“easy”, “quick”, “5 minutes”, “minor”, “fast”, “10-20 mins work”, "aprox", etc.

Who is this post for?

• Are you a client/mentee looking for a mentor? This post is for you.
• Are you a new expert here on Codementor? This post is for you too.
• Are you an experienced mentor? Send me a screenshot of the job request saying how “easy it is” and I'll add it to the image above.

Saying it's “easy” is disrespectful to the mentor

If you're a client that needs help from an expert and are considering using any terms like “easy”, “quick”, “5 minutes”, “minor”, “fast” or similar in your job title, think again.

I suggest you do not estimate the time things may or may not take. Doing that puts the person that can potentially help you in an uncomfortable and unfair spot.

I also suggest you allow the mentor to asses your issue first and let them provide you with a time frame. Then you'd be able to make a more informed decision while allowing the mentor to feel comfortable and respected.

Red flags! 🚩🚩

I've been a Web Design, HTML+CSS expert mentor here in Codementor since May of 2016 and the one thing that triggers a red flag immediately for me is: When someone says how “easy” the thing they need help with, is.

Job requesst with the terms: “easy”, “quick”, “5 minutes”, “minor”, “fast” or estimate the time they think it would take to fix their issue, a la “10-20 mins work”… And sometimes they even dare add "aprox"! 😨, are straight up red flags for me.

What to do then?

To Client/Mentee:

• DO NOT use any words that describe how “easy”, “quick”, “5 minutes”, “minor”, “fast” your job is.
• Use a descriptive title for your job.
• Add a detailed description of your issue.

To new experts:

• DO NOT take any jobs that say how “easy” something is.
• Actually, delete them from your Open Requests dashboard!

To experienced mentors:

• If you've experienced something like this, show your love and support 💓 and click on the heart at the bottom of this post 👇 😁.
• And of course, send me a screenshot so I can add it to the image above 👌.

During a Zoom session, yikes!

It can get worse: when it happens during a session in Zoom and we both are using video 🤦‍♂️.

The first time it happened to me was with my first CodementorX job, the client said something like:

“Seems you're a bad ass for Web Design, eh? You wrote two books, great!”.

LOL! Obviously my ego was through the roof, hahaha 😅, and I ended up completing the “trial” period.

However, as the project went along, the client started showhing his true colors and behaving in an inadequate manner, so I stood my ground and he then proceeded to end the project 🤷.

Then it happened again today (5/7/18), and because I have a big heart I decided to continue the session hoping things wouldn't go South. Bad decision.

The mentee said something like

“This should be easy…”.

Long story short, I had to refund him 😒.

--

Next time someone says how “easy” something is, I will, without any hesitation, end the session on the spot. Bam! 🔨

Lesson Learned ☝️

Indeed, I do hope I learned my lesson after those two Zoom incidents (there's actually a third one, oh boy, lol).

The most important thing for me is to write this post for others to learn from, especially new experts here in Codementor and potential and current clients/mentees.

Stay strong!