Where To Find Great Employers

Believe me, you don't see them everyday. I happen to have had some bad luck just recently and found myself working for one of the not-so-good ones but it's okay, everything's sorted. I learned my lesson from the experience and I know the "New Yorker" also learned his. My advice to new oDesk contractors and other freelancers, don't just apply for any job just because it pays. Here's a short checklist to help you find great employers:

✓ Check how much they have spent on oDesk. Go for companies who can afford to pay oDesk contractors at a good rate.

✓ Companies in good standing are not reluctant to hire contractors that charge 2-10 dollars per hour. It's a much lower rate compared to what people in their country are charging although if they are on a tight budget, they would most likely hire contractors that charge only 2-3 dollars.
✓ Check whether the job they posted contains instructions. Instructions should be clear and concise, not misleading.
✓ Check the feedback they received from their contractors and the feedback they gave to them. You should see it at the bottom of the job post. It should tell you whether the company is great to work for or not.
✓ If they are the sort that demand too much and pay very little, why bother? Who would want to work for peanuts? I sure don't! Move on to the next job post!

Have you had a bad experience as an oDesk freelancer that you want to share? I welcome guest posts. All you have to do is let me know in an email that you have something to share.

Tip of the Day: The Art of Selling Yourself

If you want to get hired and get paid reasonably for your work hours, learn how to master the art of selling yourself. Find out what skills you are most passionate about. Find out what you are most familiar doing and start from there. Make a good impression to your would-be employers by communicating clearly about what you CAN do and what you CANNOT do. People appreciate it when you are honest and transparent so NEVER EVER lie on your resume.

If you have just a couple of skills in your resume, that's not going to get you very far so ask yourself, how do you sell yourself with just a few skills and not much to offer to employers? There are a few things you can do actually. Invest your time in improving those skills or get trained and acquire new ones and then TRY again.

I plan to do those after I give birth. I want to go back to uni and take Computer Science or Graphic Design. Any computer-related course will do. I think that's where I need to improve myself. I want better computer skills and get hired at a much higher rate. Very doable, don't you think?

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!

VERY Important Tips When Putting Up A Profile on oDesk

New to oDesk? Don't know what to put in your profile? Okay then let me give you some pointers. These are very good tips that would make your oDesk profile more visible and more attractive to hiring companies.

1. Impress them with your grammar. Proofread what you write in your profile. A badly written one would make them think twice in hiring you so go ahead, check your profile. Are they all spelled correctly? Which words should be capitalized? If English is not one of your strongest points, you can always ask someone to proofread your profile for you. 


2. Upload a profile picture of you. Show them your smile. If your profile shows a picture of you with an overly-serious expression on your face, what does that tell your would-be employer? That you have zero sense of humor probably and that you'd be no fun to work with. So why not loosen up a bit? Smile. Project a positive and friendly appearance. Wear something casual. You don't need to put on that much makeup. You don't need to look like a model. Just look professional.


3. Write a good job overview. Tell them about you. What skills do you have? What are your strongest points? Do you have very good typing speed? Are you computer-savvy? Do you love surfing the Internet? Have you done any programming? If you have any noteworthy skills, anything at all then write them all down.


4. Market yourself with your portfolios. What is a portfolio? A portfolio is any documentation, image, photos, artworks you have that you can use as proof of recent work. Have you made a PowerPoint presentation for your previous employer? Do you still have a copy of it? Have you ever done a blog header using Adobe Photoshop? Have you retouched images or done any image editing? Make a screen shot of those and upload them as your portfolio then write 3-4 sentences detailing your work.


5. It is important that you take the oDesk Readiness Test for Independent Contractors and Company Managers. I can't emphasize this enough. If you don't take this test, you will have restrictions in applying for jobs on oDesk. Take the oDesk Readiness Test as soon as you get a chance. Take some English tests as well. Getting high scores from these tests improves your chances of getting hired.


6. Make sure to fill up your profile info - write down your educational background, your work experiences, other skills BUT don't make them too long. Remember that you are dealing with busy people and busy people don't have the luxury of time to read a too detailed CV. Just highlight the info that you think will get their full attention. Give them teasers, just enough info to make them want to do an interview.


7. And of course, this last one is the most important of all. Don't over promote yourself. Write only about what you can do. Don't tell the buyer that you are very good at programming when you flunked that one when you were in college and have very little experience in that department or that you are an excellent graphics designer when you don't even know what Adobe Photoshop is. You get my point?