Jovan Cicmil's Blog - Hiring

We would all like to be judged on merit alone, but that’s not how the world works. Here’s one example: in a job interview, we should be judged only on our fitness for the role. But, in reality, we are judged on our appearance, our choice of words in an introductory email, our small talk prowess - and the interviewer’s current mood. As freelancers, this truth takes another form, one we ...

Hiring is an art form. Large corporations often implement complex processes with the sole aim of weeding out candidates. If you’re a small business or startup, things are even trickier. You don’t have a massive infrastructure to guide your hiring decisions. You don’t get to delegate that responsibility to an internal team of experts. And, most ominously, you have much less room for ...

In over a decade of freelancing, I’ve had clients tell me a lot of stories about their businesses. Some of these stories were about the bad experiences they had previously had with freelancers. They weren’t discouraged by those setbacks, but many others are dissuaded from hiring freelancers when they hear the horror stories. My aim today is twofold: To explain why the most common ...

Those of you who have been reading my work know that I’m a freelancer, entrepreneur, and writer. But did you know that I’ve also hired over 20 freelancers on various platforms over the course of the last decade? Hiring remote talent can be a daunting prospect. Many still shy away from it because a simple Google search can reveal a hundred hellish experiences suffered by other would-be ...

When you begin working as a freelancer, you can find yourself increasing your earnings steadily every month. However, growth inevitably slows down after some time and, eventually, earnings plateau. How can a freelancer keep increasing their earnings after they’ve filled up their entire schedule and raised their hourly rate as far as it will go? There are several possibilities, including ...