MDEC Global Online Workforce (GLOW) Program

 

    I recently attended GLOW online training hosted by MDEC. Honestly, I didn't think it will help me much. I'd registered myself on Freelancer.com about 10 years ago when I started thinking about leaving my corporate job. I used up all my bids quota but didn't get any job on the site. Needless to say, I quickly gave up.

    However, I am much more determined this time. Finally left my well paid corporate job - I thought I'd dive in. You know - try all I'd wanted to try. So I signed up on this program. You can find more information about it here.

    I started receiving lots of emails about the program which I successfully ignored. There were reminders to view an introductory video on their site. After about a year of ignoring - I received an email about a training schedule. Maybe out of boredom - but I miraculously registered myself. Closer to the training date, a 'coach' or mentor assigned to me added me to a WhatsApp group for the attendees of the training. To be honest - if he didn't add me to the group I would most probably, conveniently 'forgot' about the training. I really commended the coach for adding each one of us individually to the group. JUST to make sure we don't bail out.

    I was really skeptical about the training. They kinda promoted the freelancing world. And then, they walked through the steps to set up your account on Freelancer, types of jobs there, how to bid etc. I mean, most of these info are readily available on Freelancer itself.

    However, they did share some tips with us. Given my past experience of not getting any of my bids awarded, I was determined to follow their tips/instructions to the T. And I'm gonna share the ones that I find helpful here:

    1. Complete and verify your profile.

    I mean, how the heck did I not do this before? I think I was worried to reveal who I am because I was working - and my projects back then were proprietary. Whatever it is, please don't be like me. 

    Take the effort to complete your profile and verify your identity, phone number and account no. These will show up as green ticks on your profile. And this along with your ranking and bid/proposal are about the only things that a client will see about you so you want to stand out as much as possible. It'll only take a few hours to complete it all and about a day or two to get the verification completed.

    2. Screen the clients before bidding

    This is very important. Freelancer Free Plan only gives you 6 bids per month. Remember, not all of your bids will be successful, so you don't want to waste them on 'questionable' clients. Most important criteria to watch out for is whether they have verified their payment method and made a deposit. This tells you that they mean business. Even better, find clients who have reviews before and have all their verifications completed. 

    For example, the profile on the left below is better, more trustworthy client than the one on the right. Not only this client has made a deposit, he/she also already had two 5 stars reviews.

    

    3. Use templates for the bid proposal

    The idea is that you want to spend less time bidding, than working on the projects itself. Having a template also lowers the initial barrier to start a bid. You'd want to have a skeleton template with introduction and ending that you can re-use and just update the body to personalize.

     Caution - DO NOT copy and paste for every bids. Its important to personalize the content based on the project description. I've seen projects with lonnnggg description with a statement at the very end like this - 'I will only consider bids that starts with 'wewilldoit' and ignore the rest'. You'll be surprised to know that at least half of the bidders will miss this part. So, don't just copy and paste.

    On Quora, there were also a lot of discussions about freelancing. I advise you to go and read them as they are pretty insightful. These are some that I recommend to read:

• Freelancing or regular job - which is better
• Experience as a freelancer
• Finding clients for newbie freelancer

    All in all - I think GLOW Program is a good initiative for people who wants to know how to make money online/freelancing. Many of the participants were pretty clueless and they were confused between MDEC platform and the freelancing platforms they were promoting/guiding.

    For people like me who have had some kind of experience with freelancing, I'd watch out for the tips that the coaches might drop. Even better, ask them questions. They are all experienced and established freelancers - so they'd be able to give you some pointers. Personally, I'd like them to give more practical guidance such as how to stand out from the competition and how to price our service competitively (not necessarily the cheapest).

    The program is free and conducted online. There is no commitment whatsoever - except the introductory video that you have to watch. So, if you're curious and wants to find out more on how to become a freelancer, go ahead and register for the program. Good luck!