6 Observations After Going Through 170 Applications on Upwork
I hired a productivity assistant via Upwork and found some interesting numbers.
Background
So for the uninitiated, Upwork is a platform that makes it very easy to hire a virtual assistant (VA) to help out with any digital task.
Back in 2013 I hired one for a couple years to help me run/build excel macros when I was in real estate. I also had one do a bunch of cold emails for me. I had a great experience with both of those VAs.
After I started working on Zone of Genius full time, I realized that my co-working productivity solution wasn’t working as well as I wanted. I realized that I needed to up the ante.
I concluded that I could recapture my max-productivity by getting a VA to watch me work, literally. Yeah. I literally share my entire screen with my VA it instantly guarantees of 90 minutes of distraction-less productivity… just for $5.
I wrote extensively about how I made that happen, screenshots and scripts included, last week.
Outcome
In the span of 1 week, I had over 200 applications.
The first person that I hired, I still work with today. I’ve done over 30 90-minute work sessions with her since November and it’s been one the smartest things I’ve done for my productivity.
As a data nerd, I always like cobbling together data together about normal-ish things just to understand the world a little better. Kind of like the write up I did after I applied to 63 jobs in 2019 or the time I tried to track my day to day energy levels for 2 months.
Observations
1. Over 75% of applicants for this job I posted were from the Philippines.
I kind of expected more Southeast Asian countries and more from India. I knew there were a lot of Filipinos applying, but I didn’t realize it was over 75%.
2. Over 75% of the applicants were women.
Similar point as above, I knew it was mostly women applying for the role, but didn’t expect the distribution to be 3:1.
3. 25% of Cover Letters submitted did not land well on me
Yes. For the purpose of creating this post. I actually read 170+ cover letters and categorized each one.
The Good:
Empathetic = This message usually was along the lines of “I totally understand having a co-working buddy, I need that as well sometimes”
Enthusiastic = They are eager and/or excited to do this
Willing/Direct = Just straight forward, them saying “I can do this,” “I’m interested,” or “I’m qualified”
The Bad:
Stock Message = They wrote a lot, it’s super thorough, but it actually has no relevance to the job I posted, easy to assume they just copy/paste for each job
Not on topic = They just said “hi” or asked me a question that had nothing to do with the job. This was a head-scratcher
Needy = They were literally saying some version of, “Please hire me,” “Please give me a chance,” or “I need this job.” Part of me felt bad for them, but they were also bidding on the upper end of the spectrum for this job (one of them even bid $15/hr while also coming across as needy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
Blank = Yuup. This happened, more than I expected.
My hierarchy when it comes to making a hiring decision?
Stock Message / Not on Topic / Needy / Blank = Hard no
Willing/Direct = Better, but… nope.
Empathetic = Cool! You understand me, buuuuut…
Enthusiastic = Yes! I’m more drawn to work with someone who seems excited to fulfill the role in the job description
I’m not confident enough to say that how I conduct myself as a hirer is indicative of how the average person hires but after writing this, it’s making me more thoughtful about the next time I go through a job hunt.
Genuine enthusiasm about joining a team/company can be a differentiator if skills/competencies are equal, and quite possibly, can make up for less skill/competency.
4. Women were 4-5x more likely to show enthusiasm in their cover letters
Of course, we have low sample size for the men, but the extreme differences suggest some kernel of truth.
The increased enthusiasm and empathy from women make sense to me (women tending to be more emotionally fluent/attuned).
The low “Not on topic” ratio for women also make sense (women tend to have higher conscientiousness).
The higher “Blank” ratio for women threw me off.
And men being higher on “Willing / Direct” makes perfect sense to me.
5. Photos: Women are 23% more likely to smile, men are 35% more likely to use a clean background
Again, low sample size, but I was curious what the numbers would show on a variety of photo aspects.
Definitions:
Smile = Self explanatory
Clean background = as long as the background was a single solid color, I marked this as a “yes”
HD = probably not meant to be taken literally, maybe I actually mean “not visibly grainy”
Face is clear = Means that their face was 1) wasn’t at an angle 2) wasn’t blocked by hair/hat/etc 3) was not super far away
Well Lit = Generally well light enough to easily make out the person’s facial features
To me, makes a bit of common sense that women smile more for photos (I literally have never practiced smiling in the mirror before and don’t care to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
I was a bit surprised by the clean background, but if I were to try to reason through it, I marked it as a “no” if the person was outside (thus, creating a noisier background), so maybe women generally were more comfortable using a photo when they were out and about (and therefore more likely to have makeup on)? That’s my guess, do you have a better one?
6. Nearly 70% of applicants were new on Upwork
When filtering applicants, Upwork shows you what their $/hr “bid” is as well as how much $ they’ve already made on Upwork — this is meant to be a proxy of reliability and follow through.
Here’s the breakdown of how much the applicants had already made by the time they applied for my job.
The label isn’t in the pie chart, but there’s actually 1 applicant who had made over $100,000 on Upwork! I truly didn’t expect that.
But back to the original point about the vast majority of people who had never made a penny off Upwork.
I found myself wrestling with the tension of wanting to hire ALL the newcomers on the platform, but also acutely aware that I really only needed 1 or 2 VAs to cover my needs. I knew how one positive review could mean a whole lot to someone new on the platform, but… what am I going to do with 100 VA’s?
So part of the reason why I’m writing this is to share how much people are wanting/available to work — even if it’s as simple as being a co-working buddy so you can be more productive — and that it’s also an opportunity to meaningfully help someone make ends meet on the other side.
Of course, even as I write this, part of me is conflicted — there are a bunch of people even in the US, even in San Francisco, who are struggling to make ends meet, why not help them?
Part of it is because I actually want to pay people something meaningful, and $3/hr in San Francisco is laughable (but decent for the Philippines), but if I start paying someone $10-15/hr, it no longer seems as compelling of an idea.
For the time being, I feel some guilt taking advantage of the location arbitrage. And if I’m brutally honest with myself and you, I’m probably going to keep feeling this until I reach my FIRE goals (projecting 7-10 years).
Again, if you’re curious about how to hire your own co-working buddy to a perfect productivity session, you can check out my break-down (full of scripts and screenshots) here.
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