How to make sure the contractor is competent on freelance exchanges?

Question

Freelance

Good day!
I would like to ask those who often have to look for contractors for various freelance tasks - how do you choose contractors?
It’s good when you already have well-established contacts and you can write to a trusted person on a specific issue. But there are situations when you need to find a contractor for a project, you go freelancing, you describe, you get in touch with a person, and now he says that he is a professional in such and such programming languages, knows such and such frameworks perfectly, and how to check it before , so to speak, the main action, so as not to be offended for the lost time.
And I would like to ask those who accept freelance projects - how do you feel about test tasks? Questions on topics in order to determine whether you really have the relevant knowledge?

Answer 1

If you do not understand the topic of the order, then this increases the likelihood of problems at times. Look at the portfolio carefully, or ask someone to rate it. Consider the fact that, on average, freelancers are less professional than just company employees, especially in development. Remote workers are paid no less, and good specialists simply work with companies, why should they waste time looking for new jobs.

Answer 2

1. number of reviews, how long on the site.
2. the presence of negative reviews (a freelancer is a person, and sometimes he can smack something. Real customers are people too - they can have a bad mood. If the freelancer does not have negative reviews at all, then we look at the list of customers - if there are a lot of repeated ones - there may be a fact that friends cheat )
3. agreement to work without prepayment (when you create an order, indicate your desire to pay after the fact). if a freelancer insistently demands more than 50% prepayment - a scammer. sometimes it can cause pity - they say, relatives in Lugansk, they urgently need to send money, pay the full amount now ...
4. do not go for the lowest offered price . Most of the time they just take the money and disappear.
But having a portfolio means nothing. just as his absence says nothing. you need to ask to send 2-3 last real works (ready-made working sites, for example).
For example, I have been on the site fl.ru for 7 years and I have an almost empty portfolio - I stupidly do not update it, but this does not prevent me from finding clients. I immediately lead people to my site tsymbal.su .
5. Self-respecting freelancers have their own portfolio site.

Answer 3

I have a positive attitude towards test tasks, but there are a number of conditions:
1) They must be done within a reasonable time, for me no more than 8 working hours, or the task is paid.
2) Should be comparable to the price of the task, for a $200 task it is pointless to do the task, there are only questions.
The attitude towards questions is neutral, it is pleasant to answer smart questions, not stupid ones. Smart ones are those where there is no specific solution and in different conditions there may be different options, such questions can be used to build an interesting discussion; stupid ones are those where the customer is waiting for some pre-prepared (read in Google) answer and he himself is not at all in the subject.
To the topic of the question, how to look for performers - yes xs how, by the brute force method, I probably was on both sides, both as a customer and as a freelancer, there are enough of those and those inadequate ones, I came up with a simple rule for myself, if something in a person immediately repels, I refuse a task or a performer, and I also appreciate the commitment, which can be seen even at the stage of signing the TOR, although I still make a mistake in choosing, but less and less with experience.

Answer 4

You need to look for a freelancer and look at his portfolio, reviews, number of orders.
Not all freelancers want to do test tasks. If you give a test task, then it should be for several hours of work, but not easy. To test the knowledge of a freelancer, you can make test questions (15 things) and an average task to complete. Then you really appreciate the knowledge.

Answer 5

I don't understand everything that is written here. What are the 15 little questions? What are personal sites?
If you, the one giving the job, understand the topic, then with absolute ease you can identify the most difficult moments in any project and ask the potential contractor how he will solve them. This is quite enough to determine who communicates with you and what level it is.
It is also quite appropriate to ask a couple of questions about the submitted works.
And if after all the doubts are still present, then no one has yet canceled the stage-by-stage work with partial payment.

Answer 6

Worked on both sides. When "working hands" were needed for the project, I did a test with simple, but demonstrative tasks. For example, write a complex query. Or write a couple of classes that do this and that. Of those who completed the task, in total, I chose five or six people and worked with them already on real, not very large tasks for the project, paid upon completion of these tasks. A part of them dropped out immediately due to gouging, he successfully cooperated with the rest, a couple of people are still "active". If a person seems to have done it, but they don’t like the quality or it’s just uncomfortable to work, you can always not offend and say that the tasks are still being postponed.
If you need a person who will do everything on a turnkey basis, then this is of course more difficult. I still think that a portfolio is very important. If it is not, then you do not know anything, and if it is, then you can somehow judge. I always look and lead my own.

Answer 7

Experienced freelancers do not experience problems with orders. Their hourly rate is quite high. Accordingly, you are unlikely to somehow motivate them to complete the test task (if it is not paid). Another nuance is that "old" freelancers do not like to contact new customers, just as customers do not like to contact new performers. Although this does not prevent you from finding a good performer among newcomers to freelancing. If you are interested in the knowledge of a freelancer on a specific topic, ask him about the availability of relevant work performed. How were they performed? Look at the relevant reviews in the freelancer's profile. Pay after the fact (nothing to lose except time).
Doing a test task and filling out a questionnaire might help you determine the level of knowledge of the performer, but as a freelancer, I would not do anything like that. Although maybe I'm just stuck :)

Answer 8

Reads the description - and IMMEDIATELY writes ON THE CASE.
Asks clarifying questions, etc., etc. By the depth of the questions asked, experience and interest are understandable.
To write that such an experience is stupid and this is a waste of both the time of the performer and the time of the customer. And it does not allow you to evaluate the performer in any way. But, unfortunately, most of them do.
And I would like to ask those who accept freelance projects - how do you feel about test tasks? Questions on topics in order to determine whether you really have the relevant knowledge?
The meaning of these theoretical things.
When you can immediately give a small task or discuss it ON YOUR SPECIFIC PROJECT. Do a small piece of work.
Of course, it’s stupid to immediately give the whole project, wait six months and hope for a result.
I just IMMEDIATELY include a person in a FULL job.
But with regular supervision.
Thus, in a couple of days you will understand that the person did not even take it, for example.
And in a week (for complex things it is not so obvious, maybe in two or three weeks) you will understand that he does not pull.
But there are situations when you need to find a contractor for a project, you go freelancing, you describe, you get in touch with a person, and now he says that he is a professional in such and such programming languages, knows such and such frameworks perfectly, and how to check it before , so to speak, the main action, so as not to be offended for the lost time.
Why do you need to know about programming languages ​​if you do not form a task directly in a technical language, but give a task in a general form?
And how do you manage the state or corporations?
Does the president, governor or chairman of the board of directors personally know how to properly perform the work of a bartender or director of a lingerie chain?
Run it and see the result. Most merge in 1-2 days. You don't lose anything. Well, except for half an hour of time for communication, if the task has already been formalized in writing.
You don't need to relax. You need to see what happens on a regular basis.