How not to apply for freelance jobs

The main point and probably most important in this article is about reading through job posts carefully.

Ironically I found myself scanning this article about reading through the job posting carefully. I’ve been overloading myself with tons of articles lately and have adapted this “scanning” to virtually everything I’ve been reading, including recipes (no disasters… yet).

I think there’s two pieces to this, people that are posting jobs need to put the essay-style writing aside, but at the same time, this is test #1. Can you read a paragraph? Can you read 2 or 3? Can you remember what it said and follow the instructions that may not be in bullet points?

A friend of mine recently posted to a few job boards looking for a developer. She outlined exactly what was absolutely required, and what would “be nice to have”. About 5% actually had the skills she absolutely required. She re-posted with the name of the job along the lines of “If you don’t have *SKILL* do NOT apply.” Hundreds of responses later, she gave up and removed the post. My favourite were the ones that wrote her and said “Hey, you never responded to me, I replied the last time, I know I don’t have all the skills you wanted, but let’s work together anyway!”

I wonder how many of you read this whole posting, and how many scanned it?

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