FAQ for Developers

Thank you for registering!
We need a little time to study your profile.
We will invite you for a short call or ask some questions in a letter afterward.
Be sure to send in your CV to help us learn about your current projects quicker.

Besides registering, the hiring process includes CV screening, a short call with a recruiter, and a tech interview.
We will register you on the platform and start looking for a project for you afterward.
Usually, it takes a week or two, depending on your ability and our resources search for a project and an interview with a client takes several days to several weeks.
It depends on your stack’s popularity and the availability of projects.
People willing to join our platform are very active now, so there might be a slight delay.
But we will contact you for sure. We will give feedback after each stage, whatever it may be.

There are several crucial conditions:

• You are available to work 20+ hours a week (preferably 40 h/per week);

• You are a senior developer;

• You have a strong command of English, can communicate your thoughts clearly, and can be interviewed in English;

• You have three or more years of experience with a particular technology.

We usually work with freelancers with different technologies and stacks.
Sometimes we suggest delaying the communication if we are sure there are no projects for your specific stack and they will not appear soon.

Experienced independent contractors who have been working through our platform for some time and have proven to be skilled, trustworthy, and knowledgeable in their domain conduct technical interviews.
Usually, it takes about an hour.
It consists of theoretical questions and a couple of practical tasks.
This interview is general and mandatory before we find a project for you.
We will interview you on your primary technology or the one that you would like to work with.
Besides technical knowledge, the specialist will pay attention to soft skills and communication culture.

By the way, this is a great opportunity to learn from the freelancer about his UnicornClub experience, projects, and clients.
It is a one-on-one interview with a specialist who will pass the feedback to the recruiter.
We will contact you to inform you about the result the same or the next day.
Calls will be recorded for educational purposes, which will also help us improve our processes.
But if you are not comfortable with that, you can refuse to be recorded, which will not affect anything.

Our platform can offer you projects both short and long-term, and you can choose the one that better fits your interests.
If the project we suggest doesn’t seem like something you’d want to work on, you can say "no" and let us find you something more down your alley. 
We also don’t delay the hiring process for several months and don’t have many interview stages.

We have observed the business model of outsourcing and outstaffing companies along with freelance platforms and gathered the best practices from all.
You do not have to sell yourself, bargain, or worry about organisational matters.
Our team will take care of it all, but only as long as it takes to get you started.
We value healthy competition and hire as many developers as needed to cover the projects.
We do not meddle in your relationship with the client.
We do not have one-on-ones, managers, and intermediaries.
It is just you and the client.
At the same time, our team will always support you in any situation with clients.
We actively develop a UnicornClub community of like-minded people, where you will have an opportunity to jump into the group chat with developers from the same country.
We arrange offline events and online trainings for our developers.
We only want to work with cool people.
That’s why we pre-qualify both clients and developers before we start our collaboration.
We promise our clients the same: We value the high culture of communication among developers.
We also guarantee financial security.
Even if the client disappears, we still pay you for the work done.
Leave the risks to us.

We do not use time trackers.
You just submit the number of hours.
Sometimes clients ask to install a time tracker, but you can refuse, and we will select another project for you.

No, the public can’t see our candidates.
Even clients are only able to see candidates once a call is scheduled.

Mainly startups from Western Europe and the United States.
Mobile app projects go on for two to three months. Web projects go on for three to six months.
Some projects can last one month.
Others might take over a year.

There is no specific direction.
We work in fintech, healthcare, education, sports, social projects, e-sports, e-commerce, business software creation, and travel.
We can offer a wider choice for specialists with tech like JavaScript and its frameworks, React Native/iOS/Flutter, TypeScript, Python, Ruby, PHP.
We are also looking for strong data scientists and UI/UX designers.
If you don’t find your technology of choice here, register anyway.
Clients come to us with a variety of requests.
Our recruiters will tell you if there is something for you now. 🙂

There are no strict frameworks - you can choose a suitable time.
You have to agree upon the time for calls or letters with the client, though.
American clients can request from freelancers about three to four hours of adjoining time for communication.

Most clients use Slack, Jira, or Trello for communication and distribution of tasks.
Many projects have daily meetings or meetings a couple of times a week to sync up and ask the necessary questions.

Sometimes not.
We try to be careful with non-technical founders without a CTO.
Teams with no duplicated developers' expertise in a particular stack come across regularly.

The client trusts our expertise and choice of a developer.
Usually, even non-technical clients have requirements for the candidate prepared by someone else.
They can check these requirements according to the CV or clarify information missing from the interview.
Soft skills are also crucial for non-technical clients.

The developer does.
They estimate the hours and the deadline: For example, 40 hours with a specific date deadline.
It often makes sense to give a range (minimum to maximum) and stipulate what it depends on for a not very detailed scope of work.
An estimate is made only for new projects with a scope of work crucial to evaluate in advance before the start.
For example, creating a mobile application from scratch using ready-made designs/specs.
Sometimes the client has a deadline and an understanding of how many hours to buy.
If his expectations are unrealistic, it is decisive to discuss them at the start and move on only if you are sure about the deadline and/or number of hours.
Sometimes the developer estimates the tasks after the start, together with the team.

Yes.
If we are talking about the estimate before the start, it makes sense to give as many arguments as possible to confirm your expectations.
We advise against settling for a low estimate to please the client’s expectations because it can have negative consequences.
We can ask another developer to take a look at the project and give their opinion.
If the client’s expectations are far from reality and this was confirmed by several of our developers, we will most likely refuse to work with such a client.

If the estimate turned out to be incorrect, you should immediately inform the client.
Explain the reason (such as new requirements, unforeseen difficulties that became clear after reading the current project code, underestimation of the complexity, etc.)
It is important to wait for the client to confirm they are willing to pay for more hours and incur additional costs before proceeding. If the incorrect estimate is entirely developer’s fault (not enough experience to estimate correctly, with no new information and clarifications added), it will most likely be logical to discuss the possibility of developer charging only for the originally stipulated time during the estimation or a bit more.
Still, each case is unique.

Yes, if you have sufficient experience with the basic required technology, but not any additional ones.
The client may not mind that you have mastered this additional technology on the project.
If you are learning something outside of projects, you can contact our team once you are ready to validate your expertise.
We will schedule a new technical interview and suggest projects using other technologies in case of success.

We are not tax advisors and cannot assist you on this matter.
We do encourage you to discuss this aspect with a tax professional in your state.

UnicornClub sends you the payment strictly once a month, according to the hours you logged during the previous month. 
We multiply the number of hours you logged by your rate (and add USD $3 commission for sending funds to the Payoneer account) at the end of each month. 
Payment is usually made on the ninth or tenth of the upcoming month either to your Payoneer account or directly to your card, with no commissions on our side.

You can get paid either through direct payments to your card or receive the payment on your Payoneer account.
It takes 10 minutes to register on Payoneer, and you can withdraw funds to any account.

We clarify your rate before we start offering projects.
It will be your rate for any project on our platform by default.
You can raise or lower your rate when we offer you a particular project.
If you have not previously worked with an hourly wage, then divide your current or last salary by 168 (number of hours worked per month) to get an approximate figure.

We clarify the rate before the start of the project.
If you are working on a project for a long time, rate changes are also possible, but not more than once every six months.
Clients usually do not welcome rate changes in the middle of the project.
It is better to clarify your expectations at the initial stage.

You need to accept the Terms & Conditions on the platform and sign an NDA with the client before we start our cooperation.

We communicate with you through the contact details you provided when registering on our platform.
By providing such details, you yourself give us the right to use them to contact you directly.

Once you pass our recruitment process and get access to the UnicornClub community, our matching team will start sending you the projects that match your skills and requirement.
If you like the project proposed, inform our team about that, and we will connect you with the client.
After having an intro call, if a match happens, you start working directly with a client using their communication channels.

It all depends on the popularity of your technologies and the number of hours you can devote to the project.
We will most likely find a project in less than a week if you are full-time ready.
It may take longer if we’re talking about part-time.
The rate also affects it. It may take longer if your rate is high.

Last, but not least - what we don’t offer:

1. Paid sick leaves and vacations (sorry, just include this in your hourly rate).

2. Hardware and paid services. Neither we nor our clients provide you with those.

3. And we don’t help with taxes (it’s your responsibility to declare your income and pay taxes). But in case you have a registered company, you can invoice us on behalf of your company and this will cover tax issues.