As of October 6th, 2008, yours truly is oDesk Certified! So after cheering your lungs out, popping balloons, and brushing confetti off your clothes and hair, you may ask what is oDesk, and what is Guinn now certified to do?

Recently, I’ve taken on several online job opportunities (most notably Know Huddle and Wandercast) and have been looking at even more ways to take advantage of this wide open marketplace. It was during this search that I came across oDesk.

oDesk can be simply described is an online marketplace for people who wish to work remotely (aka wherever you want!). Listing a plethora of job opportunities is just one of the many facets that are featured in oDesk. It features a unique program called oDesk Team, which is advantageous for both Providers and Buyers (‘Provider’ and ‘Buyer’ is the oDesk lingo for ‘Employee’ and ‘Employer’)

This program logs hours as Providers work online, giving Buyers a good idea on how productive their Providers are, since there is no officeplace where they could do this otherwise. But, on the same token, this program serves as proof that the Providers have worked, thus holding the Buyers accountable to payment, according to the oDesk Buyer Policy.

In addition to Profiles, Forums, Feedback, and everything else you would expect on a site like this, oDesk also offers online tests. Using a wide array of topics, these tests are indicators on what abilities a Provider has and how proficient they are with them. For example, my certification was awarded to me as a result of taking the oDesk Readiness Test. Although they aren’t mandatory, the more tests a Provider passes, the more likely that Buyers will want to hire them. So I’d highly recommend it.

For more info on this, go to oDesk’s website. If you ask me, this is simply another step toward the inevitable: a world where most people work away from the office. It’s easy on your budget and you can work wherever you want. So get oDesk certified today! You won’t regret it (caveat: maybe you will, but it probably will be because of your own undoing, not mine or oDesk’s)