8 Phrases in Freelance Job Ads that Sream "Don´t Apply"

1. FREELANCER TIPS 8 Phrases in Freelance Job Ads That Scream “DON’T APPLY” More freelancertips on www.freelancermap.com...

2. 8 Phrases in Freelance Job Ads That Scream “DON’T APPLY” • Job hunting is a significant part of any freelancer’s career. Sure, once you get more experienced, well-known and have built up your online and offline presence enough, clients will start approaching you by themselves. But even then, you might want to dip into gig searching now and again. Unfortunately, scamming is still an issue in the world of freelance job ads. • However, fraudulent offers are not that hard to sniff out, provided you know what to look for. Here are 8 phrases that should raise some red flags and make you think twice about accepting a seemingly lucrative job offer.

3. 8 Phrases in Freelance Job Ads That Scream “DON’T APPLY”

4. “Lowest bidder gets the gig“ • A sentence like that can only be written by someone who was no regards for quality and only cares about getting the cheapest work possible. You don’t want to work for somebody like that. Even if it is a legit job offer you will definitely get underpaid and probably have an unprofessional business relationship in a number of other ways as well.

5. “Gain exposure”, “build a long-term relationship” • These two phrases are just code words for “work for pennies”. Do that and maybe, just maybe you might get some long-term benefit in the future. This is one of the “opportunities” you should decline. You are better off building up your website, blog or Facebook page.

6. “Send us a free sample” • To get a misconception out of the way first, there is nothing wrong with requesting a work sample as part of the application process. But you have to make sure that either all applicants do a similar task and that you keep the rights on your work if you don’t get hired. There are companies which just give a different portion of the project to each applicant and then run away with the work.

7. “Contact me at johny@genericmail.com” • Yeah, an unprofessional e-mail address à la Nigerian prince is probably a red flag. If the client claims he works at a somewhat respectable or large company, why doesn’t he or she use a corporate address? Surely, that is mandatory for their work? This is a good prompt for you to research the client thoroughly. Do they have a web presence of any sort or are they mentioned somewhere even remotely reputable? If not, you might want to keep your distance.

8. “Earn up to…” • If a job advert offers you a possible salary that makes you tear up just by looking at it, it is probably trying to scam you. Sure, maybe one in a thousand people could actually make the amount of money speculated given the right circumstances, but you should ask yourself what the sum starts at. If you’re going to be slaving away for months doing work that you can’t live off of, there are better ways to invest your time.

9. “Perfect/ideal for…”, “Easy/no experience required” • Job ads that overhype the offering can come off as tempting, but mostly feature empty promises. If a client has good work for a professional freelancer, they won’t be afraid to say that the job is going to be challenging in some way. If anybody could do it, it’s not worth doing.

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