Interview???

[Charlie E]

Hello,

When I message a freelancer who has applied to my job posting, does this show up as being an "interview"?

I may message several freelancers if they have not provided for example, a link to their portfolio. Sometimes this happens. 

It's really as far from an "interview" as could possiblly be. 

Any plans on changing how you use this word on the platform?

[Nichola L]

On the freelancer side, we see a box which says "accept interview" or "decline interview". If the freelancer accepts then it is, in effect, at interview stage, but you award the job to whom you like. I have sometimes been "interviewed", and then  the job is awarded to someone else.

The word may be misleading, but IMHO, there are other, far  more important issues that should be addressed, such as the entire message system.

[Preston H]

It's just a word.

There's no clear way to change or improve this.

The Upwork computer system has no way of knowing if you contacted a job candidate to ask that she send you a link to your portfolio, or if you asked her Question Number One in your internal Formal Interview Process.

Yes, if you contact a candidate, they enter into the "interview" stage. They will appear in your list of candidates being "interviewed" until:

a) you decline their application

b) you hire them

c) you close/cancel the job

[or]

d) they withdraw their application

[Robert A]

For those of us working in the space of intellectual and creative property, the Interview process is far from advantegous.  Where on Elance you could discuss general approaches to marketing and PR strategies and NOT

their specific venture, Upwork encourages it and already, three such people used our ideas on their website and never hired us.  I would like Upwork to consider adopting Elance's method to NOT allow discussion of their specific needs/strategies to ensure our creative ideas not being taken.

RCA

[Preston H]

Robert:

You're right.

Clients (or, really "potential clients") CAN steal your ideas when you talk to them during an interview.

Upwork doesn't really have any way to prevent this.

But you do. You need to do manage this yourself. Make sure you are careful about what you discuss with clients BEFORE they hire you. Make sure they set up a contract with you before you get into substantive discussions.

Clients should expect to pay for all the work contractors do. That includes paying for early discussions about the project.

[Terri M]

I agree the freelancer must manage the situation on interviews.  I find myself much more trusting of my client at times when I shouldn't be.  I just recently had a client interview me and get me started on their work, had me sign an NDA and never finished setting me up on Upwork to be paid.  At the end of the week when I had requested 3 times to be set up with a real contract, and had 9.5 hours in, he decided he didn't want me on the project.  But he did take my ideas for process and procedure for his company and hire someone else straight off Upwork to do the work.  Hopefully I'll get paid for what I did.  I won't get caught in this situation again!  I did learn a lesson here. But it does make me angry that clients will take advantage of the situation.

[John K]

Terri,

A conscientious client might compensate you for doing work without a contract, but there's no legal obligation for doing so. This is why Upwork policy forbids jobs that require free work, for example, but if a freelancer voluntarily works for free then the freelancer is at the mercy of the client.

I will discuss a project with a client prior to hire, but will draw the line at providing project deliverables. And I really can't conceive of a situation in which I would spend 9.5 hours on a client without a contract.

[Marcia M]

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@Terri M wrote:

 At the end of the week when I had requested 3 times to be set up with a real contract, and had 9.5 hours in,

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You have nobody but yourself to blame for this. You chose to work without a contract.