jobseekers

 

If you are an independent contractor (IC), the days of posting flyers on church bulletin boards and in mailboxes are over. Tech-minded CEOs have now created online-based platforms to help ease the process of finding random jobs. For the IC, locating job opportunities is bountiful being that several hundred opportunities are immediately within reach. Online job sites also give the IC a chance to build their portfolios and database of clientele. The more references accumulated by the IC, his or her ability to create a constant stream of income will become greater.

 

So, what job sites were voted (by several sources) to be the best in the business for ICs?  Here are three sites that we’ve found and details on what each offers:

 

Freelancer.com

This global online job site is the largest company of its type worldwide. It is internationally-based; companies or small business owners save money with online-based outsourcing. Using this method to outsource work cuts down costs on healthcare, relocation fees, bonuses, and other employee benefits.

 

Freelancer.com is extremely competitive. It is known to have placed over 5.7 million jobs totaling $1.4 billion in paid projects since 2001. The website offers concrete evidence that ICs do secure projects and get paid well. Employers can hire freelancers to do work in areas such as software development, writing, data entry and design right through to engineering, the sciences, sales and marketing, accounting and legal services.

 

Freelancers, however, do have to sort through job postings themselves. This may take a bit of time out of your day.

 

Elance.com

 

ICs have the opportunity to search for numerous opportunities via the Elance website. One of the many great aspects about this website is that individuals can post their full resume along with documents (i.e. graphic design projects, writing samples, database worksheets, etc). This allows the freelancer to showcase their work, which will make themselves appear as the better candidate for the job. Elance.com also has a secured payment system. They also make the employer pay job seekers a deposit. By doing this, a freelancer can get paid “something” for a job even if the employer did not like his or her work.

 

ICs will have to search through the job postings themselves on this site as well. 

 

Thumbtack.com

 

This is a fairly new company for job seekers. It offers most of the same capabilities as Freelancer and Elance. The unique aspect about Thumbtack is, however, is that ICs can sit back and let opportunities come to them. Yes, this online job site take it upon their team to search for compatible jobs for their members. You, the freelancer, can create a profile detailing everything you expect in a job (i.e. pay rate, hours, location). Afterwards, the Thumbtack team will relay their top searches to you within a 24 hour time frame.

 

The downside is that Thumbtack only operates within the U.S.. So, if you want to find work outside of American soil, you will not be able to do that here. 

 

 

If you have had any experience with any of these sites mentioned, let us know. We’d love to hear your likes and/or dislikes in our comments area below.