DEV Community

The Toptal hiring process for freelancers

Avi Aryan on October 12, 2018

First posted on Dev Letters I wrote this Medium post of wanting to become a digital nomad. There I discussed why the digital nomad lifestyle a...
Read full post
Collapse
 
alexvovk profile image
Alex •

Avi,
Thank you for sharing these insights.
I have few questions:
How long does each round take to complete?
How much time do you have to complete the test project?
Do you have a set of projects to chose from for the test project?

Collapse
 
aviaryan profile image
Avi Aryan •

Except for the last round, all rounds are small (as you can already guess from reading about them) and take around 1hr. For the test project, you have a few days. I can't give the details as it is under NDA. Also, I can't answer the last question.

Collapse
 
alexvovk profile image
Alex •

Can you tell a little more about setting your rates and getting paid?
I am also interested to know the following:

  1. Do you set you hourly, weekly and monthly rates or does TopTal sets this?
  2. How often are you getting paid?
  3. Do they ensure that you have enough work every month?
  4. What happens when at some point in time you are not available to work on a real project for a TopTal's client?
  5. How do you find a client after passing the interview at TopTal?
  6. Do they have a rating systems for clients and freelancers to rate each other?

I understand that you might not be able to answer all of these questions and will appreciate any information that you can share violating NDA.

Thread Thread
 
aviaryan profile image
Avi Aryan • • Edited
  1. Hourly rate, I set it
  2. More frequent than once in a month
  3. It depends on you and your rates.
  4. They are very generous with breaks and vacations.
  5. There is a job board where you can apply. Clients can directly hire you from the website as well I think.
  6. I think they have. I don't know.
Collapse
 
shane325 profile image
Shane Barry •

Thanks for the write up. Have you found paid work through Toptal? If so, can you speak a bit about it?

Collapse
 
aviaryan profile image
Avi Aryan •

Yes, I have. I think Toptal is great to get started as a freelancer. Since the company takes the liabilities in freelancing to itself, it provides a safe environment for both the freelancer and the client.
However, I think it does take a considerable rate cut. So, maybe when you are an established freelancer, taking clients independently is a good choice.

Collapse
 
hubba_do profile image
hubbado • • Edited

Hey Avi, have you tried hubbado? We offer a lot of the same work as toptal, remote included, but with an added £1000 incentive for client referrals. There's also a screening process with an expert working in the same field. Check it out: hubbado.com

Collapse
 
mdsardar profile image
Mohammed Sardar •

Hi Avi,

Can you brief, how the tasks will be allocated by Client ? Does the whole project will come as a task with a road map or some tasks from the complete project will be handled by one candidate ? Can your shed some light on this please ? Do we work as part of a team or it's based on the project ?

Collapse
 
pawannogariya profile image
Pawan Nogariya • • Edited

Hello,

I cleared the third round interview yesterday and was given the project details.
How important is to have unit tests in your project? Did you include unit test project in your project?
And the hourly rate they ask that we want is the net they put there or do they charge some commission from that amount?

Collapse
 
kayis profile image
K •

Did such a process at CodementorX, found it rather nice. All remote, a week of time for the project.

Collapse
 
chetu01 profile image
Chetan Chouhan •

I am a UI/UX designer and I want to joing Toptal for the same. What kind of test I would need to give?