In this article, we’re going to be digging into the eight steps that I recently took to hire my new video editor. By the end of this article, you’re going to know the exact eight steps that you yourself can take when it comes to hiring an editor or some other freelancer on Upwork.
Step 1: Organize old assets
Digging right in, the first step that I took was I got all of my old assets in place so that I could put together a test task. It’s really important that whenever you’re hiring a freelancer that you can think about ways to test the competency of the person that you’re working with. So in my situation, I had a former video editor that was moving on because of some scheduling conflicts. And so what I asked him to do was to put together a folder of files of all the assets that he had used over the last year and a half.
This included things such as sound effects as well as key animations and things like that, that he thought might be useful for the new editor. That way I could share that assets folder with the new editor candidates as they were completing a test task. In order to do this, I leaned on Frame.io. In case you don’t know, Frame.io is an awesome tool that you can use when it comes to collaborating between you and different video editors. It’s a great way for you guys to stay in sync in terms of all the comments you guys may have, as well as other things related to your video projects.
Step 2: Setup a test task
The second thing I did was I went ahead and set up the instructions for a test task for all of my potential editors. This is where I detailed the instructions of exactly what I wanted in order to assess their competency in video editing. In my case, I gave a few minutes of raw footage of one of my upcoming Facebook Marketplace videos to essentially dig into that content and see how the editor was going to edit that raw footage.
I wanted to get a sense as to what sort of style that particular editor would have. And so I would keep that folder on Frame.io and then share that link to all the different editor candidates later on. But first I needed to make sure that everything was in the same place. That way they would be prepared when I was ready to make my listing and invite them to my test tasks.
Step 3: Creare Upwork listing
From here, the third step was to create an Upwork listing. So what you’re going to want to do is log into your Upwork client account and then click the post a job button. From here, you’re going to be able to create a job that’s either short term or longer term work, and then detail all the things that you want about your particular project. So at this point in time, you’re going to want to cover things like what exactly the job is, how much is your budget, what’s your timeline, what’s your style, as well as any other helpful information that might be useful for your particular task.
In my situation, what I did was I included that I was looking for a video editor, YouTube talking head videos, 10 to 20 minutes and then I was looking for video editing. Then from here, what I did was I selected a few of the key skills that my ideal candidate might have. So I included things like at Adobe Premiere Pro as well as audio editing, video post editing and things like that.
And then what I did was I dug into the scope of my project. So this is where I wanted to say that it was a medium sized project. There were some general deliverables, and I was looking for an intermediate skill level as well, as more than six months in terms of experience. From here, what I then did was I selected the key location of where I wanted my freelancers.
In my situation, I was looking for worldwide talent because I knew that for my budget, I would get more bang for my buck by looking at worldwide talent. And then from there, what you’re going to want to do is you’re going to want to go ahead and set your budget. And this case I was budgeting between 40 to $45 per video, just based off my past experience with my last editor.
So when it comes to your listing, you want to make sure that it’s really easy to understand exactly the sort of work that you need done. You want to talk about exactly what the deliverables are as well as what your budget is, as well as the ideal candidate for your position.
If you aren’t detailing that you need to go back to your listing and edit that. But from here, what you’re going to want to do is you’re going to want to go ahead and post your listing.
Step 4: Invite candidates
the fourth thing you’re going to want to do is you’re going to want to actually invite and make use of your invites to your RFP. A lot of people don’t take advantage of this on Upwork. And regardless of whether you’re on a free plan or a pay plan, you get free invites. So I always recommend that you do a search for yourself when you are on Upwork.
To do that, you’re going to go into the top search bar and then search for talent and then from there you can search for whatever it is you’re looking for. In my example, I was looking for a video editor. So I went ahead and just searched for video editor. And then what I always recommend you do is you filter down your search. So in my situation, what I could do is I could set up an advanced search if I want, but in this case, I can also do filters on the left-hand side.
So again, in my situation, I was looking for folks between 40 and $45 in their budget. So in my situation, I’m going to go ahead and look for folks between the hourly rate wage of 10 to $30. And then from here, I’m going to look for job success over 80%. The reason why I do this is because I often find that those folks are going to be way more responsive and way better to work with when you’re actually engaging with them in a project.
And then I always like to set at least a dollar earned, because it just means that they’ve taken some sort of project on Upwork before. And then from here, you can keep filtering if you like. But what you can do is you can essentially go through the results and then invite people to your project. And when you invite people to your project, you’ll then be able to send that particular RFP directly to their inbox.
And every single account gets these free invites. So I highly recommend that you make use of that because that’s how you’re going to get the attention of some folks that may otherwise not actually see your original RFP.
Step 5: Complete test tasks with different candidates
The fifth step that you’re going to want to do is you’re to want to complete test tasks with at least five different candidates. In my situation, I tested five or six different video editors, and then essentially gave them the same test task in order to assess all of their different skill levels. This was a great way for me to get a gauge of exactly what I could get from my budget while also getting a sense for whether or not I needed to go down on my budget or go up on my budget.
It also was a great way for me to compare talent because a lot of times you’re just going to hire the first person that applies for your freelancing job. Then you’re not going to actually get the best talent available on the market.
Step 6:Go through a round of feedback
That leads me naturally to step number six, which is to make sure that you go through at least one round of feedback throughout your test task. It’s really important that you incorporate this into your test task, because essentially what’s going to happen is you’re going to be able to get a sense for how the two of you guys communicate with one another. In the case where you’re giving feedback and they’re not able to understand that feedback, then you’re only going to get even more problems in terms of communication later on in your actual freelancing relationship.
So I always use this sort of one round of feedback approach in order to see exactly whether or not the two of us get along and from there, make a decision in terms of whether or not to hire that person to my team.
Step 7: Compare work products
That leads us to the seventh step, which is at this point, you should have some general samples in place and you should be able to compare the work products of all the different people that you’re considering for your job.
So in this situation, I compared all the different final products of a few of the different editors. And I essentially ranked order them by preference as well as got second and third opinions from different friends of mine to see exactly what they thought would be the best video editor for me.
Something that’s really important to remember is that there’s always a freelancer just for you. Sometimes there are particular things that one person offers better than another person and that’s okay. You might find a case in which in the future, you may still be able to work with that other person that you don’t work with today.
Step 8: Hire and begin onboarding
And then the last step that I took when it came to hiring my video editor was I simply hired them and then began onboarding. So at this point in time, when I was going through the test task, I actually already started a contract with them because it was scoped out to just a test task. But the next thing I did was I activated our full on milestone and then we began editing away. So I set them up with Frame.io, gave him some documentation in terms of my Notion boards and then onboarded him into my process of creating videos.
So the same thing applies for you in that if you were hiring for a freelancer, you’re going to want to make sure that you have really clear SOPs that way they can use those SOPs to get onboarded really, really quickly. And that’s pretty much how I’ve had a new video editor since my latest batch of Facebook Marketplace videos.
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