Freelance Jobs - Guidelines
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Freelance Jobs - Guidelines
This forum provides a place for paid freelance job postings. This means companies or individuals looking to hire artists for paid work on a contract basis.
We have a few simple guidelines to follow here to cut down on the clutter and keep this professional.
If you have any questions about this section feel free to ask in this thread.
Thanks, and happy jobbering!
This forum provides a place for paid freelance job postings. This means companies or individuals looking to hire artists for paid work on a contract basis.
We have a few simple guidelines to follow here to cut down on the clutter and keep this professional.
1. This is for freelance/contract work only. On-site postings should be made in the Full/Part time onsite forum. When contacting someone for work, if they provide an email address use that, otherwise use the Send Message link next to their post and send them a link to your portfolio.
2. No mods, or any other form of non-paid positions, including "pay when we're done" structure projects. If you can not offer industry standard pay, immediately on completion of the contract, you are not offering a contract/freelance job. If your project does not offer immediate pay, it belongs in the Royalties or Unpaid Work forum sections.
3. Do not spam. Post your ad once. If you're looking for someone, and you have updated the position, then it is OK to update your thread to show that change. Feel free to refresh your thread with changes, but provide something in your post besides "Just a bump" or "Still looking!". Update the first post, and make a new reply to explain what has changed. The point of this rule is to discourage meaningless posts. Otherwise everyone is bumping their thread to get to the top, and each thread gets filled with posts which are an annoyance for everyone.
4. Do not reply in a thread unless you have a relevant question which informs everyone, i.e. "What is the length of the contract?", "Do you require specific software?", etc. Don't ask questions which only apply to your situation.
5. Applicants should not post images from their portfolio, info selling themselves, or links to their portfolio in a company's thread. When contacting someone for work, if they provide an email address use that, otherwise use the Send Message link next to their post and send them a link to your portfolio. We ask applicants not to apply directly in a thread, because these posts make it more difficult for other applicants to find information about the job itself.
6. Do not post just to say you have applied, i.e "Message sent!". This is an annoyance for the original poster (OP) and everyone else.
7. Do not ask when you'll receive a response, or to state you haven't heard back, or ask if the job is still available. If you feel the need to do this, send a direct message. If the OP is still looking, they will post an update. Responding to each applicant is a time-consuming process, most OPs do not have the time for this. If you do not hear back, it is best to assume the OP is not interested in your submission.
8. This is not a place to critique/comment on other people's work, these sort of responses need to be kept in Showcase & Critique. If you have a comment for someone, use Send Message.
9. If you are a new user posting and do not see your thread, feel free to email the moderators at helpdesk@polycount.com and we will make sure it gets approved. We have an anti-spam filter in place to catch all the nonsense and viagra ads that somehow always seem to end up here. If you do not see your thread after posting, do not post multiple threads, just contact us.
10. If you see someone breaking these guidelines, we encourage you to use the Flag > Report button. This sends a message to the moderators, who will look into the post and decide whether it needs moderation.
2. No mods, or any other form of non-paid positions, including "pay when we're done" structure projects. If you can not offer industry standard pay, immediately on completion of the contract, you are not offering a contract/freelance job. If your project does not offer immediate pay, it belongs in the Royalties or Unpaid Work forum sections.
3. Do not spam. Post your ad once. If you're looking for someone, and you have updated the position, then it is OK to update your thread to show that change. Feel free to refresh your thread with changes, but provide something in your post besides "Just a bump" or "Still looking!". Update the first post, and make a new reply to explain what has changed. The point of this rule is to discourage meaningless posts. Otherwise everyone is bumping their thread to get to the top, and each thread gets filled with posts which are an annoyance for everyone.
4. Do not reply in a thread unless you have a relevant question which informs everyone, i.e. "What is the length of the contract?", "Do you require specific software?", etc. Don't ask questions which only apply to your situation.
5. Applicants should not post images from their portfolio, info selling themselves, or links to their portfolio in a company's thread. When contacting someone for work, if they provide an email address use that, otherwise use the Send Message link next to their post and send them a link to your portfolio. We ask applicants not to apply directly in a thread, because these posts make it more difficult for other applicants to find information about the job itself.
6. Do not post just to say you have applied, i.e "Message sent!". This is an annoyance for the original poster (OP) and everyone else.
7. Do not ask when you'll receive a response, or to state you haven't heard back, or ask if the job is still available. If you feel the need to do this, send a direct message. If the OP is still looking, they will post an update. Responding to each applicant is a time-consuming process, most OPs do not have the time for this. If you do not hear back, it is best to assume the OP is not interested in your submission.
8. This is not a place to critique/comment on other people's work, these sort of responses need to be kept in Showcase & Critique. If you have a comment for someone, use Send Message.
9. If you are a new user posting and do not see your thread, feel free to email the moderators at helpdesk@polycount.com and we will make sure it gets approved. We have an anti-spam filter in place to catch all the nonsense and viagra ads that somehow always seem to end up here. If you do not see your thread after posting, do not post multiple threads, just contact us.
10. If you see someone breaking these guidelines, we encourage you to use the Flag > Report button. This sends a message to the moderators, who will look into the post and decide whether it needs moderation.
If you have any questions about this section feel free to ask in this thread.
Thanks, and happy jobbering!
Replies
All the best Hris
Images from applicants make a job poster's thread more confusing. Images which are not from the OP make it more difficult for other applicants to focus on the job information.
It is best to make your own portfolio website, or make a thread in Artist Looking For Freelance Work, then send the link to the company, using either an email or a private message.
You should only post a thread reply if you want to ask a question about the position.
Just that the job is paid, not volunteer/equity based. It's redundant here due to the way the boards are set up; I think you mostly see it because people copy-paste the same job posting to several places.
Thanks for the explanation.
and by the rules that entire studios or even intermediaries are applying on these ads, that way, they're practically stealing
jobs from single freelancers. Me as a single freelancer can't possible parry to ten people that are working for some studio.
It's happening on other game job forums as well, same people, so I'm interested what do you think about it.
However, nobody, individuals or otherwise, should be publicly replying to ads if they do not have a relevant question. If you see someone replying publicly to job ads to advertise their portfolio/studio, please flag the post.
I understand the sentiment, I'm a sole proprietor myself, but I'm not sure jobs are being lost.
Studios or groups are typically more expensive than individuals. Offices and equipment, or even just the management layer.
There's also scale of work to consider. Different needs for different contracts. If the work volume is larger than a single person, then the employer can either manage a collection of independent freelancers (at considerable time investment) or they can contract a studio (at higher cost but less time).
But ultimately if we tried to gate it, I don't know if it would actually be effective. Competition will always exist, it's business after all.
When I hire an individual, I know I am getting that particular person working on my assets. I can depend on that level of quality. When I hire a studio, I never know which individuals are being assigned to my particular job, so from day to day I may get differing levels of quality, or errors pop up which I thought we solved long ago. The studio is supposed to make sure this doesn't impact the work, but sometimes it does anyway.
So, there's a certainly a quality niche that individual freelancers fill. Everyone has their place.
That was a good question. I think I can speak for all the moderators here when I say we welcome discussion about how the forum is run. After all, it's ultimately meant to be here for you, the community.
If you see someone breaking these guidelines, we encourage you to use the Flag > Report button. This sends a message to the moderators, who will look into the post and decide whether it needs moderation.
We hope the community can self-police. This section is here at your request, after all, and exists for your benefit. We hope you will show us your professionalism; if not then we'll have to revise things a bit. But we believe in you!
If you want to debate a job thread, this section of the forum is not the right place for it. This may seem counter-intuitive, as this is a forum after all. However this section is for employers to post jobs.
Polycount does not pass value judgements on job posters nor on job seekers. This is not our role, nor can it be. We do moderate obvious scams or spam. However it is ultimately up to each job seeker to evaluate each job offer, to decide if the terms match their particular needs.
It's important to realize this forum has a global reach; rates are not the same everywhere. It is your responsibility as individual professionals to evaluate the client, and decide if their rate matches yours.
When members critique job posts, the ensuing discussions distract everyone from the purpose of the section. Usually this causes the poster to be discouraged from posting future jobs.
We want to keep things focused on what these sections are for... employers seeking talent and artists seeking work. We feel the employment sections are best for all when they're kept on-topic.
If you wish to discuss the merits of a particular post, make a new thread in Career & Education, and add a link. As long as things are kept professional and within our forum guidelines, we welcome discussion.
Thank you.
Now, with that being said, am I required to post a budget along with the job post? Can I leave it to the applicant's discretion? (I'd very much prefer the latter).
Also, initially, as I'd be weighting my options, is it okay to post the thread and hold off on consolidating the job at first?
What do you mean by "consolidating"?
5. Applicants should not post images from their portfolio, info selling themselves, or links to their portfolio in a company's thread.If you want to apply, email or Send Message them directly with a link to your portfolio. We ask applicants not to apply directly in a thread, because these posts make it more difficult for other applicants to find information about the job itself.
Thanks in advance.
https://polycount.com/discussion/63361/information-about-polycount-amp-new-member-introductions/p1#new
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If there's a new reply, or you haven't opened it yet, it will be green.
1. Edit your Discussion title to start with (Closed). This is quick and easy.
or
2. Use the Flag>Report button to let a Moderator know you would like it to be Closed. This takes longer, but a Closed thread can't get new replies.
Neither method explicitly stops new DMs. But either way at least you would be letting them know it's been filled.
Maybe a good idea to add this to the main post in the top? Just an idea
Replies have been disabled. Only new topics can be made. Employers, please update your original post, as needed.
If you have questions or suggestions about this section, please head over to the forum section Career and Education. Or contact a moderator directly..