I wrote a while ago, about the process of getting into crossover for work. In this post I will share with you how it went after I got into the “Crossover Marketplace”.
1st Week
In the very first week itself a webinar was held, so as to assist and clarify questions that many of the freelancers on the platform might have. Although I was hoping that I would get some work in the first week itself, but for starters a webinar was OK.
I joined the webinar along with couple dozen more developers. We all asked various questions from payments, work and all sort of stuff. From that webinar I got to know that the demand was very low for PHP developer position at that time in their marketplace. This was divulged by the fact that a number of other PHP developers were saying that we are on the platform from the past x weeks and haven’t got a project yet.
The Hiring managers(that is what they call people who are managing developers on the marketplace), assured that it is something which is common, the demand fluctuates, but there is nothing to worry about as there will be projects very soon for all of us. This was good news.
2nd Week
No work in this week as well. Yes, I got a call from the Hiring Manager. She was asking how things were on my side and she also told me that they will soon be launching a Training program. People who still haven’t got a job with them, can work on adding skills to their profile. She asked me whether I will be willing to join this program or not. I said Yes, in an instant.
3rd Week
Still no work, I got a call from the Hiring manager again at the end of week. She explained me about their training program and told me that I will need to fill in a form to participate in that.
After our call she sent me a link with a survey. The survey basically had a few questions like, what do we want to achieve, what sort of technologies are we interested in. It was aimed at testing whether you are potentially a hardworking and directed candidate or not.
I filled out the survey. After a day, they sent me login credentials for Pluralsight which also included Codeschool. Now this was cool!.
4th Week
The hiring manage had told me that I need to complete a course every week to remain eligible for this program. She also said that she will be calling every week to check my progress.
In the very first week I completed 3 courses ;). It was good fun learning on the platform. Although I enjoy reading books/articles more than watching video tutorials.
At the end of the week I got another call from HM, she was happy with my progress and also told me that an opportunity is coming up for a WordPress developer. So it would be good if I started looking at courses related to WordPress.
5th Week
My learning pace slowed down, as I got involved in a project outside of Crossover. But still I completed a course on CodeSchool this week.
In the call with HM, I told her my progress and she asked me If I would like to apply for any other position. The PHP Developer position was continuously seeing low demand. She told me how an Android guy got a Software Architect Position. So I can try that too.
I was already looking towards other opportunities now, checked through the available profiles quickly. Didn’t find anything suitable for me.
6th Week
I had finalized the opportunity that I got outside crossover. In the meanwhile I logged into Pluralsight, to checkout a few courses. But my profile had expired, maybe because I wasn’t very active on the platform in the last week.
I got an email from another HM regarding a PERL opportunity, but as I had already made up my mind, I replied that I can’t be available for the interview. The next day I got an email from the other HM, that the WordPress opportunity is here. I needed to get into an interview with one of their technical evaluators. I let go this one as well.
So by the end of this week I was pretty clear that I will not be going to work with crossover.
9th Week
I got a call from someone from crossover asking me the very same things I just described above(I wish, I had published this article by then, would have sent him here). I let him know the complete story. He told me that he will be De-activating my profile from the marketplace.
I asked him to go ahead and do that. To get back into crossover I will need to go over this process again. 🙂
My Take
- They might be having opportunities in other technologies, but for PHP developers there were hardly any jobs as I didn’t get one until the end of sixth week.
- Through their webinar I got to know that they expect you to work full time and long term with them. You shouldn’t be involved with anything else. But they don’t have sufficient work for every profile. This makes it very difficult for someone to rely completely on them for work.
- On the webinar, I also asked them what happens if a project ends, will we be getting paid in period of no work?. To which they answered no.
- I believe their efforts to get me a job were sincere. The communication was good and almost every week I got a call from the HM.
- They also require you to work with software tool installed on your system, called WorkSmart. This will keep take snapshots of your screen along with your pictures through the webcam, randomly. Now this may have privacy implications for some and I also found the policies around worksmart to be very restricting. But this might be OK for many.
So this was my how it went for me on Crossover. I am no longer looking forward to working with them in the near future. You can give it a shot, but I would suggest don’t go in with an expectation that you won’t need anything else apart from crossover. If you already have work and exploring something new then I believe there is no reason you shouldn’t give crossover a try.