Add Your Employment History on oDesk
If you are a freelancer—whether a writer, graphic artist, and the like—it's highly likely that you have signed up with oDesk to find work online. Many people do not realize how important having a complete profile can be. In fact, it is key to finding and getting hired for good jobs online. One of the areas most neglected in oDesk public profiles is the Employment History section. Showcase the kind of work that you can do, and impress potential clients enough to get in touch with you and ultimately to offer you the job. Adding your employment history to your profile can be done on your computer or your smartphone
Contents
Steps
Adding Employment History via Computer
- Go to the oDesk website. Just open your browser of choice, type http://www.odesk.com on the address bar, and hit Enter.
- Log into your account. On the oDesk main page, click on the login button at the upper-right corner of the page to bring up the login window. Enter your email address and password into the text fields, and click on “Log In” to get into your account.
- Go to Settings. Once you're logged in, click the button with the gear icon at the top-right side of the screen to open your account's main Settings screen.
- Go to your Profile page. On the left side of the Settings page is a list of submenus. Select the third option on this list, which is “My Contractor Profile,” to display its own settings to the right of the screen.
- Go to the Employment History tab. Scroll down to the bottom of the profile settings, and look for the submenu “Employment History.” Click on the blue “Add” button right next to it to open a pop-up window.
- Add your previous company's name. It's the first thing you can add to your Employment History. Just click inside the box, and type in the name of the company you used to work for.
- Indicate where the company is located. The second and third boxes are where you type in the location city and the country, respectively.
- Specify your position in that company. The next box is for the job title you held at the company you listed.
- For example, “Editorial Assistant” or “Art Director.”
- Specify the role you played in that company. Next in line is identifying your role in the company you listed. Were you a supervisor or a high-rank manager perhaps? Pick and tick it off from the items listed on the drop-down menu.
- Indicate how long you stayed with that employer. To give the time period that you worked for a company, first find the month and year of your start date on the drop-down menus for the month and year, respectively. Do the same for the month and year that you left the company.
- If you are currently still working for this company, just check the box for “I currently work here,” leaving the exit date blank.
- Describe what you did for that company. Click on the description box under the date section, and give a concise background for the tasks you were in charge of while employed at this specific company.
- Remember, you want to highlight, so don't be overly modest here.
- Save your data. Review the information you just added, and click on the green “Save” button at the bottom of the screen to save your education history to your profile.
Adding Employment History via Smartphone
- Open the oDesk app on your phone. Locate and tap the oDesk Mobile app on your phone's Home screen or via the app drawer at the bottom right side of the screen. Its icon is a green circle with the words “oDesk Mobile” inside of it.
- Look for the button with three lines on it. Tap on the button to open a menu to the right of the page. Tap on the top item, which is the login tab, to load the oDesk sign-in page.
- Log into oDesk. Tap on the text fields one at a time, enter your username and password into the appropriate box, and tap on Sign In to access your account.
- Switch to the desktop version of the oDesk app. To do this, tap on the three-line button again, and click on “Desktop View” found at the bottom of the menu to the right of the screen.
- This will load the desktop version of the site on your phone screen, right in the oDesk app.
- Go to Profile Settings. To get to Settings, swipe towards the right, and you will see the button with the gear icon. Tap the button to load your Profile Settings.
- Go to My Contractor Profile. On the left side of the Profile Settings page are different submenus arranged in a column. Tap on “My Contractor Profile” to open its settings.
- Go to the Employment History menu. Scroll through the settings until you see the Employment History tab. Tap on the “Add” button right next to it to start answering questions about your work experience..
- Add your previous company's name. It's the first thing you can add to your Employment History. Just click inside the box, and type in the name of the company you used to work for.
- Indicate where the company is located. The second and third boxes are where you type in the location city and the country, respectively.
- Specify your position in that company. The next box is for the job title you held at the company you listed.
- For example, “Editorial Assistant” or “Art Director.”
- Specify the role you played in that company. Next in line is identifying your role in the company you listed. Were you a supervisor or a high-rank manager perhaps? Pick and tick it off from the items listed on the drop-down menu.
- Indicate how long you stayed with that employer. To give the time period that you worked for a company, first find the month and year of your start date on the drop-down menus for the month and year, respectively. Do the same for the month and year that you left the company.
- If you are currently still working for this company, just check the box for “I currently work here,” leaving the exit date blank.
- Describe what you did for that company. Click on the description box under the date section, and give a concise background for the tasks you were in charge of while employed at this specific company.
- Remember, you want to highlight, so don't be overly modest here.
- Save your data. Review the information you just added, and click on the green “Save” button at the bottom of the screen to save your education history to your profile.
