Archive for the 'Searching for job' Category

Bad buyers or untrustworthy mediators?

Sunday, July 9th, 2006

There are many different opinions about outsourcing itself, its pros and cons and its consequences for the development of labor market. As for me, outsourcing is one of the best ways for buyers to get their work done properly saving quite a bit of money, while for different teleworkers to earn their living. The main problem seems to lie in the quality of services provided by different mediators. It’s the rules and conditions of their sites that allow both buyers and coders to cheat each other. 

Very often mediators take money only for the fact that they help buyers and coders find each other and transfer money. But this scheme works only when both sides are honest and reliable. 

Let’s talk about http://www.getafreelancer.com/, for instance. There is no obligatory escrow deposit on this side. Each time you have to discuss the conditions of payment by yourself and a buyer may answer: “I am sorry, I don’t do escrows” (by the way, it’s a real answer I’ve got recently). What does it mean? It means that when you decide to do some work without any escrow deposit, you should realize that you may never get your money at all. 

There is no arbitration process as well. So you can apply to nowhere when you are dissatisfied with something: “According to our terms of service we do not arbitrate, but can give recommendations. If there’s a dispute it should be solved between buyer and provider.” So should I be happy while getting a piece of good advice instead of money? 

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Misers in the Net

Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

Does anybody really believe that the less you pay the better you get? This very idea seems to be sheer nonsense. Nevertheless, an awful lot of people (I mean so-called buyers on different sites for freelance projects) are sure that such approach may well work.
Let me tell you about one of the latest projects I tried to take part in. The buyer wanted to translate some text from English into French for $30-100 and he was really concerned about the quality of the translation. He mentioned the approximate quantity of words. According to my opinion, the text was neither very large, nor difficult so I offer him to do this project for $30 with the possibility to reduce the price to $20. He walked right into that one and our correspondence began. On the one hand he did like the price, but on the other hand he needed the best quality in the world for that translation so he asked me in several letters if I was really sure or not in my skills and talents. My assurance didn’t satisfy him so he sent me the whole file in order to let me see it (or maybe translate it and send him for free?). Well, I sent him a sample of my work and at the end of the day … he chose somebody who offered him 15-dollar price.
Bravo! Good luck to him! Where did he loose his concern about the quality? Or maybe $5 made him forget about all his requirements. Who knows…  But why should I waste my precious time for such miserly buyers from well-off Europe and America while even in Russia people are ready to pay more?

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Have you ever looked for work at www.getafreelancer.com?

Saturday, June 3rd, 2006

Are you working freelance? If so, have you ever succeeded in getting a good project at such sites as http://www.getafreelancer.com/?

To be honest, I’ve tried but the results are not too great. Maybe it’s just because my native language is Russian and there is quite limited demand for it. I also can translate from French into English, but they choose either native speaker or Indians. As for those projects I’ve been offered to take part in, they have been very dodgy. The main aim of those untrustworthy ‘empoyers’ seems to con freelancers out of money: I mean geting an awful lot of work done and paying almost nothing for it.

But, of course, there are different projects and different buyers and I still hope for the best.

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