Anyone who has read an ealier post of mine knows that I'm no fan of online job boards. And I am waiting for the recruiting industry (not to mention the corporate world) to catch up to the fact that half of today's work force won't be seeking full-time or possibly even part-time jobs in the future, but project work that allows for a flexible lifestyle.
And I'm not into touting any product, but there is some hope out there with Elance. I tried them out once before and got caught in that blind bid annoyance. No one with any experience wants to bid on a project based on two paragraphs of information and no way to talk to the potential client. Talk about getting sucked into a dark hole where you are working your butt off for pennies per hour, if you're lucky . . .
Elance now allows you to actually query the service provider about the project before bidding. No, it's hardly what SHOULD BE, which is a way of conducting at least a 15 minute conversation. But at least you aren't wasting your time preparing useless bids in a blind fashion.
Alas, you have to pay them for the honor of trying out their system. I'm full enough now professionally that I won't bother, but curious to hear from others if this is worth it.
By the way, I found guru.com pretty worthless. No one took a bid with a decent pricetag. Those who answered my bids wanted me to work on percentage of very iffy sales, or the pricetag was so low ($50 per newsletter edition) that only someone in Sri Lanka would want the job. And I'm hoping those folks wake up and start bidding higher, but that's another rant for another day.
Thoughts and input are welcome!
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4 comments:
You might also want to check out oDesk (http://www.odesk.com) if you're looking for project-based work with flexibility. Unlike other online global marketplace sites, oDesk has no membership fees and you don't have to fill out timesheets. It's a great place for professionals like yourself to find great jobs.
~Michelle, oDesk
http://www.odesk.com
Checked out odesk and it's real, but not for me. I'm not a techie.
Any techies out there want to evaluate it?
AZ
Checked out odesk and it's real, but not for me. I'm not a techie.
Any techies out there want to evaluate it?
AZ
Re guru.com: I signed up for notifications from them and was notified about jobs that sounded interesting, but their process is really frustrating. First of all, the job descriptions would give just enough detail to sound interesting but not enough to make a reasonable bid and always left me wanting to get more information and/or do some negotiating--with no way to do so. Second, I find bidding on a job a frustrating and demeaning process (and I am new to the writing/editing world, so I don't know if bidding is a common practice). It seems to me the employer ought to have some idea of what quality writing/editing is worth to him/her and be willing to pay it and not just hope he/she can get the job done at the cheapest price.
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