Some of these encounters can be genuinely painful. People avoiding video chat is the most obvious sign often. Then you get on a call with someone and they are as terse as they possibly can be so that their accent will be "masked". On one occasion I was talking to a TTS.
Ultimately for everything we do, communication is the number one requirement. We have to be able to communicate fluently in a high level of detail and have what we say not just understood, but even anticipated and interpreted.
So no matter how good someone is in some other aspect, it's a non-starter if I can't have a chat with them - and I think vice-versa too ... how can they enjoy the work and do a reasonable job if I can't really explain to them what I want easily?
I don't know if I'll ever use Upwork for programmers again. Most of my experiences have been bad, even when I was quite willing to pay premium rates.*
* Big motivation for many using Upwork is bypassing conventional corporate finance and the way they pay (or fail to pay) freelancers.
I don't do freelance work myself, but based on how software development is done in most software companies I've worked for. Do you not have open tickets that need to be done by freelancers? Or are you simply looking for freelancers to do entire projects on their own?
Most of the software development I do is done based on open tickets that people can pick up and comment on if things are unclear. The same goes for when we hire a freelancer, we have open tickets that can be picked up and completed, once completed they submit a merge request and we go on from that.
That is not to say you can't have a (video)chat, but it shouldn't really be needed for the actual development part of the job. We only have a call/meetup if we expect to be working with them for a longer period of time, or when we haven't worked with them before.
If you were looking to do a videochat with me when you have only a few hours of work for me I don't think I would be open to that either.
Most of the work we want done is project based. Like "Build this API for us and afterwards we'll take it in-house". Mostly I hire for several weeks or even months of work. So yes interviews will occur.
As for tickets...well I don't know how someone can just drop into a complex system and resolve bugs or add features, without understanding how the wider system works. We don't have work of that nature really.
I see, most of ours is as well. But we tend to start people off with simple stuff so that they can get to know the stack and our software. That way we ease them into it. It makes it a lot easier for repeat work. That way we get to know them better and better as well.
We're a small team, but even we often have tasks that are trivial for our senior engineers, those are perfect for freelancers/juniors to find out how capable they are without taking too much risk (financially in case of them being freelancers).
Thing is, Upwork's "premium" rates are still super low compared to rates of "normal" programmers. Hence the quality. $50 is definitely a premium rate on Upwork, but it's rock bottom offline. So you get someone "premium by Upwork standards".
You have to pay $100-$200 an hour for good contractors. These, are simply not on Upwork.
What is your alternate solution? Is it to give up on hiring remote workers and stick to local hires, or to use a more formal process (like the offshoring companies) or something else?
Ultimately for everything we do, communication is the number one requirement. We have to be able to communicate fluently in a high level of detail and have what we say not just understood, but even anticipated and interpreted.
So no matter how good someone is in some other aspect, it's a non-starter if I can't have a chat with them - and I think vice-versa too ... how can they enjoy the work and do a reasonable job if I can't really explain to them what I want easily?
I don't know if I'll ever use Upwork for programmers again. Most of my experiences have been bad, even when I was quite willing to pay premium rates.*
* Big motivation for many using Upwork is bypassing conventional corporate finance and the way they pay (or fail to pay) freelancers.