If you are looking to work as a remote freelancer through Scalable Path, completing your profile is the best way to get noticed and increase your chances of being matched with client projects. Although this process may appear time-consuming at first glance, it only takes about 10 minutes, and we can't stress the importance of having a complete profile enough. This article will guide you through each step of creating a solid profile and show you an example of what an ideal one looks like. Getting Started: Registration We ask developers to complete a profile when they sign up with our platform for two main reasons:To get your skill match score: To help reduce bias, we use what we call a "skill match score", an algorithm that allows us to search profiles in our database based on skills and experience level. You may have many skills and be an excellent match for our client's requirements; however, we won't know what they are unless you complete your profile and keep it updated. To be able to present you to our clients: If you don't have a fairly complete Scalable Path profile, we can't present you to our clients!Creating a great profile doesn't need to take more than 10 minutes of your time as long as you have all of the required information, so we'll go through exactly what you'll need to have on hand. Covering the BasicsWhen you sign up, we'll prompt you to fill out some basic profile information. These are just a few details we require to create your profile and accept a formal application. Here's what you'll need to complete: Profile PhotoSelf-Description Desired Hourly Rate Country and Time ZoneLinkedIn Profile (not required, but still quite important)Below are some tips on how to complete some of the key parts of your Profile Basics.Profile Photo Profile photos are an important way to be transparent and verify your identity (both are critical in remote working relationships). Use a profile photo that looks clean and professional, like the example below, to show prospective clients who you are.If you don't already have a photo that is similar to our example, just take a new one (the camera on your phone should do the trick!). We created this photo brief with tips and guidelines to follow. Bonus: following our profile photo suggestions and submitting a great photo is also an important part of getting featured on our website.Self-Description Writing your self-description (also known as your bio) is a great opportunity to share a piece of who you are, what you've experienced so far in your career, and what you're looking to achieve by working remotely through Scalable Path. You can address relevant aspects of your background and experience, but it's also a great idea to share more about your interests, hobbies and goals. If you pass the screening phase, we'll present your profile to the client for review. Since your self-description is one of the first things they'll read, we highly recommend spending a little time to write some noteworthy things about yourself. Setting Your Desired Hourly RateDepending on whether you're new to the remote work landscape or already have experience as a freelancer, this step might be challenging or just another easy detail to fill out. For those uncertain about their hourly rate, we wrote this guide on setting your rate as a remote freelancer. If you interview with our talent team, we can help you choose a competitive rate that reflects your experience and skill level.Other Important Information Location & Timezone: Our clients are located in various global regions, so part of our goal when selecting candidates for client projects is to find developers in similar time zones. From our experience, remote working relationships thrive when developers have a healthy work-life balance. We don't encourage or support drastically different work hours between clients and developers because it can impact performance over time. Be transparent about where you are located, and we will do our best to offer you opportunities that provide a healthy work-life balance. Availability: Set your profile status to "available full-time", "available part-time", or "not available" to let our team know what type of work opportunities you're looking for. Be sure to keep this status up-to-date so we know what your availability is and when to contact you about positions. LinkedIn: We ask that you include your LinkedIn profile URL as an additional reference for our Talent team as it helps to confirm that your identity is valid. It's also a helpful resource to learn more about your work experience and skill level. Okay, now that we've covered the basics, let's dig into the core parts of creating a solid profile, shall we?Areas of ExpertiseTo start, select the top three areas that you focus on and have developed your skills in the Areas of Expertise section. If you feel you are only strong in two areas, just select two (no need to select three). By contrast, if you have more than three areas that you are strong in, please select your top three. We want to know what you're best at, but don't worry, this won't rule you out of consideration for projects in other areas.Skills Next, you should be moving into Skills. This section is extremely important because it powers our "Skill Match Score" and is one of the most important things that let's us match you with client projects. It shows us a breakdown of your experience level with different tools, frameworks and programming languages. We also include soft skills and a free text section at the bottom where you can include any additional skills that aren't already listed. When we present your profile to clients, they often look at your skills to get a big picture of your overall experience. So if even if you are initially applying to a position that uses Node.js and React, we want you to share ALL of the skills you know (for example, if you know Angular as well), so the client can see the breadth of your skill set and we can invite you to other projects that could be a fit for you.As you know, these skills are self-assessed, so we're trusting you to be honest when you rate yourself. Please, don't say you have experience with something if you don't. Let's take a look at best practices for doing this self-assessment.Self-EvaluationWhen self-evaluating your skills, the rating value represents your level of experience with that particular skill, following the definitions below: 1/5: Rating yourself as a '1' means you are a beginner and understand basic techniques and concepts. You will need additional training in order to complete tasks successfully.2/5: Rating yourself as a '2' means you are familiar and have the level of experience gained in a classroom or as a trainee. You still need to look things up or ask for help frequently.3/5: Rating yourself as a '3' means you are proficient and can complete tasks as requested. You are productive working independently.4/5: Rating yourself as a '4' means you are an expert and can quickly perform tasks well without assistance. You are known within your immediate network as "a person to ask" when questions arise.5/5: Rating yourself as a '5' means you are a master and are widely recognized as exceptionally knowledgeable. You complete tasks quickly with minimal effort and can provide strategic guidance.The ideal number of skills to list is somewhere between 50 to 70. Remember that keeping them up-to-date will increase your chances of getting invited to apply for a suitable position. A common red flag we see when reviewing profiles in our network is when someone rates themselves very high in too many skills. If you rate yourself too highly in too many skills, it may cause your profile to look unrealistic and you won't be invited to interview for positions. We believe in people's growth and encourage developers in our network to continue learning and developing their skills. Use your judgment to evaluate yourself honestly and again, be transparent. EducationIn the Education section, we're looking to see if you're currently a student or a graduate of any educational programs. If you have any degrees or certifications or have completed any relevant courses, this is the place to show them off! Don't worry, we know that some of the best developers are self-taught, and if you don't have a lot of relevant formal education, it won't make or break your chances of being selected for our vetting process. But it can definitely help to share what degrees you have if you do have them!Work Samples (Primarily for Designers)This section gives you the option to showcase some of your work. This section is very important if you're a designer for uploading your portfolio, but is optional for developers. You can upload any kind of file: PDFs, code snippets, screenshots from web or mobile projects, case studies, and even your CV. Please avoid including any contact information, and always be sure that you are allowed to share this information without violating any Non-Disclosure Agreements that you've signed. Wrapping Up: Editing Your Profile Details If by this point you've reached 80-90% complete, then you're in good shape! Make sure to review each section to confirm everything looks good.Once you make it this far, you'll notice there are some additional fields you can complete on the Edit Profile Details screen. Here, we encourage you to include more contact information like your address and phone number. We don't typically need this information up front, but once you engage with one of our clients, we may need this info for a couple of reasons. The first is that our clients occasionally want to have this information to get in touch with you or for legal reasons. Secondly, we like to send our working freelancers Scalable Path merchandise (like t-shirts, for example). You will also have the option to include your Github username, which is another important and helpful resource for our Talent team to have when considering you for projects. Reme
