I freelance and I employ via Upwork. So not meaning to be rude, but if you haven’t already done it, I think you would have a better perspective if you try hiring for a few jobs yourself.
I do work (volunteer) with clients, and I give them the same tips. And, they work.
I stand by my words about screening questions. I refuse to engage in such things. I have never seen a job I cared about with silly questions. Clients can obtain all the information they need by following the best practices and the tips I included. More importantly, most skilled freelancers will not go near jobs with screening questions, for the reasons I mentioned.
I'm well aware of the issues with freelancers, but if you make problematic posts, you won't get the quality you are wanting. Those questions, as I said, are a sign that, usually, the client will be a pain. They are also not doing their job of vetting the freelancer. Answering the questions is either irrelevant, or giving the client free work. The tips I gave you are valid. Freelancers and clients have to do heavy vetting. Screening questions, are not vetting, and a scammer will have someone, or more often something "AI" - chatbots, do the questions for them.
If post a job for details of the 100 biggest companies in the world. It is considered free work to send 2 sample rows of data?
If you post a job for details on the 100 biggest companies - no one will talk to you. If you mean you are posting a specific job, and you ask for two generic lines of code, that's fine, although I have never heard of a professional hiring that way, either on a platform or in the physical world.
I guarantee you, professionals are not requiring applicants to do part of the job for free, before they are hired. I know headhunters, and I have worked with them, and no one does this except on platforms like this. Samples are one thing, and should be included in the proposal or as part of the CV. It should be samples from the freelancer, unrelated to the specific job.
That, to me, is insane and you probably have little idea on how many fake experiences and skills (e.g. good standard of written English) freelancers are claiming to have.
LOL. Oh, I know millions are fake and fake their profile. Probably almost as many scam clients. Why do you think I keep telling people they must be responsible for themselves and assume everyone is a thief, until proven otherwise?
However, I totally understand if a client is asking you to give them specific design samples for their new logo.
OK, so now you seem to be agreeing with me. If a client wants to see previous work, as long as the freelancer has permission from the client to use it, or they use their own work, it's fine. If the client wants the freelancer to do some new work, for anything, including your project, then it is not OK, and you are asking for free work, a TOS violation. If you want to test a freelancer, post a small, paid job.
