Job Search Guides
Many
listings are from popular freelance sites. Use our job search guides to
learn how each one works and give yourself the best chance at landing
the perfect job:
oDesk is
an online freelance marketplace that connects remote, skilled workers
(known as "providers") with employers who are hiring (known as
"buyers"). Buyers post projects or jobs that they need to outsource, and
providers bid on the jobs, either on an hourly basis or as a
fixed-price bid. oDesk is a shortened version of the phrase "no desk",
which refers to oDesk's founding principle; to enable individuals to
work anywhere or anytime. oDesk's headquarters are in Menlo Park, California.
As of early 2009, oDesk reported having 170,000 providers scattered all
over the globe. oDesk was chosen by PC Magazine as a finalist for the
2006 Small Business Awards.
You
may be familiar with similar sites like eLance, Guru, and RentACoder
that offer "middle-man" services between freelance professionals and
project managers. oDesk is quickly becoming a preferred site for many
freelancers because it offers:
- Guaranteed
payment. Unlike many other sites where payment on projects or hours
work is not guaranteed, oDesk guarantees payment on all hourly work that
is completed using their free, downloadable sftware, oDesk Team (see
more about oDesk Team later on).
- Automatic
invoicing and billing for providers and buyers. Unlike some sites where
getting paid can be tricky, oDesk keeps the buyer's credit card on file
and charges the card when the pay period ends. For fixed price
assignments, however, the buyer elects how much to pay (or if to pay at
all).
- oDesk
doesn't charge a monthly/quarterly/yearly fee to freelance providers.
Instead, oDesk gets paid when the provider gets paid; oDesk charges an
11.11% markup on each provider's wages (charged to the buyer). So, for
example, if a provider charges $100 for their services, the buyer is
charged $111.11.
oDesk
allows providers to showcase their talents by taking free skills tests
(and assigning a ranking to the provider's profile based on the test
scores achieved).
oDesk allows registered providers to browse, bid, and apply for jobs in Web Development, Software Development, Networking an
Information
Systems, Writing and Translation, Administrative Support, Design and
Multimedia, Customer Service, Sales and Marketing, and Business
Services.
Becoming
an oDesk provider is easy and costs nothing. The first step to becoming
an oDesk provider is to register for an account and create a provider
profile. Let's look at the different sections of the provider profile
and get some tips on filling in each section.
Elance
is an online freelance clearinghouse where remote workers (known as
"providers") can connect with employers who are hiring for various
projects (known as "buyers"). Elance is one of the oldest sites of this
type doing business on the Internet, and has a huge number of project
postings active at any one time. As of early August 2009, Elance has
over 97,000 registered providers working on their system, and Elance
buyers posted over 25,000 jobs from July through August of 2009. Since
its inception, Elance providers have earned nearly a quarter of a
billion dollars from the comfort of their own home.
Elance
is structured much like similar sites that you may be more familiar
with, such as Guru.com, RentACoder, and (relative newcomer) oDesk.
Elance gets more traffic from both providers and buyers, possibly
because it has built a solid reputation in the freelance arena. Elance
offers freelance service providers:
- Access to clients from around the globe
- A cost-effective mechanism for marketing their services
- An efficient system to accurately bill providers
- Confidence in a payment system that holds payments in an escrow account
Ability to work anywhere, anytime, from the comfort of home
Elance
allows registered providers to submit proposals for jobs in the
following areas: web and programming, design and multimedia, writing and
translations, sales and marketing, legal and engineering and
manufacturing. Becoming an Elance provider is easy, although to have
full access to the Elance system, you will be required to pay a fee. The
first step to becoming an Elance provider is registering for an account
and selecting your account "type" (paid or unpaid) and creating your
provider profile. Let's look at the different steps of becoming an
Elance provider in greater details and address each section the
will need to be filled in.
3. Craigslist:
Craigslist
which was started as a hobby for San Franciscan Craig Newmark almost
two decades ago has become one of the most popular community classified
site in the world with over twenty billion page views each month. More
than fifty million people in the U.S.
alone use Craigslist. Craigslist.org is a gigantic online website of
local classified ads. There are Craigslist websites specifically
designed for over 550 U.S.
cities and metro areas, as well as over 50 countries. Although there
are different categories that Craigslist users can post in, the jobs
category receives thousands of posts each month from employers who are
hiring. Job seekers can find both long term and temporary positions and
respond to the employer's ad by sending in their resume or following
other instructions in the posting. For job seekers, Craigslist is
completely free. Users will find a lot of jobs on Craigslist.org that
small, mid-sized and even larger employers don't post anywhere else.
To
be the most effective in your job-hunting tasks, you must look at
yourself from the perspective of your potential employer. Many employers
are simply swamped with applications when they post an ad on
Craigslist, so making yourself stand out from among the hundreds of
others looking for a job is not as simple as you think. You must put
your best efforts into your applications or they may be rejected without
you ever having been considered for the job. When applying on
Craigslist you will be allowed to upload a cover letter ? which is the
perfect opportunity for you to get your foot in the door. While many
applicants attach their resume to the response to the potential
employer, many employers confess that they rarely look at the resume ?
only the cover letter. Here's a sample of an excellent cover letter for
the accounting job that we were looking at earlier.
Dear Potential Employer,
I
just saw your posting for an Assistant Accountant on Craigslist
Lexington, and I must admit ? I'm salivating. This sounds like the
perfect fit for me as I have had six years experience working in the
accounting department of a local bank. Let me give you three quick
reasons that you should consider me for the position today:
- Strong
Work Ethic. Any business is only as strong as its employees. I am an
employee who has missed only three days of work over the past decade due
to illness. I am dedicated and hard-working; a go-getter who let's
nothing stand in my way of getting the job done!
- Skills.
I have the skills that you are looking for; not only am I precise with
Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, but I can handle the data
entry work and other administrative skills that you mention in your ad.
Availability.
I can begin immediately and fill the need you have with very little
training. I've been working with numbers in an office setting for my
entire career (please see my resume) so assimilating into your team
should not be a problem.
Be
clear and concise; there's no need to write your entire life's history.
The employer has limited time to review the applications he receives.
Make yours devoid of all the "blah blah blah" that many other applicants
will be throwing out there.
Write your cover letter as an email so that the employer does not have to load it as an attachment.
Put
the title of the job advertisement in the subject of your email. Many
employers post multiple jobs at once ? so this helps them to keep track
of who applies for what.
Be honest and open about your past employment history. Be proud of your accomplishments but don't boast about them.
Anytime
that there is a "good" thing out there ? there will be people who use
it to take advantage of others. The very nature of Craigslist makes it
susceptible to scams (because it's free). Before discussing
Craigslist.org further, it is very important for all job seekers to be
aware of the possibility of fraudulent posts that may be a guise for
something other than a job opportunity. The folks at Craigslist.org put a
lot of effort into fighting scam artists who frequent their site ? but
when you realize the enormity of Craigslist as a whole, then you likely
realize the probability of at least some scams being posted and
remaining posted. Craigslist is quick to remove any post that it feels
might be disingenuous and visitors to the site have the option to flag a
post for removal if they suspect that it is fraudulent. But the smart
job seeker will still use caution when responding to job posts.
These tips will help you avoid being scammed on Craigslist by those who would do you financial harm.
- Avoid job offers from someone who lives in another country unless they can legitimize their offering.
- Never
pay money to make money. That's the cardinal rule when it comes to
looking for work online. If an employer is interested in hiring you, why
would you ever have to pay them for the privilege? If you're asked to
pay for anything ? from a background check to a drug screen, always be
weary of doing so. As a general rule, don't.
- Under
no circumstances should you give out your financial information,
including your bank account number, social security number, PayPal
information, etc., to anyone who is advertising a job (or anything else
for that matter).
Check
out the company on the Better Business Bureau's website, www.bbb.org.
If the company has been at the center of any scams, chances are that the
BBB will know about it. The Better Business Bureau's national website
is a jumping off point for their state and regional offices.