✎ The oDesk experience

Alright. This is going to be my first post about my journey towards earning money online. :)

Lets start of with oDesk.

I started working at oDesk last April 3, 2009. Yes, that's really recent. It was purely accidental. I actually wanted to apply as an online English teacher with a Japanese owned company but they were not replying with my application so I decided to call them. For some reason, I first wanted to research about the company before following up...and then I stumbled upon oDesk at Google and so the history goes on...

After I signed up, I immediately build my profile. I took two online exams: The oDesk readiness exam and the US English Basic Skills Test. I passed btw lol. And then I applied to 11 job postings. Yes, you've read that right. Eleven. I almost hit the quota of 15 application lol. Luckily for me after a day, I received three interview invitations from them and another two after few days. I was so happy and never imagined that these buyers* will contact me because I am not really confident with my cover letters ;P. What happened to the other applications? They rejected me. :) Saying that they prefer other candidates and others say that I was charging them a high bid. That's ridiculous because as far as I know I only charge $2.00/hour. I guess they only wanted to make excuses.

Anyway, among the five interview invitations, two buyers hired me.

Buyer #1: My task is to research about people with debt. Those who reside in the UK only. I was too excited but I had a hard time with the task. It eats up my time and searching people in debt asking about their contact info is like finding a needle in a haystack. I found some contacts and gave it to my buyer but I wanted to terminate the job. My buyer told me not to cancel it and I did. After few weeks, I didn't follow up about the task. I guess its really not my thing. And today (April 20), I received an email saying that my buyer suspended it. I received no payment, I received no negative feedback. Its okay. I am after the feedback anyway. ✌

Buyer #2: My task is to cut and edit an audio. This is my first ever real task. I gave a good impression with my buyer because I passed his qualifications which is to submit an edited audio before he can finally hire me. It was an easy job but difficult at the same time because of the bulk. I have to finish 400+ audio in two days! But I cant, and I honestly told him that. I didn't really sleep at all just to finish it plus the audio were really random so I had to organize them in some way. After the first task, he asked how much I would like to be paid. I told him I will charge $72 because I had to work for 3 days. He agreed but told me to work faster because there were other providers* who are much faster than me. But since I gained his trust, he gave me more task. I was paid, $40 for my second task.

↑↑↑ My first payment for the things that I did over the internet. lol. Of course it wasn't a get-money-fast idea. I had to work hard for it and use my skills. How will I encash it? I will not. I will make my account fatter before I'll withdraw lol. If I decided to do it, I'll post my experience here. :)

I am still hired by Buyer #2 but for now, he doesn't have a task for me. I worked in a fixed rate as opposed to hourly rate which oDesk encourages. So I am still searching for another job at oDesk.

Right now, I received another invitation for an interview. This time it is going to be different. Its a Virtual Assistant job. I am quite excited about it since I will be paid hourly and the task is not difficult at all. The only uh-oh is that I'm going to work in a different timezone. :( We'll talk about that. The buyer seems to be good in compromising. I hope I'll get in and its going to be a good job. I have pending applications as well so its really advisable to be online most of the time if you really want to get that job!

But my first tip is, do not accept anything for the sake of getting in. Some buyers are like those bad eBay shoppers or hoppers. They give you task and wont pay you the right way. I'll expand this topic nextime.

Oh if you want to check oDesk and want to work there like me, you can check my referral link below. Don't worry, I wont get any profit from you asap because you need to earn $1000 before I can actually benefit from that. lol. Well anyway, the chances are quite vague but I want to try it--Just in case. lol.

♥,
Cecily

*Buyers---oDesk term for employer.
*Providers---oDesk term for you, the one offering the service.
italics---these words are italicized because it will help me make some great tips on how to land a job in oDesk nextime. :)