Aaron Crowe

Here’s something new I bet most writers haven’t run across: Having your name entered in a lottery to see if you win a job.

I was contacted last week by someone I’ve worked with before to see if I wanted to do some writing for an SEO project the company is doing. I’ve done plenty of Search Engine Optimization writing during my two years of unemployment and underemployment, and was looking forward to writing a handful or so of stories on an interesting topic and making some money.

After agreeing with another editor on a price and being told that I’d be assigned stories in a few days, I looked forward to hearing from yet another editor on what the assignments were. I planned on doing the work early this week and, as always, ready to beat deadline like a rented mule.

But it didn’t come to pass. After waiting all morning for the assignments, I e-mailed the third editor, who told me that I didn’t get the work because so many writers were interested in the job that the editors decided to hold a lottery to see who would be assigned the work.

I was kind of amazed that there are that many freelance writers available and clamoring for work that a lottery had to be held to pick the winning writers. I know unemployment is high and that companies can pick and choose who they want to hire, but leaving my fate to luck seemed like an odd way of doing business.

When I get in the position again to hire writers, a lottery will be the last method I use to pick people. It will be based on skill, and all things being equal, I’ll look into their experience and find the most qualified person for the job.  I don’t want to leave someone’s financial future to chance.