Tipping a Job Applicant

[rsweetland]

I have a job applicant that went through a fair amount of effort to propose a working solution for a difficult problem. Can I tip him without hiring him?

[kochubei_valeria · Accepted solution]

Hi Reilly,

It's only possible to make a payment on a contract. You can hire a freelancer for a small fixed-price contract and release the milestone right away or start an hourly contract, pay a bonus and close it right away if you want to.

[versailles]

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@Reilly S wrote:

I have a job applicant that went through a fair amount of effort to propose a working solution for a difficult problem. Can I tip him without hiring him?

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Reilly, If somebody provides you with free work during the hiring process, you don't need to pay them.

Many people are strongly against this practice:

- me

- Upwork

- every serious freelancer

You are a very honest person, this is not always the case and many come here to scam contractors by luring them into free work. 

The same way, some contractors hope that they'll get hired if they deliver the work with their proposal, which is extremely unprofessional.

Clients should not pay for this. they can thank the freelancer for their generosity, and move on.

[prestonhunter]

To be fair, we don't know the details of the situation.

As a client and as a freelancer, I have definitely seen situations where everybody is abiding by Upwork's rules and acting professionally... but within doing all that, a job posting may elicit suggestions in a proposal or interview discussion that are immensely helpful to a client... Without the freelancer intending to do any work for free.

Rene is quite right that freelancers shouldn't work for free and clients shouldn't ask them to.

I think he's right that in this situation, the right thing to do is probably to thank the freelancer for being generous with his time and his information.

But without knowing the details, I don't think we can say for sure whether this freelancer is one those who cause problems by doing free work, or if he was just a very knowledgeable and helpful potential applicant.

[a5542e44]

I agree with Preston