The ease of joining some job marketplaces where members are easily accepted can be very encouraging to new virtual business professionals. This however does not mean a promise of unprecedented fortune as so much work must be done before a contractor can dream of getting a single job. For job communities like Odesk, Elance, Guru, Freelance and the rest of them, it is expected and severally taken for granted that both employers and employees alike would be sincere and not try to be funny by posting fake jobs and profiles. This is not the case on all these online communities where independent contractors bid for jobs. Many have actually joined the online job communities to perpetuate their fraudulent intentions knowing very well that it is not easy to be detected since many applicants are desperate to get employed.
The ease at which one becomes a member of such community like Elance, Guru, Freelance.com, Odesk and many others alike is initially very interesting interesting but the happiness gradually fizzles out as longer wait for successful job application ensues. Some of our clients complained that the wait may not worth the while for professionals that do not have any clients prior to joining any of the job communities. The truth of the matter is that investigations after series of customer feedback and frustrations gathered that many impostors and personalities with fraudulent intentions patronize the online communities. Any unsuspecting contractor can easily get scammed and ripped off. A recent case that was investigated revealed employers on Elance and Odesk who had posted several jobs to which various independent contractors have applied but none had ever been selected to do the job. Some employers just use the online communities to determine what they want to pay for the job in a brick and mortar organization by first looking for a good bid on the internet.
There are certain things to watch out for when applying for any job on these mentioned communities. We have tried as much as possible not to be bias in our judgment because the owners of the job marketplaces are actually doing a good job by trying to link both sellers and buyers of online services. They must have spent a good fortune to establish such platforms and it is also expected that some funds would be required to maintain them. However, our advice for current and prospective members is that both the employees and employers should be meticulous when using these facilities. The following are some of the things to watch out for so as to avoid being scammed or ripped off on these job communities:
1. Avoid too good to be true job offers where employers are ready to take you without being competent for the job. Some of these are fraudulent offers which posters employ for getting useful information from applicants. When your information gets into wrong hands, it may be used for unauthorized and illegal purposes.
2. Consider the history of the employer by confirming if it has a good reputation of employing people for posted jobs. So many employers just post the jobs without employing anybody. These sites give an opportunity for members to view how much the employer had spent on the platform and how many people had been employed. As such, employees can have a guess on who will reliably perform in case of an eventual contract.
3. Watch out for feedbacks and ratings on past jobs as these are good indicators of historical peculiarities of both the employer and employee.
4. Do not take your job outside the platform by ensuring that the marketplace helps you as an intermediary on the job. For example, Odesk and Elance have customized ways of securing payments from employers thereby removing the risks of default in payment. Our clients have reported cases where employers try to con you out of the platforms. Please note that the risk of defaulting payments is very high in such cases except where you know the employer very well and know how to settle a possible dispute after the job.
5. Avoid any job that advices you to do illegal transactions. There are so many on job marketplaces. Employers sometimes post some unimaginable and illegal jobs. Be careful not to get your involved in a job that would later get you listed as a dubious online character
6. Do not reveal valid information that can harm you to strangers on the platform. It is better to deal only with the companies of repute. Let the companies have the information and not that you will be giving every tom dick and harry your financial information because you think you can get employed.
There are so many other things to watch out there. We will keep updating this post as we get more details. In case you have more information than the ones already posted here, please feel free to leave a comment to help others that might need it.
This review is as a result of feedback from independent contractors and employers that employed our services to investigate certain business contracts for them. It represents the sole opinion of the author and does not take responsibility for any misconception of findings from investigations. The conclusion is that intention is very important before getting enrolled with any of the job communities. Know what you are getting into and prepare very well for it before getting really involved. Otherwise, failure to be cautious might result in dangerous and unexpected outcomes.
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