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jorgemoreno101
Community Member

Job questions

I feel obliged to make a suggestion. Maybe other freelancers have raised the issue. When a client posts a job, Im assuming you provide standardized questions for them to ask since its always the same questions. "why do you feel you are a good fit for this particular project? Do you have any suggestions to make this project run more successfully?", etc. This question suggestions need to be eliminated. If the client has specific questions regarding their job post for the freelancers they should ask them. I appreciate when the questions are actually from the client and not the standardized questions. This questions that keep coming up in job posts just make my proposals sound derivative and redundant. And with half of them there is no good answer until you actually have a conversation with the client.

7 REPLIES 7
wendellanderson
Community Member

Absolutely correct, Jorge, These questions are more for candiates for full-time positions than for freelancers, especially for one-off jobs. Would these clients ask the same questions to roofers or landscapers or plumbers? Also, most clients don't even know what the answers mean or how to judge the responses. I've seen this happen many times in the work world when employees, other than HR professinals, ask such canned questions to job candidates. Few know how to evaluate the answers. I've  gotten to the point that when I see these questions, I don't apply for the gig. I like to work with professionals who know what they want.

Wendell Anderson

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Jorge,

 

Thank you for your feedback. I'll be sure to share those with the rest of the team for consideration.

~ Bojan
Upwork
hermanng
Community Member

yea, I find those questions extremely silly 

Do you have any suggestions to make this project run more successfully? Yes, hire me!

"why do you feel you are a good fit for this particular project?" If I didn't I wouldn't waste my connects

 

the answers above would be my answers so I do not bother applying 

Just a waste of time

 

Just as bad are those emails with job proposals I get (top rated perk) 10 or so job proposals which are not invites, but will cost connects and when you check the jobs they are already 3 or 4 days old and have 50+ applications -  "great perk"

browersr
Community Member


Jorge M wrote:

 And with half of them there is no good answer until you actually have a conversation with the client.


This is key and probably accounts for far more than 50%. I particularly love when the posting is a few short sentences but the canned questions are many all assuming information that the client gave no insight into. We've been complaining about these ridiculous questions for years. Not expecting any change. 


Scott B wrote:

Jorge M wrote:

 And with half of them there is no good answer until you actually have a conversation with the client.


This is key and probably accounts for far more than 50%. I particularly love when the posting is a few short sentences but the canned questions are many all assuming information that the client gave no insight into. We've been complaining about these ridiculous questions for years. Not expecting any change. 


Yes, my favourite question is when the client gives you virtually no information about their project and then asks, "What previous project have you done that's most like this one and why?" I always put, "If you could share some details about your project, then I'd be happy to answer this question." But I've decided that it's a waste of time bidding on such projects, so I'm avoiding them now.

Many of these are questions that I don't take too seriously.

 

I just think of them as opportunities to show a little of myself - who I am as a person, and a freelancer.

 

Let's be brutally honest about something:

When we apply to job postings, most of the proposals the client receives are pretty awful.

 

Answering these questions, no matter how little you may think of the questions, may seem ridiculous, but our answers serve to distinguish us from the other freelancers applying to the same job. Even if it is in something as seemingly inconsequential as our English language ability. This is probably not fair, if a client is hiring for a job in which English language ability is irrelevent. But it's true.

 

(By the way, this is why whenever I create job postings for work which does not require English speaking or writing ability, such as graphic design or illustration work, I intentionally eliminate the free-form job proposal section and eliminate all questions except a simple "yes/no" question asking if they're available to start work soon.)

It is the "why" part that gets me it is so ....... it's like an
interviewer asks the interviewee "why are you performing" and the answer is
"for the money of course"
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