Interview

[revlife7]

Is it good idea to give an interview to the freelancers? Some of them do not want to take an interview and just sent me the offering right away!

[taverr]

Your Pick.

[eoinfinnegan]

Doing an interview sounds like a good idea but here is the reality:
Fiverr sellers get paid a lot less than standard rates. Why would a seller want to then do an unpaid interview which will take up their valuable time? You also would not believe how many requests to interview/send samples/do a custom free sample etc. that sellers get. Doing these would take a huge amount of time with no guarantee of success. Other freelance sites suggest doing interviews but the going rates for the work is then double what you will pay here.

The sellers who will be willing to do a free interview are those sellers who have lots of free time - new sellers, bad sellers, those with no regular clients.
This means that insisting on an interview will eliminate a lot of good sellers from working with you - that’s a bad thing.

The fact is, you are trying to get the best work done for the least money. Life does not work like that. As an alternative, I suggest that you do a “test” order - a small order related to your bigger order. If your main project is going to cost around $100 then plan to spend $15-25 on test orders with 2-4 different sellers.
This means your project will cost up to $125 in total but it is likely that it would have cost $200 elsewhere and $3-400 if ordered with offline agencies.
I do this with clients all the time by proofreading one chapter of their 25 chapter book. I get paid and they can check my work before committing to a large order.

[mariokluser]

Very valuable points. What I notice a lot is that who want to have an eBook (e.g.) translated will hand out a page to a seller as a test. Of course they will send a lot of sellers all the different pages. In the end they will have their entire translation for free. Especially new seller fall into this trap.

[eoinfinnegan]

Yes, definitely.
This sounds far fetched but I am sure it happens. It obviously doesn’t work out as a good translation as the type of language used will have no consistency as different translators will use slightly different words and phrases which makes the book read like it was a computer translation with no editing.

[misscrystal]

Instead of an interview why not read through a seller’s reviews? And ask a question or two? I would not give an interview. I answer 50 to 100 messages each day and have enough business without doing that.

[mariokluser]

Buyers from certain regions don’t mind the quality as long as they can trick somebody to do the work for free.

[fastcopywriter]

Bad idea, you’re wasting our time and time is money. If our portfolio samples and gig description don’t satisfy you, hire someone else.

Interviews are dumb, you’re not hiring us for a $55,000/year job that pays healthcare, 2-weeks vacation, etc. Besides, this is the typical buyer.

I will do 2 logos in 3 days for $5
Hi, how many logos will you do? What kind of logos? What is your philosophy when designing logos? Do you use Photoshop? What if I don’t like the logo? How many revisions do you do?

Seriously? 99% of the time you’re asking questions the gig description answers.

[misscrystal]

The idea of an interview makes me laugh. It sounds so formal, as if you are, as
fastcopywriter said, hiring someone for a high paying job with benefits. The last job interview I had lasted an hour and a half and I had to answer hundreds of personal questions. It’s like skills, education, and certifications on our profile; something for a resume, not for a freelance small gig site like this.

[liz_iudakhina]

I would definitely bail (politely, of course). I understand where you’re coming from, but within this particular environment flicking through the reviews and exchanging a couple of messages is plenty.

First, it’s hard enough to keep up with all the messages - spending my time on something lengthy and unpaid seems like a poor choice when I could get several orders instead.

Second, it’s way too formal. Many freelancers chose this style of work as it’s liberal, with no tight hairstyles, business dress code and, well, interviews.

I’d get interviewed for a gig though 😃

[revlife7]

Thank you for sharing your information. Your point of value time is making sense and trying to test to order small amount of gig. Thank you again. I am really appreciating it.