Buyers that hire with no interview?
I've worked here for a year and have never had this happen. That being said, you would think being around the site this long I would know the answer to the following question but I've looked and looked and can't find a link.
I applied to a position this morning and just got an email from oDesk saying "my assignment had started". Sure enough - went into my team room and there I am hired by another Buyer. That in itself is not a problem - I'm always up for more work - but this Buyer didn't interview me - I could be the bride of Godzilla for all he/she knows, right? Okay not really - I've logged hundreds of oDesk hours and have great feedback - but NO interview? No contact - she just hired me. If only it were that easy to impress everyone... 
Has anyone experienced this in here? Just curious
PS I was going to ask how to contact this person but I missed her email address at the bottom of the message - so no need to ask that.
DM
It happens
I had similar situations with two buyers. In one, I explained the buyer and ended the assignment because my skill set doesn't match the actual requirement (I couldn't figure out the actual requirement from the job description). In another, it happens to be that my profile and cover letter were enough to hire me and it's been a pleasure to work with that buyer until now.
Sadly
Yes, I've had it happen a number of times. Sometimes it works out ok and other times....well not so good 
I'm leery of buyers who feel it's appropriate to hire someone without first discussing the job with them. In fact, I have increased my profile rate to prevent that from happening - the only other option is 'hiding' my profile and I'm not really prepared to do that.
It's a little awkward to be hired like this because in addition to what you point out (i.e. I could be the bride of Godzilla) you have *no* idea about this person hiring you - and in fact you don't know much about the job.
One of the rare negative feedbacks I've ever left for a buyer came as a result of one of these hires - never had a worse match than that one.
My only recommendation is that you get on chat asap with the buyer and make sure you and they both understand the task at hand and make sure that you can work together
Good luck!
Doreen
Ditto
I had a bad experience once too Doreen - was hired by an outfit to search something about car dealerships on Yahoo - and three hours into the project it was cancelled by the buyer (about 18 providers) involved. I don't think they realized that they were paying everyone they hired hourly - I did get paid for the three hours but probably the most short-lived job I've ever had! LOL! Live and learn, I guess.
This (first-time) Buyer that hired me yesterday - said she just "went with her gut" based on my profile and cover letter and it turns out it's going to work out well. Just some part-time fill-in stuff which fits well with my schedule and turns out the Buyer is quite communicative and responsive to questions - so I lucked out this time!
DM
Just happened to me three days ago
I applied for a job on Monday, went to bed, and found myself the next morning hired! The job description was very vague (my mistake, I know!), so I waited for the buyer to contact me with more details about the task at hand (after all he did hire me, so I thought he would be the one briefing me about the project). I didn't hear from him in 2 days, so I decided to take the initiative and contact him to know what needed to be done. He said to me, "I posted a job task on oDesk and I accepted yourself to do the work. Has this been started or will it be started as there is a deadline of a week, now 3 days. Let me know so i can hire someone else otherwise."
I decided to end the assignment before I bill any hours. The end!
Me too
It must have been the cover letters we wrote ... I just had it happen too.