When I worked in a Call Center I had a supervisor who always used to talk about the importance of “Being in Integrity.”

I didn’t always agree with his English, but it’s hard to fault the sentiment.

If you’re a long-term reader of the blog, and I hope you are, some of this may sound familiar.  That’s because I’ve posted on a similar subject before.  The reason I’m posting again is that it’s a topic that keeps coming up in the oDesk Community and I wanted to bring it to people’s attention one more time.

Let me put it another way:

Don’t lie in your profile

Don’t lie to your buyer.

Integrity comes from having your actions match your words.  If you’re not sure about something, say so.  Yes you may not get the job, but not getting a job you can’t do is going to hurt you a lot less than getting one you can’t do and possibly having to pay back the money and lose the time.

The biggest offense against integrity that I see on oDesk comes in provider self-assessments.  People will say they have a 5/5 skill in English, and their profile doesn’t reflect it.  Or they may show a brainbench score in the mid-sixties for one certification, and give themselves a self-assessed skill level of 5/5 in the same field.

That kind of disconnect is a big red flag to a buyer.

Think about it for a moment, really think about it.  If you say you have a much better score than the tests show the most likely reaction a buyer will have is that either you’re deluding yourself or you’re lying.

I don’t want to hire someone who’s delusional about their skills; and I definitely don’t want to hire someone who is lying to me.

Even if your test results are not the greatest, you can use your portfolio and your cover letter to show the buyer why you are the best person for their job.  Remember, the buyer’s concern is more can you do the job within their budget than anything else.

If you are concerned your test scores are too low don’t show them.

Most buyers are going to penalize you least for not showing scores, and most for showing contradictory scores, so remember that when you are building your profile.

As a professional freelancer your integrity is vital.  Don’t squander it on a contradictory profile.

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