More Do's and Don'ts and Other Odesk Tips

I have been in hiatus for months. Been busy working on some projects but now that I am back, I would like to talk about my experiences applying for jobs in Odesk.

Applying for a job is no easy task. You have to have an excellent cover letter and you have to know the right words to say if you want the company hiring to pick you from among the hundreds competing for the position and at a much lower rate than yours at that!! Can you believe it? People are actually being hired at 80 cents an hour, that's in USD!! I experienced it firsthand. It was a long time ago. February 2010 if I remember it right. I was an oDesk newbie (like you and all others reading my blog) and I was itching to get hired. A job interview came in with an offer wanting me to work this and that and a few other odd jobs for 50 cents an hour. Did I take the offer? I DID but no regrets there. After I finished the project and got an excellent feedback for a job well done, I got more interviews than I could ever imagine. That, of course, was not sheer luck. I learned how to write very good cover letters. I learned new skills. I also picked up a few tricks here and there (if you have been following my blog for some time now then you are probably familiar with how I started earning money online as a freelancer). Here are some of the do's and don'ts I would like to share with you guys.


1. Find out what your skills are. Do you have excellent English? Can you write? Do you have any call center experiences? Write it all down.

2. Edit your oDesk profile. Make sure it's glowing. Name out your skills without overselling yourself and be sure to upload your photo. Boob shots are discouraged. Find a decent one of yourself. Here are some VERY important tips when putting up your oDesk profile. Look up my profile if you don't have any idea what to put there (but please, please, please don't copy mine. Write your own. Be original).

3. Learn how to write a cover letter. Again, don't oversell yourself. Be honest about what you can do and what you cannot do. Never, never exaggerate. If you have been a call center agent only for a couple of months and got terminated for bad performance. Don't tell your would-be employers that you have 5 years of call center experience and that you are an expert in lead generation and cold calls when you actually have not had any luck in that field. You will only be digging your own grave.

4. Don't rely on other people to write your cover letter for you. If you are not very confident with your English, that's okay. Just go ahead and write one then have someone proofread your letter for you instead.

5. Find out when to apply, with whom and at what rate. Finding a good company to work for is like mining for diamonds. There's a good few out there but BEWARE there's also twice, probably thrice as many scammers and ripoffs wanting to take advantage of us poor freelancers.

5. Apply only for jobs that you know you can do. Highlight your skills in your cover letter. Tell the company what you can do for them and not about how much you need the job and how many mouths you have to feed. That is a big NO-NO! You're not going to get the good ones that way. You will only be inviting scammers to scam you of your work.

6. When called for interview, inform your would-be employer about your most comfortable mode of communication. Can you take calls? Do you prefer email? Yahoo chat? Communication between contractor and employer is very important. If you can set up your phone to receive emails so you can be easily contacted then DO IT. Let them know that you can be contacted and have no intention of disappearing while in the middle of a project.

7. Learn to manage your time. Don't apply for jobs and grab all the contracts you can get your hands on and end up not meeting your deadlines.

Well, that's it for now. I got to get back to work but will be back in a day or two with more tips for ya!