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One guy I worked with spent a lot of effort evaluating Ukrainian and south American talent who had fluent or at least business level English. It took him awhil

One guy I worked with spent a lot of effort evaluating Ukrainian and south American talent who had fluent or at least business level English. It took him awhile but the devs he fed work to were solid engineers, almost FAANG tier but he paid them s*t or good for their locations. I've kept their names handy because poaching them would be dirt easy. Knowing this as well as what you said, I avoid agencies now and simply assemble teams of individuals for this reason alone. They're easier to evaluate and you can let them go easily as opposed to a full service agency. However, what annoys me the most about Upwork are agencies larping as solo guys. Anytime I evaluate a guy who has a solo freelancer account and then mentions he has guys he works with that bill through him, I cut them lose. This is easy to spot. I wish uowork would ban these guys.

pmontra 3y ago
I'm a solo freelancer and I happened to get contracts that needed more than one person to work on. Sometimes the customer paid everybody separately, sometimes they paid me and I paid the others.
rcarr 3y ago
> However, what annoys me the most about Upwork are agencies larping as solo guys. Anytime I evaluate a guy who has a solo freelancer account and then mentions he has guys he works with that bill through him, I cut them lose. In the UK, you need to collect evidence that you are a contractor and not an employee of a company. One of the ways you can do this is by hiring people to do some or all of the contracted work on your behalf. It might be unlikely given it is Upwork, but if those freelancers are repeatedly doing big or long jobs for the same client(s) then this may be a legitimate tactic to avoid falling foul of the taxman.
- spyke112 3y ago
  It’s the same in Denmark. It’s really annoying because companies will not commit to top tier salary, but are happy to pay for a freelancer. I guess it’s hard for middle managers to hire engineers that should paid a lot more than them. The result is that all the FTEs are mediocre, and freelancers are where the talent are.
  - janstice 3y ago
    Not in Denmark (or even UK), but if we hire perm HR get involved, while contractors are just procurement, and can be directly attached to a project which will be funded differently to BAU - when I hire a perm attached to a project I need to attest to what will happen to the employee when the project ends.

pmontra 3y ago

I'm a solo freelancer and I happened to get contracts that needed more than one person to work on. Sometimes the customer paid everybody separately, sometimes they paid me and I paid the others.

rcarr 3y ago

> However, what annoys me the most about Upwork are agencies larping as solo guys. Anytime I evaluate a guy who has a solo freelancer account and then mentions he has guys he works with that bill through him, I cut them lose. In the UK, you need to collect evidence that you are a contractor and not an employee of a company. One of the ways you can do this is by hiring people to do some or all of the contracted work on your behalf. It might be unlikely given it is Upwork, but if those freelancers are repeatedly doing big or long jobs for the same client(s) then this may be a legitimate tactic to avoid falling foul of the taxman.

spyke112 3y ago
It’s the same in Denmark. It’s really annoying because companies will not commit to top tier salary, but are happy to pay for a freelancer. I guess it’s hard for middle managers to hire engineers that should paid a lot more than them. The result is that all the FTEs are mediocre, and freelancers are where the talent are.
- janstice 3y ago
  Not in Denmark (or even UK), but if we hire perm HR get involved, while contractors are just procurement, and can be directly attached to a project which will be funded differently to BAU - when I hire a perm attached to a project I need to attest to what will happen to the employee when the project ends.