oDesk August Provider Newsletter

New Features

More Free Skill Tests

oDesk continues to add new free skill tests to our catalog. Here's a few you may want to check out: Drupal 5, Facebook Open Platform, Google Android, Online Article Writing & Blogging, OpenSocial, Paypal Integration, and Wordpress.

Security Question & SMS Notification

Our newest security feature is a security question that you must answer to perform sensitive operations such as withdrawing funds. The question helps protect your account if your password is compromised. If you haven't done so already, you'll be asked to pick a question next time you log on to My oDesk.

Additionally, you can now opt to have a text message sent to your phone whenever changes are made to your account. Visit our help center to learn more about the new security (SMS) email option and protecting yourself from phishing.

Combating Spam Applications

We've consolidated and improved the list of reasons for rejecting candidates, declining interview invitations, and canceling applications.

We've also introduced a "Flag as Spam" button so buyers can, with a click, reject candidates whose applications are spam. Providers repeatedly flagged as spammers will be investigated by oDesk and may face disciplinary actions. So it's more important than ever to write targeted, custom cover letters for every application - don't just copy-paste!

Round of Applause

730 providers from 64 countries, including Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, and Guatemala got their first jobs last month! These 730 providers have already racked up 31,304 oDesk hours and over $341,489 in just one month!

Congrats to these providers who landed their first jobs in July and August!

A special round of applause to the top new providers by total earnings:

Adeem B, Dmitri K, Nicolae G, Vladimir G, Brett Z, Irina P, Xing Y, Matthew R, Nishil J, Marcelo A, Anton V, Harish C, Victor K, Alin B, Petr M, Oleg O, Anton S

Want to see your name listed here next month? Apply to job openings.

The oDesk Perspective

Customer support representative, as a discrete job or as one facet of the "virtual assistant" position, is a great opportunity for a provider with strong interpersonal skills and a natural ability to solve problems. But it can be hard to stand out among applicants for a job involving human language and "common" interpersonal skills.

Review your profile:

• Spelling and grammar mistakes can kill your chances. You're asking to represent someone's business to the world.
• Mention "customer support" in your skills list or the title. Make sure your profile reflects your interest in the job.
• Take the right tests. Placing highly in oDesk's Call Center Skills Test and our Email Etiquette Test demonstrates your skills and show you've taken time to establish your abilities--you're not just answering this job post because, "What the heck, I've got a phone ..."

Nail the interview:

• Be professional, positive and polite. The buyer is thinking, "This is the voice my customers will hear. This is the attitude my customers will encounter."
• Ask smart questions. A customer support person or versatile virtual assistant is a problem solver who deftly cuts to the heart of a matter to come up with a quick, appealing solution. Ask about the kinds of questions callers will bring, the tools and authority you'll have to solve them, the training you'll get and the metrics that will provide feedback on your efforts. Can you listen in on a few calls, live or prerecorded?
• Treat the the buyer like a customer. When the interview finishes, ask whether there's anything else you can do for the buyer right now, and wish her a good day--leave her feeling the way she wants her customers to feel.

Do the job:

• Keep a reliable schedule. If you aren't able to make a consistent time commitment right now, these jobs probably won't work out for you.
• Provide frequent reports. There may be a degree of autonomy expected--after all, the buyer is outsourcing the work to you--but let him see that you are thorough and responsible, and provide all the information he needs to be confident in your work.
• Make people happy. You're a creative problem solver, within the parameters your buyer sets out. Never tell customers, "Hey, I dunno," or "That's not my department." Be positive, empathetic, and utterly solution-oriented: "I will get back to you with an answer" or "Let me ask my manager."

If you're a quick-thinking "people person," you could have a lot of success helping buyers keep their customers satisfied. Just make sure that from the minute you apply for the job, you know how to keep your customer (the buyer) satisfied, too.

Success Stories

User Interviews: William Bridges & CogWise Software

CogWise Software specializes in building Ruby on Rails web applications. Based in Nashville, TN, USA, the company was founded in January 2007 and started hiring oDesk providers in November that year. The company relies on oDesk to simplify administration and to provide the bulk of its manpower--with only two in-house employees, it has 12 to 15 oDesk providers working on projects at any time.

The company had been known as BluePaw Software, but was rebranded as CogWise just this week. CEO William Bridges says the new company is a fresh partnership with an oDesk provider, and the time was right for a new start. "CogWise is also about building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with clients and building our own internal software projects that my partner and I have thought of."

Q:  Do you have a small group of providers you work with regularly, or do you tend to seek new providers to suit each individual project?
A:  A little of both. As we've grown, we've needed more developers. We actually look in the oDesk marketplace and outside, but we always have new developers sign up for an oDesk account, because it makes things a lot easier to manage. Our strategy is to have two or three small teams and some specialists for technology outside our core interest.

Q:  What are your tip-offs in the hiring process that a provider will work well, or that tell you definitely not to hire this person?
A:  We've found a combination of good feedback and looking at their work history is a strong indicator of a good candidate, but we really don't know for sure until they talk to us or even until they work for us for a day or two. Good feedback and a strong work history will get our attention though. Test scores are great, too, but we've found the test scores don't always reflect the quality of a person's abilities. Showing resourcefulness and independent thinking is the biggest asset we look for in any candidate.

Q:  So, do you most value someone who can execute your vision, or who can surprise you with creative solutions?
A:  Definitely someone who surprises me with creative solutions. We need people who can think quickly and independently, and execute solutions. We've had a person in the past who never followed directions and was always coming up with other solutions, and that was a problem, so there is a middle ground, but we'd prefer creative solutions.

To read the full interview, click here.

Provider Spotlight

Get to know these highly rated oDesk providers:

	Adeem B IPhone Application Specialist Total oDesk Hours: 282 Feedback: 5.0 Comments: "Adeem again was an asset to work with. All communication was clear and work was exactly what we were looking for."
	Justine B Bilingual Photojournalist, Blogger and Translator (Spanish+English) Total oDesk Hours: 5 Feedback: 4.8 Comments: "She is also very attentive to comments and feedback and did a great job in incorporating everything to produce good articles."
	Aleksandar M Flash/Flex GURU Total oDesk Hours: 635 Feedback: 5.0 Comments: "Alex did a far better job on the project than I had even required. Great programmer!"
	Guillaume L CG artist 3D and 2D general design for game,web,illustration and print Total oDesk Hours: 250 Feedback: 4.9 Comments: "A great job, high quality and I love the attention to detail and all the help to make the character look perfect!"

oDesk Community Spotlight

Buzzworthy

By now you know how our Buzz giveaway works--if you've blogged or posted to a forum about your experiences on oDesk, let us know (buzz@odesk.com). Up to five people per month win T-shirts to show our gratitude for spreading the word, and our favorite post livens up this section of the newsletter. We'd like to say a quick thank you to our runners up this month (check them out here and here).

And now for our favorite! Rajesh Mago, a computer engineer and technical writer in New Delhi, not only talks about his experience, but aims to strike up a conversation on his PCTips&Tricks blog. He asks freelancers to discuss their experiences in various online marketplaces and in general, and invites buyers to talk about what they're looking for in remote workers, and how often they find it. He also talks about his experience with our certification tests and gaining experience in pursuing jobs.

Take a look at his post and give him your thoughts on the oDesk experience. There's a lot of insight and business acumen among our nearly 100,000 users. We love to see the community making the most of it!

Vote Result

Score: 10.0, Votes: 1