that for 6 months in Cancun in 2013.

 

However, that is rare. Being our own boss means no one can fire us. That is not the case.

 

So anyways, to wrap this up...

 

When asking how to land interviews or actually get hired before more experienced freelancers do - the answer is simple.

 

Treat it the same as you would a local job.

 

If your situation is not a fit for a 'normal' job, you can bet it's not good for freelancing either. Yes, there are exceptions and those are the exceptions we all dream of as freelancers. Unfortunately, the market is NOT full of those types of jobs.

 

If you want to earn a reliable living as a freelancer, you need to man up and take it even more seriously than you would if you earned a promotion at the office. Not only do you need to be as professional and available during expected hours, but you also need to take that responsibility to a whole new higher level.

 

As small business owners, there is no such thing as an excuse. you either do a thing or you don't. If your source of money requires certain things from you - you provide them. If you don't for absolutely any reason other than getting hit by a car, consider yourself lucky to have that option to say no because many people don't.

 

Everyone in the world needs to eat and shelter themselves. We are lucky we don;t need to literally hunt our own food like many do. Instead we hunt new clients. Saying 'no' to a client is the same as giving up the hunt. 'No' is a luxury.

 

That is my approach to this industry as a freelancer.

 

As a client, I'm not such a *****, lol. But ultimately I know life is not nice and the reality of digitally hunting for food is not pretty. I treat business the same as I would if I hadn't eaten for 2 days and thrown into the wild with nothing but a spear.

 

If you have a broken leg and the only food is high up in a tree, you'll find a way to go get it. As a freelancer we all need to find a way.

 

Again, there are very good reasons why some make $1/hr and some $100. Why some never find work, and some are too busy.

 

Thiose reasons are very fundamental. There is NOT enough work for everyone here. All you need to do is be slightly better than the next guy. It's not hard. Being better doesn't always mean by skills or education.

 

Climb the tree. Figure it out.

t-hall
Community Member

and lol, Stephen.. my reply took longer to write than it did for you to make your post. Just in case there is any thought of reference to my open pizza box and your beard 🙂

 

We are talking about what it takes to get hired. What qualities will help a freelancer beat the others even though they may be more qualified. Given a choice - who will a client most likely hire?

 

 

dgsunder
Community Member

I have to say I find your whole stance very bizarre. The whole point of freelancing, at least from my perspective, is that it's not a 9-5 and it doesn't have to be done in an office.
For a client, the main goal is to get the work done right, and done efficiently. If the client feels that both of those conditions have been met, what does it matter what the contracter's desk looks like or what they are wearing? When I do my work, as a freelancers, I am often in sweatpants or pajamas... because I'm at my house. Not an office. And considering that I'm top-rated and have quite a lot of excellent feedback, I don't know why anyone would care what I wear when I do my work. They care that my work is good and I work very efficiently. 
Of course if a client has *doubts* that a freelancer is going to work efficiently if they have kids at home, then it's their perogative to choose another freelancer, obviously, but I think it's simpler to just say "Okay, here is my time expectation for this project" and if the person doesn't think they can meet it, move on. 

msayno
Community Member

I am not a big fan of video interviews but I would like to build rapport with new clients.. so what I do is ask them nicely to have the video on for a couple of minutes just to make sure we're talking to real persons, which is some sort of an ice breaker... besides, it's nice to see a smile...  then, turn it off to talk about the work.  In my experience, it helps a lot in gaining trust. Woman Wink

 

 

@Tony - I know you like to write big, and I won't respond to everything, but the one sentence we are in total agrement with is

 

"I do things on my terms for the most part - and the more I do that - the lesser chance I have of making good money as well."

 

Spot on - and my terms  are no Skype.

 

As for the boxers, no offence taken...

 

I leave them off when I'm working  Robot Happy  Robot Embarassed

I was on skype voice call (not even video call) with a-soon-too-be-client (a.k.a active candidancy).

He tried to stop what im doing (i was eating) and force me to talk with him first lol, it wont take long he said, and in the end he tried to persuade me to do some-cyber-s*x with him LOL

 

that was the last time I did a skype call with clients Smiley Very Happy

SERIOUSLY??? unbelievable!! 

Hi Carolina,

 

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you had with this client. Please report the job/client by submitting a Support request and listing all the details that would help us in reviewing the case and taking action against this client.

~ Vladimir
Upwork

Tony wrote, "My point is that there should be no difference between a home work environment than there is of an employee who is expected to be in the office. It takes even more dicipline to work professionally from home because no one is watching."

 

I beg to differ here. On an hourly job, the Upwork/oDesk time tracker is continuously monitoring the freelancer. I doubt many 'professional' work environments have that level of scrutiny. And as far as fixed rate jobs are concerned, the bottom line is whether the job was completed on or before the deadline. Freelancers don't get benefits that regular employees get, so they're entitled to a few perks like creating a work environment to their liking.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

Perhaps just another perspective... I don't do skype because it causes double the work...  Everything we discuss in skype, I have to note in a message to make part of the record for oDesk/upWork.  As a client, I rely on written communications with my freelancers.  1. they can refer back to it with no misunderstanding, 2. it becomes part of the record for oDesk, and 3. It provides accountability for both parties.

 

i can commiserate Caroline. on another site someone wanted to have a voice inteview for a text chat job over skype. i said we could text chat and he agreed. he was asking what i would say to a man that might say something like this ***adult chat*** and i told him i would say this ***non adult chat related*** and he kept asking me more and more adult related questions and because i was getting extremely creeped out, i said it sounds like THIS is the job you're posting and i'm not into sex chatting or voice sex chatting and good luck with your search.

 

as for the eating... well one of the rules i learned in the call center was to NOT be eating,  chewing gum or drinking liquids while on a call, so i have to side with him when he wanted you to stop eating.  i wouldn't even eat while on an in person interview or bring my coffee in with me so i definitely would make sure i'm free of food and drink while on a voice interview, and also for a text chat interview so that i'm focused. 

kingkristi
Community Member

I am both a client and a freelancer.

 

I hire based on what I can afford, so sometimes the lower bid wins out.  I do that with a full understanding that I get what I pay for, and I have gotten some work that wasn't up to par.  However, because it is something I suspected would happen if I went with a low bidder, I accepted the work gracefully and left positive feedback.  I then revised it to meet my standards.  A start to something still helps me even if I do have to clean it up.

 

If money were not an issue, I would definitely go with who seems the most experienced and the best fit for the job.  Right away I can tell by their application and their profile if I want to talk to them further or not.  The spelling mistakes and bad grammar turn me off.  English doesn't necessarily have to be your first language for me to hire you for some jobs, such as illustrations, but even then it helps because cultures are different and if you are illustrating my story it helps to be familiar with the culture.  For writing jobs, native English speaking is almost always required.  There are exceptions to every rule though.

 

For instance, I went with the low ball bid from a non native English speaker expecting bad work and got a remarkable piece.  Needless to say I rehired her and will keep using her, and paid her more than the original offer based on the quality of the work.

 

I also understand that many people apply to jobs using form letters and they don't even bother to read the description.  If they don't understand the job, I am not going to bother talking to them and will decline.

 

I have had a few that took too long to answer me back or seemed a bit abrupt.  If anything seems like a red flag I pass.

 

Now I want to speak as a freelancer. Having been on both sides, I have more problems with rude and disrespectful clients than I have ever had from a freelancer I have hired.  If clients want better applicants, start being better clients. 

 

- This involves closing a job once you have made your hires.

 

- Weed out the applicants as quickly as you can and DECLINE the ones you aren't interested in.

 

If clients do not ever answer an application (and they take a long time to fill out and pay proper attention to of I'm going to do it right) then that is rude to not even bother to tell them they're not hired  I want to be able to give my full attention to a job once I'm hired, so will try to wait a reasonable time to hear back from an application that I have submitted.  If I wait, I might miss out on other jobs.  So what freelancers have been forced to do is apply to as many as they can hoping that at least one of them will be interested.  Sometimes more than one job gets offered at a time and then this puts the freelancer in the awkward position of having to explain that yes, I was available immediately when I applied, but when you didn't answer my application in a week's time I applied to others and got hired.  Therefore I now would have to put your job at the end of the line behind the client who responded first."  I promise you that freelancers are not doing that to be unprofessional or disrespectful in any way.  They're taking on work because they need to.

 

- My next pet peeve with clients is that most don't give enough description for the freelancer to be able to make a good decision on whether or not this is a good job for them.  So give better descriptions in your post and you will get applicants who are more suited to what you need.

 

I don't want to see "I need someone to edit my book what will you charge me?"  For one, the bad sentence structure tells me right there that your book is probably in bad shape and will need a lot of work.  The clients who get my application are the ones who post a small sample of their writing so I can see the quality. 

 

Clients also need to tell what the subject matter is about.  If you want a content editor for your psychology textbook then you need to be hiring someone with a degree in that if you want them to be able to do anything with the content. 

 

I don't know if I want to do your job if you can't tell me the word count either. 

 

I can't even begin to tel if I am appropriate for your job if you can't give me those details I listed before.  So I usually skip applying and go on to a client who took the time to more thoroughly describe what they need.  But if I do apply to the job, I'm one of hundreds that are applying.  THe client has a lot of very unqualified applicants to weed through and answer each one with more description.  After hearing that you want to pay me $!0.00 to edit your 100,000 word badly written novel about football, I realize I have wasted my time and my Connects applying to something that if you would have given details in the beginning i would've passed and saved us both some time.  (I hate football).

 

- Let your freelancer take credit for their work.  You will get better quality work if their name is on it.  Otherwise, they're rushing through it so they can get a paycheck and move on to the next job.

stencilmedia
Community Member

Value for money. That doesn't mean the cheapest, but the best person for the job at a reasonable rate. They need to demonstrate they know what it is I need and have the skills to succesfully complete the project to a high standard. 

 

Anything other than that is not of much use to me. Sponsoring posts, attaching samples or directing me to links that have nothign to do with the project at hand... not a fan. 

 

The main thing that would make me not hire a freelancer, is if there's nothing in their cover letter that indicates they understand what I need. "I can do this" "ready to work" and "pick me!" aren't going to cut it!

Because of the spam applications on here the first thing I do in the job description is insert a question to be answered. The last job I posted, not one person answered the question. I gave up after that and went somewhere else. I was offering a good rate for an expert and all I got were foreign applications with bad English and grammar and low ball offers. Good native English was need for the job.


@Jean S wrote:

Because of the spam applications on here the first thing I do in the job description is insert a question to be answered. The last job I posted, not one person answered the question. I gave up after that and went somewhere else. I was offering a good rate for an expert and all I got were foreign applications with bad English and grammar and low ball offers. Good native English was need for the job.


It might also be the case that a true expert isn't eager to work with a client whose first interaction is a demand to jerk them around like a puppet on a string.  I've pretty much stopped applying to jobs that do what you ask.  I'll certainly reference the meat of a job in my cover letter, but unless you're hiring someone to act like a human parrot, please don't demean them by asking them to ape you.

 

 

I'm not that stupid Darrin. The question I use is related to something to do with the specific job and would not be unusual to be seen in a job description. You seem to have a real chip on your shoulder. Lose it. It's very unattractive.

 

You should try being an employer having to sift through 60-100 applications. 


@Jean S wrote:

 

You should try being an employer having to sift through 60-100 applications. You've worked a grand total of 7 jobs. You really don't know or understand this system very well.


Jean, it really has nothing to do with the amount of jobs someone worked on Upwork, but dignity. I would never apply to a job that asks me to put the color of the sky or something equally nonsensical as the 1st, 38th or last word of my application, and I have been here since 2009 with nearly 6000 hours clocked. It's rude, plain and simple.

 

I understand your hiring pains, I've had them too, but there are other ways to weed out the spammers and test people's attention span. Custom questions are perfect for it. Would you seriously not hire the most qualified person, just because they were too focused on their application and forgot to put whatever code word into the requested word count slot in their application? 


@Krisztina U wrote:

@Jean S wrote:

 

You should try being an employer having to sift through 60-100 applications. You've worked a grand total of 7 jobs. You really don't know or understand this system very well.


Jean, it really has nothing to do with the amount of jobs someone worked on Upwork, but dignity. I would never apply to a job that asks me to put the color of the sky or something equally nonsensical as the 1st, 38th or last word of my application, and I have been here since 2009 with nearly 6000 hours clocked. It's rude, plain and simple.

 

I understand your hiring pains, I've had them too, but there are other ways to weed out the spammers and test people's attention span. Custom questions are perfect for it. Would you seriously not hire the most qualified person, just because they were too focused on their application and forgot to put whatever code word into the requested word count slot in their application? 


That's my point Kristiana. I ask a questions that is relevant to the job. For a writer I would say something to the effect "Have you ever written any ecological articles. Please let me know. Not a requirement, but it would be nice.

 

That's it. I'll then continue on with the description of what I want for the article gig. I've hired many here and never had problems like I am now experiencing.


@Jean S wrote:
For a writer I would say something to the effect "Have you ever written any ecological articles. Please let me know. Not a requirement, but it would be nice.

Keep in mind that your phrasing implies that not addressing your request is equivalent to a "No" answer.  It might be an extra bit of courtesy to given an explicit answer, but to make it sound like (or be) a dealbreaker question does not reflect well on your approach to the hiring process.  I'm all for blaming Upwork for the things they're doing wrong, but your case would be better made if you also acknowledged the shortcomings on your side as well.

 


@Jean S wrote:

You seem to have a real chip on your shoulder. Lose it. It's very unattractive.


Funny, but it really seems to be you who is bearing too much of a burden based on your latest hiring snafu.  Lashing out at me in frustration won't help, but I'm not about to take it personally.


You should try being an employer having to sift through 60-100 applications. 


You should try to imagine that maybe, just maybe, I've been through plenty of hiring decisions on both sides of the table.  There's something wrong with your hiring process if you're not adequately managing both the quantity and quality of the candidates.  Apart from whatever woes Upwork is causing, you still need to look at what you should be changing internally to fix the problems you're seeing.

 

47fc74a9
Community Member

I look for people who 'get it'. meaning they ask questions, understand my business, and try to intiate conversation about how they can make my project better.

 

I avoid people who are short in discussion because it generally feels like they don;t care or couldn;t be bothered. Just looking for a pay check.

47fc74a9
Community Member

 i am free here 

 

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