Archive for the "Applying for jobs" category

It’s happened to me, it’s happened to you, it’s happened to all of us.  You apply for a job opening, get the interview and then after what feels like some good solid communication you discover the job went to someone else. Well, you could do some yelling and screaming and run about the house tearing [...]

I was on the oDesk forums recently and came across a comment from a new provider who was worried by the ratio of working to registered providers. She couldn’t find the page, which was probably the main oConomy page here which currently shows 248 providers working and 95,545 registered int the system.  I admit that [...]

Today’s guest post is by Nick Usborne of AskNickUsborne.com, originally part of his excellent newsletter and shared here with permission. Nick coaches freelance writers, and you’ll see that the article focuses on writing, but I think you’ll find it equally valuable regardless of your particular expertise. After all, every one of us needs to set [...]

After getting paid, the most important thing for many freelance providers is their reputation.  It’s essential to maintain a good reputation if you want to keep working at decent rates. oDesk indicates your reputation in a few ways.  Everyone should know how the feedback system works, and if you don’t just drop me a line [...]

I bet that title got your attention; I know it would get mine. I’ve been writing about money a lot lately, and not just because it’s one of my favorite things.   Today’s topic is a grab-bag of tips that can help you make more money for your work on oDesk. Let’s start with one obvious [...]

I was writing a post about the oDesk community when I saw something that made me realize there was something more important I needed to focus on first: Money. I bet that got your attention; it gets mine. We’ve talked about rates before, but what I want to discuss today is setting them.  One of [...]

When I worked in a Call Center I had a supervisor who always used to talk about the importance of “Being in Integrity.” I didn’t always agree with his English, but it’s hard to fault the sentiment. If you’re a long-term reader of the blog, and I hope you are, some of this may sound [...]

I was browsing the oDesk Community recently and I came across this thread on low wages.  Threads on low wages are nothing new, and normally I’d hesitate to bring another to your attention.  However this one got me thinking about the issue in a slightly different fashion, so I thought it would be worth exploring [...]

I don’t do all my work through oDesk.  Like many freelancers I use other sites too, and while I was checking out one of those other sites I came across an interesting piece of advice:  Don’t put a bid in your original comment. This was on Rent-a-Coder which uses  a different system than oDesk, but [...]

Lately we seem to have been blogging mostly about general freelancing, and today I want to get back to something directly related to oDesk. One thing I like about oDesk is the test system.  They’re freely available to all, and provide a common ground to measure providers against each other.  However, the question that always [...]