Client Requests Work Before Job Offer

[#1]

So there's this client who wishes for me to do a Voice Over job first before giving out a job offer. It's quite a lengthy script at about 19.5k words and I'm unsure if I should continue with this. He is expecting it next week. The pay is quite tempting although since there isn't any Job Offer yet, I'm very skeptical. Any tips? Thanks in advance.

**Edited for community guidelines**

[#2]

just reply "that's gonna be a no from me, dawg."

[#3]

re: "The pay is quite tempting although since there isn't any Job Offer yet, I'm very skeptical. Any tips?"

There is no contract in place.

The pay is zero dollars and zero cents.

Two points:

a) If the client does not send you an official Upwork contract offer, which you accept, then there is no contract. The client is not planning to pay you anything. The client is tricking you to work for free.

b) If the client DOES pay you, without an Upwork contract in place, then both you and the client are in violation of one of Upwork's most important rules. You could both have your accounts terminated.

[#4]

Do not ever do any work without being paid first. I would just tell the “client” that you would be happy to do the job once you are hired.

[#5]

Okay, thanks for the replies. I'm in sort of a predicament because he sent me this contract which I stupidly signed. He said he'll only be able to pay me after I do the work for him because it's for educational videos in Udemy in which it'll only generate revenue after perhaps a month of it being up there. I was promised to get 10% of the monthly sales after the course gets published. 😕

[#6 · Accepted solution]

re: "Okay, thanks for the replies. I'm in sort of a predicament because he sent me this contract which I stupidly signed. He said he'll only be able to pay me after I do the work for him because it's for educational videos in Udemy in which it'll only generate revenue after perhaps a month of it being up there. I was promised to get 10% of the monthly sales after the course gets published"

You are not in a predicament.

The contract does not mean anything.

Essentially everything this client is doing is in violation of Upwork rules.

This person is wasting your time. Block him so that he can no longer send messages to you.

[#7]

Alright. If anything legal happens, I'll ask around again. I'm pretty nervous about this lol. Thank you!

[#8]

Hi Ernestine Gabriel,

Thanks for flagging this for us. I've checked and it looks like a reported account has already been actioned in accordance with Upwork ToS.

Please, check this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs.

Thank you!