How to hire a professional

[97f1bc74]

Hello

I'm new here and don't know how to choose a professional. How should I know it's not a fraud? There are some many negative comments about Upwork freelancers and some of their names are mentioned as blacklisted. But what about others? I was just looking for the freelancer for the rating job (have 5 texts to rate). And the sample I've received from a freelancer is just the same variant that I tried on **Edited for Community Guidelines** http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ and the second one is from **Edited for Community Guidelines** http://essay-grader.com/ ** Why should I pay for such rating, if it's taken from free sources? I want quality, not just a simple check on the Internet.

Thanks

Brian

[gbalint]

Preston? Are you around? 🙂

[versailles]

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@brian S wrote:

Hello

I'm new here and don't know how to choose a professional. How should I know it's not a fraud? There are some many negative comments about Upwork freelancers and some of their names are mentioned as blacklisted. But what about others? I was just looking for the freelancer for the rating job (have 5 texts to rate). And the sample I've received from a freelancer is just the same variant that I tried on **Edited for Community Guidelines** and the second one is from **Edited for Community Guidelines** Why should I pay for such rating, if it's taken from free sources? I want quality, not just a simple check on the Internet.

Thanks

Brian

---

 Brian, while there are fraudsters on Upwork, there are also professionals who work here almost full-time. I don't know what you mean by rating job, but as a newbie client, what you need is:

- Hire people with a solid track record on Upwork. People who have been around for a while, with many jobs done and a job success score over 90%.

- If your job involves a substantial amount of money, ask for a short video interview. 

- Copy their photo and a sentence or two from their profile and paste them in Google search to see if they haven't lifted someone else's profile. Scammers do that.

- If they are very cheap, they are cheap. Period.

Also, no advance payment. Upwork has hourly and fixed price protections in place.

[97f1bc74]

Thanks Rene,

I just don't want to pay for the same work twice. Will try to choose the best professionals. Perhaps, will need to over-pay.

[wlyonsatl]

Upwork has guidelines and rules for clients, which you should take the time to read and understand. You should also read the guidelines and rules for freelancers, so you understand how they are supposed to use Upwork and deal with you as their client.

I only use Upwork as a freelancer, so I hope users who are regular Upwork clients will also answer your question. If I did decide to hire on Upwork, these are some guidelines I’d use:

• Follow Upwork’s rules and protocols to the letter during your first few projects. Don’t cut corners to get around those rules and protocols, until you really understand how Upwork works. Even then, only deviate from Upwork’s recommendations when dealing with freelancers you have already worked with and know well.
• Avoid freelancers whose fees are substantially below the amounts most freelancers are bidding on your project (taking into account freelancers in low-cost countries charge less than freelancers in high-cost-of-living countries and any difference in the quality of work you see in any samples they provide you). (But also see 7) below.)
• Don’t hire a freelancer who has not provided samples of their work to you
• Don’t hire a freelancer without first having a phone or Skype conversation with them
• Don’t prepay any freelancer for any work. (Using Upwork’s escrow system for fixed-price projects is not prepayment. You control release of those funds to the freelancer unless you ignore the 14-day limit for your feedback on work submitted.)
• Don’t use any freelancer who wants you to pay them using any method other than Upwork’s payment system.
• If you hire a freelancer with no track record of work on Upwork, give them a small task involving a small amount of work worth a small amount of money. If a freelancer is new to Upwork and offers you attractive pricing in order to get a first or second project under their belt, at least consider their offer and accept it if they don’t send up any red flags under the list above. Everybody has to start somewhere.
• Don’t rely excessively on Upwork’s Job Success Score (JSS) in selecting a freelancer. No one here knows exactly how the JSS is calculated, but we do know it includes some factors a freelancer can’t control (such as unreasonable feedback from previous clients). Upwork’s default minimum score of 90 when you set up a project as a client could mean you’ll miss perfectly good freelancers with scores of 88, 89, etc. But, if a freelancer has a dreadful score (is a JSS of, say, 40 even possible?), then it may be prudent not to consider them for your project.

There are a lot of hard-working, conscientious freelancers on Upwork, but there are bound to be a few bad apples that Upwork hasn’t discovered and had a chance to get rid of. It’s probably a lot like a game of whack-a-mole for Upwork, so you are your own best protector against these thieves.

[prestonhunter]

Try to hire great professionals.

Hire many people. Maybe just for an hour or two. Quickly stop working with everyone other than the best few.

Even if you hire great professionals, be ready to stop working with them if things aren't working out.

Not every client-freelancer relationship clicks. You don't owe them an ongoing commitment no matter who they are. Your loyalty should be to your project.

If the success of your project depends on one person, it is structured incorrectly.

[prestonhunter]

"Interviews" are guessing.

Carefully reviewing work you paid for is not guessing.

[97f1bc74]

Thanks Preston,

Can't hire many of them, unfortunately. But will try to do my best and check profiles thoroughly.

[97f1bc74]

Thanks, Will

Will try to find the best freelancers.

[tamashita]

Find proven performers with the top rated badge and high job success score or look for the rising talent badge to find pros new to Upwork with strong potential.

This is all I can say   It is going to help!