Avoid Unreliable Contractors on Odesk

Odesk has been a popular site among people looking for freelance or homebased work. Although they are freelance workers, you will still be able to find quite a good number of qualified personnel through Odesk; people with exemplary skills and experience. However, one of the most common issues at Odesk is those employees who are not reliable enough. This wiki will talk about how to avoid those employees who do not show much level of commitment or respect for the work that they do.

1. 1
   Name

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   Odesk, as much as possible, requires that their contractors write their real names here. The contractors have the option of just putting in their first names and then the initial of their last name.

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2. 2
   Overall Title

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   The contractors have to indicate a summary job title for the work that they do. For example, if you have been doing project management for the most part of your career, you should put Project Management Expert or Project Manager.

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3. 3
   Hourly Rate

   .

   This is the desired minimum hourly rate of the contractor.

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4. 4
   Overview

   .

   This states what kind of opportunities the contractor is most interested in, and his career objectives.

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5. 5
   Odesk Work History and Feedback

   .

   This is a very crucial element in a contractor's profile that employers have to look into. It tells you what kinds of jobs the contractor has done in the past at Odesk and how he performed. There are cases where an employee is really good at offline jobs, but messes a lot with Odesk work, mainly because he does not have enough time to actually do the job.  

   1. Job Title. If you click on the Job Title, you will see more about the description of the job. Also, if the company has revealed their company name, you will know what type of a company the employee has actually worked for.
   2. Duration. This shows from when to when the contractor worked for a company. You will also see here if there are ongoing jobs.
   3. Rate. This indicates the fee that the contractor has charged their other clients.
   4. Feedback. This is crucial to look into because you get to see what other employers think of the candidate's performance. It also details what makes up the total feedback score, based on the following categories:  
      1. Skills
      2. Quality
      3. Availability
      4. Deadlines
      5. Communication
      6. Cooperation

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6. 6
   Odesk Tests Completed

    

   1. Name of Test
   2. Score (out of 5)
   3. Ranking
   4. Time to Complete
   5. Details - You will see here the subcategories of a particular test taken and the corresponding percentage of correct answers for each.

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7. 7
   Employment History - This refers to employment outside of Odesk

   .

    

   1. Job Title
   2. Company
   3. Duration

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8. 8
   Education

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Aside from looking at a contractor's profile, you can also test a contractor's reliability through the following:

1. 1
   Test period

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   Not all companies will give long-term contracts to contractors right away. Some will give a week of trial first, to see overall how the contractor performs. A week should be enough to give you a general idea on a contractor's reliability - maybe not so much in terms of quality and effectiveness of work yet, but more on whether or not he actually is available to do the job. In most cases, the issue is not really lack of skills, but simply lack of time to dedicate to the job. It's very easy to say during the interview that he is available and able to render the required hours, only for you to find out later that he actually is not.

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2. 2
   Communication parameters

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   It is crucial that you set rules and parameters when it comes to communication, especially during the early phases of the contract. You would not want a contractor who rarely talks to you or does not give you any updates about his work.

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3. 3
   Attendance to regular meetings

   .

   Although this may not be necessary for all types of work at Odesk, it is crucial that you make some meetings mandatory for a contractor to attend, just to test whether he respects schedules and time. You may loosen up a bit on these meetings later on, once your contractor has proven himself to you.

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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