Testing candidates ended up with time wasting activity

[55412ef5]

Hi There,

I have a private project, which i was working on (a year), i have tried to speed up the development, which is anyway an open-source project, so i tried to pay for it.

I have created a test task for one day trial, as i was not able to really judge according to references, and codes which could have been easily copied over.

The test was simple, how agencies and freelancers solve a problem within a day, which cannot be solved within a day. So i was interested how companies and freelancers are solving problems:

Question asked:
1) They are directly speaking to me about the problem
2) Try to make it hidden
3) The leader punishes his collegue for extra free hours

4) They are trying to make some part of the task and send it to me to be able to evaluate
5) Asking for easier task

6) Fleeing from the task

Point 4 was happened once, but didn't follow the first sentence of the task...The winner also would have been paid for that period, as it was practically the project start.

I think i should have found an angular / react, javascript developer, as there are hundred thousands in the world.

On upwork i had 8 candidates, and at the end of the day, i have got none.

One of them started the task, but didn't follow the first sentence of mine.

Is it that difficult to find a professional on this site with these technologies, which has been used by millions or even a billion?

Now i need to finish my work alone, which takes several month. 😞

I found it also interesing if i would advertise myself, my rate would be lower, than other ones with third of the experience of mine. I also found it interesting that i had to explain my testing method later on to a company, which has been used against me in my whole career. The first sentence of my task was talking about "html div element shown as red dots on the screen" (attached image), which should have been cristal clear to anyone.

[jmlaidlaw]

I cannot follow most of what you have written here. For example, under "Question asked" -- is that a list of what you wanted people to do? Of responses you received to some problem you set up?

Did you ask for free work? Was this a hypothetical problem? A one-day task? Paid or unpaid?

Your posting here is fairly incomprehensible.

I **THINK** that the gist of it is that you set up some kind of "test" that you may have expected people to work on for free. You claim that you would have paid the "winner" of your "test" (contest?). You had unsatisfactory results of various types. (??) You think that you, yourself, would or could work for a "rate [that] would be lower" than that of anyone who did your "test." Now you are working alone. There is something here about another company that is apparently a rival of yours (I think) to which you "had" to "explain" your "testing method," but I don't understand why that should be an imperative, and I don't quite get where that fits into your sorrows.

This should all all "have been cristal clear" to the peabrains with whom you came into contact. For reasons mysterious to you, this was not "cristal clear to anyone."

You feel very sorry for yourself and you are quite the victim. UpWork offers only incompetent and unsatisfactory workers.

Do I have that about right?  Honestly, it's very difficult to tell.

[petra_r]

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@Szabo P wrote:
The winner also would have been paid for that period, as it was practically the project start.

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 Only the "winner" ???

If you expected people to work for a day without paying each and every single one of them, you not only have your answer why you ended up with nobody (because nobody in their right mind spends a day working for free) you're also heading towards having your account suspended for asking for free work (yes, your freelancer account as well)

Plus if you communicated your requirements with the same lack of clairity as you demonstrated in your forum post, it is no wonder nobody had a clue what the heck you could possibly be talking about.....

[melaniekhenson]

I'm with Petra on this one...your wording is a bit confusing, but are you asking for freebies, offering very low rates, etc.? Don't do the former - that's against TOS. As for the latter, I don't want to sound trite but you may be getting what you're paying for (or will be, if you eventually hire anyone). Those are generalizations but they do seem to apply to how you're describing your issue. 

[versailles]

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@Szabo P wrote:

Is it that difficult to find a professional on this site 

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It’s quite the opposite. Zillions of clients hire high-end experts on Upwork and come back to hire more. In your case, there was no way it could have happened, although.

All the professional freelancers who saw your job posting zapped it laughing. Other than contests being totally not allowed at all on Upwork, what makes you believe that a professional developer, who has no issues with finding clients, would want to work for free, hoping to get accepted at the end?

The true pros find clients easy. They don't need to perform unpaid tests.

What remains is the very bottom of the barrel. You had a taste of those.

[colettelewis]

Szabo the problem is not entirely your fault.

However, if you come to a site like Upwork for cheap freelancers, you do need to be able explain what you are looking for in understandable English. So it is not very surprising that you have had a bad experience.

You would be much better off paying a bit more to an independent freelancer who is a bit closer to you geographically and who speaks your language.

[financemark]

It is THIS sort of junk that undermines UW  -

STOP SEEKING FREE WORK ----

[prestonhunter]

I think the original poster was trying to find the right freelancer for his project by asking multiple prospective candidates to do free test work.

That is a waste of a client's time.

The right approach, to save time AND money, is for the client to hire multiple prospective candidates and evaluate the work they actually do while getting paid. That's the only way to know what kindo of freelancers you are dealing with.

For a large project, it would certainly be reasonable to hire 10 or more developers for an hour or two and then choose only the best among them to actually do the full project.

[holymell]

This is one of the more disturbing and entitled posts I've seen on this forum.

I am thrilled that none of those freelancers humored this client. He/she is clearly upset that no one did free work for them. 🙄

[sam-sly]

It sounds like you were asking for an unpaid test?

That is actually against Upwork's terms and conditions. I think you are not likely to find an actual professional that would do what you requested for free. Those who would try are probably desperate and are not able to find work the right way.  Also, if your budget is not high enough you are less likely to attract a professional.

I am sorry if I misunderstood, your post was kind of confusing.

[tlsanders]

Szabo, the problem is that all of the candidates who agreed to participate in your test are low-end providers who are having difficulty finding work. Qualified professionals do not engage in contests to win payment for their jobs, nor do they devote full days to free "test" projects.

If you wanted to hire someone who was well-qualified and professional, you would have had to pay a fair rate for any testing that you required (and this would still have undoubtedly put the best freelancers out of the running, as they have plenty of paying work that is a sure thing).

[zoomconcepts]

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@Szabo P wrote:

The test was simple, how agencies and freelancers solve a problem within a day, which cannot be solved within a day.

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You gave a bunch of people ready to waste a day on a free test a task you knew was impossible. You didn't post a job or a project, you posted a sociological/psychological experiment wrapped in hard-to-understand English. And you wonder why the next Steve Jobs didn't spring from it.