Mentor?

angelina_cook · ‎05-22-2019

Hello!
I am new to being a VA. I have been getting spammed with contract offers but almost all of them seem too good to be true (and all of them end up being scams). I was wondering if an experienced VA could help me.

martina_plaschka · ‎05-22-2019

Angelina C wrote:
Hello!
I am new to being a VA. I have been getting spammed with contract offers but almost all of them seem too good to be true (and all of them end up being scams). I was wondering if an experienced VA could help me.

Pretty much anything that you get unsolicited will be a scam, and no real person on this planet sends checks to strangers for them to buy office equipment (just in case somebody offers that to you...)

Mentoring in the usual sense will be hard to find on an online platform - you are basically asking your competition for free advice, which they might not be willing to give.

But there's a lot of good advice in the forum, as well as the upwork help section, of course, so make good use of that!

jessicasimko · ‎05-22-2019

Martina P wrote:
Angelina C wrote:
Hello!
I am new to being a VA. I have been getting spammed with contract offers but almost all of them seem too good to be true (and all of them end up being scams). I was wondering if an experienced VA could help me.
Pretty much anything that you get unsolicited will be a scam, and no real person on this planet sends checks to strangers for them to buy office equipment (just in case somebody offers that to you...)
Mentoring in the usual sense will be hard to find on an online platform - you are basically asking your competition for free advice, which they might not be willing to give.
But there's a lot of good advice in the forum, as well as the upwork help section, of course, so make good use of that!

This has not been my experience. I often get direct job offers with absolutly no conversation and no proposal. I just don't accept them right away. I talk to them, get alll the details and feel it out. I would say the majority of them are real jobs.

allergywriter · ‎05-22-2019

Trust your instincts.

If it is too good to be true, it is.

Never work for free - that includes "free trial" periods.

If you value yourself, others will value you.

I'm not a mentor, but if you need to ask a question and are too embarassed to ask in the forum (some of the more experienced FLs can be a tad bit brutual) you can PM me.

Be sure to read the threads here on a regular basis to learn from the mistakes of others.

good luck!

prestonhunter · ‎05-22-2019

re: "Mentoring in the usual sense will be hard to find on an online platform..."

Mentoring (NOT in the usual sense) is EASY to find on this platform.

If you hire me at my hourly rate, I will be happy to mentor you.

allergywriter · ‎05-22-2019

is mentor for hire now part of your skill set :o)

prestonhunter · ‎05-22-2019

re: "is mentor for hire now part of your skill set"

No, but if somebody wants to pay me, I'll tell them how to avoid scammers on Upwork.

I do it for free all the time in the Community Forum. So of course I'll do it for money if somebody wants me to be their official mentor.

Anonymous-User · ‎05-22-2019

Now just a minute Preston - give everyone else a chance.

michelle-trevino · ‎05-22-2019

I have found the best way to find out if a job is a scam or not worth your time is to have a list of questions to ask the client. Their answers will yield good information on the type of client they will be. If they refuse to answer, then you know they will be an unresponsive client. You don't want that. If they are flooding scam jobs to a bunch of people, they probably won't take the time to answer your questions or they will send a vague response which is another bad sign.