Freelancer reviews

4.1

85% would recommend to a friend

(8,448 total reviews)
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Matt Barrie

91% approve of CEO

64% positive business outlook

Freelancer has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 8,448 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Freelancer employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Recursos humanos e pessoal industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

8K reviews
2.0
Apr 22, 2018

It used to be good but........

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Work here to get a job elsewhere. Tons of people have used Freelancer as a stepping stone and why not? It is good for graduates to get used to working on a codebase and solving problems. Compared to alot of other companies, you do have an exceptional amount of freedom in how to execute a decision once it's been made. There's so much to be learnt and the people are amazing. Learn what you need to know and start hunting elsewhere. Don't get sucked into the same pay, same role for years on end.

Cons

So so much. For starters, so many reviews speak of a boys club mentality, that you would be frowned upon if you left on time, and as true as they are(or were in some cases, some things have changed for the better), the biggest problem is a select few individuals who created a spineless management, who's attitude towards the company exists just to accept paycheck-to-paycheck. The leadership are there just to accept their paycheck with no real care about what each product is doing. This is evident in the way that they deal with product managers, and that relays down to team members. Micromanaging them and not letting the product manager make the pragmatic decisions needed, without listening to the team either. You'll find conversations that circle 4-5 times, going through stages of being a confirmed decision, progress has started, and the goals change 3-4 times within the span of several days, all without "data" and based on pointless questions that are asked just to prove a specific point. 2 weeks later, they'll ask why it's not done, then forget that they were the ones who said to put things on hold until a decision was made to push through. Key members of staff who have been there for years, will be gone overnight with no answers except "we just had to let them go". Confidence in keeping your job is low if you ask too many questions. That's why there's a strong belief of a "boys club". Don't expect a promotion or pay rise anytime soon either. You'll find better rates elsewhere, but do expect to learn a truckload while you're at Freelancer. Just know where to draw the line of sacrifice to learn, and know that you can learn anywhere.

2.0
Dec 2, 2015

It used to be good

Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

It was a nice place to work in a lot of ways. When I was employed there, Freelancer was a great place to launch a career. It was also a great place to learn from talented engineers and data scientists and product managers. It was also very empowering! There were only a few barriers to putting ideas into production. It also throws a great party. But please check my cons section, because very few of the pros are there any more.

Cons

Freelancer is slowly imploding. The management don't know how to retain talented people. When I started there were a lot of really talented people working there, but by now most have left, replaced by interns. In fact, if you are looking at an internship, remember that if you're looking to actually learn things, you want to be placed with senior engineers, not with more interns. The reason everyone leaves is simple: the company doesn't take a long term view on anything, which drives talented people crazy, so they leave. It's a stressful place to work, and it pays poorly.

2.0
Jul 19, 2015

Software Engineer

Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Good opportunity to build systems which affect lots of users. You are surrounded with lots of intelligent people. Good location.

Cons

Very complex and messy technology stack. Excessive pressure to 'get things up and running' quickly as opposed to getting things done correctly. Freelancer.com is forced to hire an ever increasing number of engineers to manage the growing mess that is GaF (the core of Freelancer.com) and the enormous amount of unnecessary complexity all around it. There is a nasty culture of finger-pointing, blaming and scapegoating - Everyone is expected to 'take ownership' of some part of the code instead of solving problems as a team using rational constructive debate. Employee retention is very low - Very few people stay for longer than 2 years.

Viewing 49 - 51 of 8,448 Reviews

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