Pitching for a job on Upwork these days is a very interesting endeavor.
From your cover letter landing in the client’s “hidden” tab to hideous questions asked by job posters.
As a serious contractor you’ll spend a lot of time preparing for the cover letter. Despite reading the entire job description, conducting due diligence on potential client’s website and thoughtfully preparing; you’ll generally have little to no control of what happens thereafter.
But since Upwork introduced an option for clients to ask potential job applicants additional questions other than just the cover letter; or to even do away with the cover letter completely, applying for a job on the platform has become so… well, I’m still looking for a polite term to use here.
Meanwhile, you can click here to find out how other Upwork contractors feel about these questions.
One minute you are lucky to land a set of questions tailored the project at hand.
This shows you that the job poster is interested in finding a perfect match for the job. Cool.
The next minute, you land on a job post peppering you with moronic brainless questions that would make my first-grade son wince.
These questions have zero connection with the project at hand and have nothing to do with the prospective contractors’ skill or experience.
When I run into a worn out, ridiculous question like “Why did you apply for this particular job?” or “What do you think will be the most time consuming part of this job?” I have to fight really hard to successfully overcome the urge to curse, scowl or ditch the application altogether.
You’d think that after an eternity of feature posts and articles about how to hire a freelance contractor or how to outsource to a temp, we’d have evolved past these neanderthal-era questions; but evidently, not every client is clued in.
The craziest thing about these ridiculous Upwork cover letter questions is that clients have the option to ask their own customized questions tailored to the contract at hand.
Doing so can tremendously cut spam applications and land the client fewer, but better quality applicants.
So why oh why would any client resort to a dim question like “What do you think will be the most time-consuming part of this job?” to a job seeking a business plan writer in Nairobi?
The truthful response, “answering these moronic questions, duhhh!” is likely to get your application declined and marked as spam.
Anyway, below are some of the questions you’re likely to come across:
Do you have any questions about this project?
Freelancers can answer the “Do you have any questions about this project?” question thoughtfully with answers like:
- What are your project goals?
- What does this project mean to you? what does it mean to your organization?
- Where would you put significance regarding price, quality or service?
- What level of service are you willing to pay for?
- What do you look for in a contractor?
- What will it take for you to hire me?
Why do you feel you will be a good fit for the job?
Following “Do you have any questions about this project?” in the Silly List of Questions is “Why do you feel you will be a good fit for the job?”
Another crazy question common in many Upwork job posts because it demands that a contractor re-hash what is already covered in the cover letter.
Besides, the client has access to your well written Upwork cover letter, profile and portfolio,complete with answers to all the generic questions that s/he can ever think of asking.
So why should a client ask you to justify your fit for a job that they have barely described in the post?
That’s an invitation to cringe.
Pass on the invitation with the following response instead:
“That’s a great question. I think that’s what my Upwork profile and portfolio is for, in fact – to determine whether I’m the right contractor for this project and whether you’re the right client for me. I truthfully can’t say that I will be a good fit for the project, because I don’t have sufficient details of the job or your desired project goals to enable me categorically attest to the same. You are familiar with the project, you know yourself and your management style, and now, through my cover letter, profile, and portfolio, you have learnt a lot more about my background and my perspective. Besides, you also have access to the profiles of other applicants while I don’t. So I’m confident that you will hire the contractor who’s the best fit for this assignment.”
Oops! I am already tired just responding to these two…
In short, what I’m saying here is that clients can take advantage of this new Upwork feature by customizing their own questions that will get them the specific answers necessary to get the right candidates.
For freelancers on the other hand, the main take away in relation to the Upwork questions is that you can use the same questions to weed out the serious clients from those that are not.
Ask yourself if answering the long list of irrelevant questions in addition to a cover letter has a correspondingly large budget to make it worth the effort you’re putting in.
What are your thoughts on these questions that have become oh so common these days? Share with the readers what the most annoying questions have been and how you have answered them… Thanks in advance!
