Mauritians are steadily garnering a dubious reputation in the freelancing market. Mostly due to people looking to make some quick bucks alongside their main job. They are in a period of their lives where they need more money as expenses suddenly rise. They are in for the money and disappear once they get enough. Needless to say, they incinerate their reputation, our reputation as Mauritians, and the reputation of the poor Mauritians who trusted them.
For the past 3 years, I have been collecting lament stories of Mauritians who were kind enough to trust Mauritians with freelancing work for foreign clients, only to be slapped hard in the face. These people don’t deliver. Some even provide them with rs100k laptops to work but to no avail. The employers are kind enough to pay them even then …
This is why I say that freelancing is not office work folks. A real freelancer is often a one-man business or small company, dedicated to his craft, with sharp skills, and conscious about his reputation. He knows the ins and outs of the tech stack and has been doing this for some time. He has also been interacting with customers, planning projects, and estimating deadlines. A CEO, PM, Scrum master, engineer, team lead, marketer, all in one. You don’t get this by hiring an irresponsible side-gig seeker or a hit-and-run opportunist.
Good, strong engineers do deliver even if they don’t have freelancing experience. Choose your deck wisely. So, like set up short interviews for freelancers or have an internal checklist. I hope to share some hiring tips in another post.
But please, if you are looking for freelancers, don’t just book anybody who knows a tech stack.