Auto hide application

[Belal K]

But i am not copy paste my cover latter but why is auto hidden . and i am 100% Recommended . have 5 star feedback . work 7 clients and work 10 projecft but why i am auto hidden .

[Christopher G]

I have submitted a lot of applications recently, I admit some copy paste especially on the ending phrases but it's just supposed to be common spiels.

Now I havent got any response from all the applications I sent out and I just knew that my applications were on Auto Hide too. I guess it's time to stop applying for now since it's quite annoying not to get a single reply just because our applications are hidden.

[Preston H]

I am certain that something is going on with my account too. I was getting about fifty percent response rate to my applications a couple months ago, and now... Nothing at all.

[Ronald T]

Kudos for PH! Thanks for your input.

I have suspected that new freelancers are showing up in client searches for freelancers more frequently; similar to new clients' job postings showing up more frequently in freelancer searches for jobs.

I tried to gather data to study that further along with other things to no avail. Just not enough data to determine what is going on let alone to determine a work-around.

Edited 01/08/2015 RT/lwm

[Anoop S]

No good to see this feature of Odesk.

[Nikhil S]

It seems like Odesk promote very unexperinced freelancers to increase freelancres count at Odesk.

But clients should understand that hidden applications are just for Odesk profit not for their.

[Shamsul A]

I am working odesk last 3.5 years and still my feedback is 4.89. But Odesk is trying to destroy my freelancing life by using auto hidden problem. You really don't want to work in odesk any more if you don't get a single responce after 300 - 500 bids. Auto hidden system just wast our valuable times. 

Most of the time Auto hidden system kill the professional established freelancer. I also see that  New contractor is not effected by Auto hidden system. Can anyone realize this horrible politic?

Now I have two ways. One is just wasting time with valueless biding. and 2nd is to start working other freelancing market place. But at the end of the times I will lost my Loving Odesk profile. You don't know what a hard works and how many times I have invested to build my Odesk profile. Day by Day I am being hopeless from Odesk.

[Aseem B]

I strongly suggest that odesk should conduct a survey for established freelancers if they had experienced a fall in response rate from clients ever since this Auto Hide feature came into effect. There is no way an algorithm should be allowed to match if freelancer is a good fit for a job based on profile text. There is a reason HR people in big IT companies go through CVs by themselves instead of letting a program sort them out.

Quite recently I went through a job posting that require a desktop software and client wanted a programmer who is proficient in Windows and Linux programming language(He mentioned language instead of Operating System) . Any programmer can spot this client as someone who is not sure of what his technical requirements are and need some guidance. Similarly some clients tend to put in skills required in the job postings that are not relevant and even though a freelancer clearly qualifies for the job, he might go into the hidden tab and client will give him less preference than others.

This feature effects both contractors and clients badly. Even though some clients may like this feature as they think that odesk is hiding irrelevant applications, they are unknowingly at a disadvantage with this as they will miss a chance to find a good match for their job.

This feature would have made sense if it was hiding applications based on just location preferences and client's budget instead of making things so complex. Also it should be made transparent to contractors if their application will go into the hidden tab or not as each job application require an effort. I spend a lot of time to search and filter out every single job posting that fit my skills and then consider a lot of things while writing a cover letter. My average time spent per application is sometimes more than 20 minutes and I used to have a 75% response rate when I started out at odesk. Now that I have clocked in more than 1200 hours with a feedback rating of 4.77, I am getting almost zero response. 

[Ronald T]

Great input AB! With regard to "a survey for established freelancers," I believe that oDesk already has all the data they would need to determine what is going on. I can see what is going on but just cannot figure out the reasoning behind it.

Edited 01/08/2015 RT/lwm

[Aseem B]

Hi Ronald

I have an interesting theory regarding what is wrong. While sorting my job search by "clients that spend most $" , I came across an odesk representative(I could only find one). I went through his job history and noticed only 2 job postings for QA Engineers. Although the job post says that work requires 40 hr/week, I notice that first job in October only clocked in 22 hrs. Second job post that is currently active had only clocked in 34 hrs in month of december. 

I hope odesk has a lot of similar staffing managers and other jobs that are not visible on this profile. If not then apparently  only 56 hours of QA testing had been done in last three months while the developers I see have clocked in hundreds of hours.

I humbly request the QA department of odesk to please pick up their pace and stop such faulty features from being implemented. I think I will apply to some of these jobs soon 

PS: I re-iterate that this is a theory. I do not want to make any acquisitions upon odesk. I just want them to do something about the issues that are being raised in this community and on their support ticket system instead of just being "Understanding"