We have been hiring a lot of contractors from UpWork in the past few months trying to find the right person to accelerate work on an existing project. We have hired and released 6 of 8 contractors over this time as we searched to find the right fit. And I’m still only certain of one of the two contractors will work for us in the long terms. Here are a couple lessons I have learned:

1. Hiring is hard. Even when people look great from the outset, it really takes working with them to see if they are a fit or not. Previous project success does not guarantee success for your project.
2. Reviews and ratings on UpWork are lies. If you see a number of nothing-burger comments on a person’s resume, it is probably because they are weak.
3. It hurts to give contractors poor reviews so many hiring companies don’t. You know that contractors live and die from their reviews. Poor reviews will result in no work for a contractor. As a compassionate human being, no one wants to hurt a contractor, even if they were not successful for you.  Also, contractors on UpWork will beg to have you improve to their scores.
4. Contractors cheat on their hours. Always check the work log and hours – sometimes it is innocent and sometime deliberate. If a contractor says they want to use manual time, run away.
5. Use fixed-price jobs. Following up on the item above, it is impossible to cheat on a deliverable. Good people can get a lot done fast and you can control how much you want to spend on a job.
6. Most developers suck at testing their code. I can’t count how many times I only need to spend a minute or two testing a solution only to find it failing basic use cases.  If a PR needs to be revisited more than 2x, it is time to get a new contractor.
7. If you find a good contractor, keep them.  Once you unearth a gem, treasure them, treat them right and pay them well.

As a note to UpWork contractors – you are less likely to get fired for spending 100% extra time working on your code to get it right, but you may get fired for having to revisit the same code 3-4 times, even it it only adds up to that same 100% extra time. If you are wasting the time and effort of the person who hired you, it is no longer cost effective to outsource to you.