What's New
What is it?
You can now purchase oDesk gear at the brand new oDesk Store! We’re offering three cool T-shirt designs you can wear to show your oDesk love!
Buy one for yourself, for your friends, or as a holiday gift.
Where can I find it?
The oDesk Store is still in beta, so it currently resides in oDesklabs. But you can still browse through the T-shirts and make purchases today.
The store is powered by Printmojo, so all of your purchases are handled through their secure site.
What do the T-shirts look like?
We thought you would never ask. Two of them were designed by one of our providers, Ivan A.!
Happy Shopping!
What is it?
You can now create customized RSS Feeds for specific search parameters.
Why did we do this?
Our existing RSS Feeds listed all jobs; not very useful for someone looking for a specific job.
What does it look like?
We’ll demonstrate with an example: Imagine that you are a PHP Developer looking for:
- Only Hourly Paid Jobs
- Full-Time Work (30+ hrs/week)
- Job Duration Minimum 8 weeks
- Buyers with at least 1 paid job
Select these criteria in the Advanced Search box on the Jobs Search Page:
Click the Search button. If the jobs that appear appeal to you, right-click the RSS link and copy the link to paste it into your RSS Reader:
From now on, your RSS feed will only show jobs with the specific criteria you selected. You can create as many customized RSS Feeds as you like!
What is it?
We have given our Provider Profiles a makeover! By organizing the profile into tabs, we have made it easier to find:
- An Overview of the Profile
- oDesk Work History
- Resume
- The Provider’s Tests and Certifications
We have also introduced the Provider Portfolio, which will allow providers to upload examples of their work (including graphics, Flash Animations, Word Docs, PDFs, etc.).
Why did we do this?
We thought the current provider profiles made it difficult to find important information, particularly because it was tricky to sort through all the text. We also wanted to give providers a way to showcase their previous work, particularly those who had not yet logged in many hours through oDesk and thus had a limited oDesk Work History. Solution: the Provider Portfolio!
What does it look like?
To see the new look of the Provider Profiles, click on the link on the top right hand side of your provider profile that says:
Try our new Profiles Beta!
You will be able to see the individual tabs with different parts of your profile as shown below:
Please note that in this release, you cannot access your new profile from the Profile Editor. To access your profile, go to public provider search.
To upload files to your Portfolio, access the Portfolio editor by logging into my.odesk.com and selecting the Profile & Settings tab. Click Add or Edit under the Portfolio Projects section to add files or images and a description of the project.
What is it?
Going on vacation this holiday season? Taking time off? Providers can now inform current and future buyers that they’ll be taking a leave of absence.
- Indicate the dates you will be on leave on your provider profile.
- Send emails to current buyers when you decide to take a leave through our automated system.
Why did we do this?
Oftentimes providers are tagged as unresponsive because they are away for a few days and forget to notify buyers. We’ve made it easy to notify buyers and the rest of the oDesk network that you’re away from your computer.
What does it look like?
1. Sign into your provider console by going to my.odesk.com.
2. Click on the Profile and Settings Tab and locate the Provider Leave link on the Provider Console.
3. Check the box and select the dates of your leave by clicking on the pop-up calendars.
4. If you wish to let your current buyers know that you will be on leave, click “Yes” and an email will be sent to your buyers automatically. If you click “No,” you will be directed to your Profile information.
5. Under the My Profile link within Profile and Settings, you will now be able to see My Public Profile. The dates of your leave will appear under Weekly Availability. Your leave information will also appear in the Team Room.
What is it?
We have made it easier for buyers to find active providers on our site.
We are making the profiles of providers who meet all of the following criteria private. Providers who have signed up, but who have …
- Never earned any money on oDesk
- Profiles that are less than 50 percent complete
- Not been active on the site for more than 90 days (three months)
… will see receive email notification that their profiles have turned private. Providers who wish to continue being active on oDesk will have the ability to complete their profiles and become public at any time.
Providers: Haven’t completed your profile? Come back to our site, finish your profile, and set it to public to stay active in the search results.
Why did we do this?
With tens of thousands of providers on our network, we wanted to highlight providers who are actively working and ready to take on new job opportunities on oDesk. By making inactive provider profiles private, buyers will have an easier time finding providers who will respond to job interview requests.
What is it?
Buyers can now manage multiple credit cards on oDesk and can decide which card will be used for billing.
Buyers can also set up a Backup card in case their Primary card fails.
Why did we do this?
When a Buyer’s Primary credit card fails, either because it has expired, there are insufficient funds or it has been canceled, oDesk suspends the Buyer’s account. In order to avoid any account delays, oDesk recommends that Buyers add a Backup credit card.
We will only charge the Backup credit card if the Primary card has failed. Read more about Primary and Backup cards here.
Provider and Buyers will also notice a new look for this section, including a new “Your Balance” box. Learn more about the new format of \”Your Balance\” and what the terms mean.
What does it look like?
We hope our new credit card management options will make it easier to manage your account!
We’ve just released 10 new online tests aimed at providers with graphic design skills.
We currently offer a variety of different tests used by providers to certify their skills for technology and business practices.
Read more about the online testing program and how you can add bling to your profile.
Click on the links below to take the tests or go to the My Tests tab in your Provider Console.
- Adobe Fireworks CS3
- Adobe Flash CS3
- Adobe Illustrator CS3
- Adobe Photoshop CS3
- Corel Draw X3
- Corel Paint Shop Pro XI
- Corel Ventura 10
- Macromedia Director MX 2004
- PageMaker 7.0
- Quark Xpress 7.0
Please let us know if you have feedback on any of our tests to help us improve the quality of our skill test offerings. We have a feedback feature that allows you to submit issues, concerns or errors with the test.
What is it?
You can now request upfront payments on Fixed Price jobs. When applying to a Fixed Price job, you may specify what percentage of your bid you want paid before starting a project.
Why did we do this?
There were many providers who expressed concern about working on fixed price jobs without the payment guarantee we were able to offer on hourly jobs. Allowing providers to request a payment upfront helps them bid with confidence by knowing that if they are hired, the Buyer is willing to make a payment before the project starts.
What does it look like?
Here is the new Fixed Price application page:
Some things to consider:
Build your reputation – Buyers are more likely to consider making an upfront payment to very experienced providers with good feedback. If you are new to oDesk or you have yet to receive any feedback, consider bidding without an upfront payment request to increase your chances of getting the job and building your oDesk reputation.
Be Reasonable – If you ask for too much upfront, you could reduce your chances of being considered for the job. Upfront payments are intended to promote provider confidence when they are working with new buyers on fixed price jobs, so only ask for enough to make you feel comfortable in starting the project.
Set expectations – If you request an upfront payment, make it clear in your cover letter what the Buyer should expect from you before they schedule another payment. For example, you could request 50% upfront payment for completing the first phase of the project, and tell the buyer you expect the other 50% upon completion of the entire project. Buyers will likely want to know how much work product they will receive for the initial payment, and by making expectations clear from the beginning, you will be able to avoid misunderstandings.
Be flexible – The Buyer may want to hire you, but may not be comfortable with the upfront payment amount. You can negotiate a lower upfront payment and change it by clicking the “Change Bid” option under “My Candidacies”.
We hope this feature will help providers better manage their risk when applying for and working on Fixed Price jobs.
What is it?
oDesk has enhanced the job search page to improve your job hunting experience. Now you can search Buyers by feedback or by the number of total jobs completed. With oDesk’s improved search capabilities, it will be easier to find the job you’re looking for. We have also moved the entire search window to the left column so you can see more results on the page.
Why did we do this?
While Buyers had the ability to search for providers by feedback or oDesk work hours, prior to this feature, providers didn’t have the same options. We’ve created a way for providers to evaluate and compare potential Buyers through several parameters.
What does it look like?
Here is the new job search page: 
We hope this will help you land the job you were looking for!
Does your profile have any bling?
We launched some new icons just a few weeks ago to feature the best performers on the online tests. Check out all the new icons and how to get some on your profile:
Go for the gold! Top provider in each test gets one.
Silver for 2nd place.
Bronze for 3rd place.
For any provider scoring in the Top 10 percentile.
For any provider scoring in the Top 20 percentile.
Keep on taking those tests! The competition is heating up as almost 30,000 tests have now been taken by oDesk providers. We’ve already heard from a few providers that they have started receiving more interview invites with the icons in their profiles.