As of December 12, 2017, when you log into your Voices account you’ll notice that your hiring tab looks a little different. We’ve been hearing for some time now that reading the job statuses was challenging. Previously, color coding and labeling made it difficult to quickly and clearly see which jobs you’re auditioning for, reviewing, or working on (which is sometimes multiple jobs at once!).
We heard your feedback – and because we want you to have the best experience, we’ve made a couple of changes. These are more thoroughly outlined in the chart below, but overall we’re hoping you’ll now be able to see at a glance, which jobs need action, thanks to clearer and updated language and new color coding.
In this article
- Quick Tip: These new job status labels clearly indicate where the client is at with the job posting. E.g. If they are deciding on an actor, extending a job offer, or if that job is complete, etc.
- So, What’s Different?
- New Color Coding
- Quick Tip: Solid colored statuses = action items!
- New Status Names
- Quick Tip: Only relevant statuses are shown to talent. This way you can spend more time on the jobs that matter.
- New Voices Job Statuses, Defined
- Thank You for Your Feedback
Quick Tip: These new job status labels clearly indicate where the client is at with the job posting. E.g. If they are deciding on an actor, extending a job offer, or if that job is complete, etc.
So, What’s Different?
New Color Coding
The first things you’ll notice are the new colors, which communicate what jobs need action from you (such as needing to audition, or accepting an agreement). Note: the Working status shows as slightly opaque, as it is a collaborative stage where you are in the progress of completing work for the client.
Quick Tip: Solid colored statuses = action items!
New Status Names
You’ll also see that some of the status names have changed. Based on feedback from our talent and client community, this is a much clearer way of seeing what status the job is truly in based on what each person involved needs to do during that process. As a voice over talent, you will only see statuses applicable to you.
Quick Tip: Only relevant statuses are shown to talent. This way you can spend more time on the jobs that matter.
New Voices Job Statuses, Defined
Here’s what these new job statuses mean, and how to use them:
| Before | Now | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Open |  | These jobs are in your Hiring tab, so it only makes sense for the status to also be Hiring. This job is accepting auditions, so if you have a good VoiceMatch score, don’t wait to submit. |
| Closed |  | At this point, this job is no longer accepting auditions. This could be because the job deadline passed or because the client has received enough submissions. Now the client is deciding which talent should get the gig! |
| Finalizing |  | Over in your Answered tab, you’ll see all the jobs you’ve responded to. Should you have been selected by the client for a job, you will see Offering, as the job status. Now, you need to take action and accept the agreement to begin work on the project – congratulations!
Note: If you haven’t been offered the project, you will still see Deciding as the job status. |
| Working |  | No change here! As always, this means that all the agreements have been accepted and you’re hard at work, completing the projects in your Awarded tab. |
| Completed |  | Your Completed tab is going to look a bit different now.
If you have successfully finished a project, now it will flip to Done! The files are delivered and you can pat yourself on the back for a job well done! |
 | If you’ve auditioned for a job but weren’t selected, you will see this job as Completed, as you don’t have to take any further actions. | |
 | Sometimes, the client will cancel the project for any number of reasons. When they update this on Voices, you’ll see this new status appear. |
Thank You for Your Feedback
It’s through your feedback that we’re able to make improvements like these. We’re excited to keep making your Voices experience better and as such, welcome you to continue the conversation! Comment with your thoughts below, or send us an email at [email protected].
Comments
I see all the jobs that were “Working” yesterday are now labeled as Completed. Complete by definition means there is nothing else to be done. I may not be working on it personally, but the job isn’t complete if it is still being worked on.
Additionally, we are notified when we delete a “Working” job that if we do so “we can not be hired by this client unless you undelete it” (which by the way has always only been indicated when you hit the upper delete button and not the bottom one). I clean up my Answered Jobs list by removing the COMPLETED jobs, so I can no longer delete those in the event the client decides to choose someone else to do the job now, correct? Am I looking for the status Done in order to delete them?
While I appreciate it being updated/freshened up a bit, there was no need to add more words/status to the mix. Now it’s just confusing when it just should have just been color coded properly in the first place. Simple fix. (Open – Green, Finalizing – Yellow, Working – Red, Completed – Black).
Additionally, all the jobs that were ACTUALLY Completed still say Completed, not Done.
Hoping this is still in the working phase…
Hi Richelle,
Thanks for taking the time to write, I’m going to do my best to answer your questions!
We’ve made these changes in order to ensure talent only see statuses relevant to them. Unless you’ve been selected to work on the job, you’ll see ‘Completed’ as the last/final status. The status of ‘Done’ will only appear if it was you who was hired and have had payment released. Check your Done folder to see it in action!
To answer your other question regarding deleting jobs. Again, you’ll see the ‘Completed’ status if the job has moved ahead with a different actor. We don’t encourage talent deleting jobs, but understand some do it to organize. This feature was actually intended to clean up your Hiring folder to remove jobs you aren’t be interested in. It isn’t often (think a handful of times monthly) that clients switch/hire other talent. I’m not sure how regularly you tidy your folder, but a good place to start would be sorting by Job # and starting on jobs older than 30 days.
Hopefully that answers your questions. If you want to chat further, feel free to email us at [email protected] – we’re happy to help!
Cheers!
Thanks for the quick reply Cornelia.
I can understand and appreciate why the changes were made on the Voices end, but as feedback from one of your working actors I can tell you that since I am notified by email of the jobs that are hiring, the only tab I ever look at and work with is the Answered tab. The others might make sense for organization purposes on the end of Voices, but they are irrelevant to me as the actor.
The Answered tab shows me all I need to know about what is happening with my auditions. Knowing where the job stands is all I care about. And to now see “Completed” instead of Working for a job that is actually still in progress is incredibly frustrating. The words Completed and Done mean the exact same thing. So to be using them in two different contexts makes no sense.
Just an FYI from the point of view from someone using the system daily.
This all seems great, except for one thing. I’ve always liked seeing when a job is “Finalizing” even if I’m not the one who is being awarded the job. Helps me prioritize/save time not auditioning for a job for which the client has already selected a VO. If I’m reading this right, now I won’t know and will end up auditioning for those anyway, correct?
Thanks for all the hard work, team!
-jason
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your question!
With these updated statuses, you will see ‘Deciding’ if the job is no longer accepting auditions and ‘Completed’ if the job is being worked on by someone other than you. This is great since now you can move on from the jobs that aren’t hiring to auditioning for ones that are 🙂 We definitely don’t want you wasting your time and hope this makes prioritizing a bit easier.
Essentially, only audition for jobs that are ‘Hiring’.
Hope that answers your question and happy auditioning!
Hi Cornelia!
Those are good news in term of knowing what is going on with projects.
Please, let me suggest further actions to take into account by encouraging clients and even account managers to adequately mark the real status of gigs. I think this also happens to my colleagues when we see at our jobs status page and we realize many clients are still “deciding” about jobs from even 12 or more months ago!
This could be potentially benefic for voices.com and their talents because we will find that more efforts should be done to make the clients choose a voices.com talent and not search for them in other places.
I hope more positive changes like the ones you are implementing now are made during the following year.
Regards,
Lizet Vásquez
Latinamerican Spanish Voice Talent
Hello Lizet!
I’m thrilled that you like the updates – we hope to continue to improve the site to make your experience even better.
Your suggestion is a great one. There are several reasons why jobs stay in a ‘Deciding’ status:
The client themselves didn’t win the job
The project was cancelled
The scope of the project changed
A voice over was found in another way
None of these are great reasons to not update their job’s status on Voices.com, but some clients will also be looking for voices months ahead of when they need them and just have a long lead time. They might also be waiting for their client to make a decision or move ahead with the project. You can see how complicated this can get!
We’re working towards figuring out a solution, striving to better educate clients and make processes smoother. I’m hoping to see improvements next year.
Thank you so much for your patience and feedback! Happy auditioning 🙂
While it is nice that you’ve somewhat simplified the status icons, why is it that the VO TALENT are kept in the dark when a job has already gone to “working” status and we are led to believe we still have a shot at being selected…since our status still says “deciding?” Please give us the “working” indicator as well so we’ll know we’re now out of the running for that one.
Good morning Mike,
Sorry about the confusion! It isn’t our intention to keep anyone in the dark regarding a job’s status – just trying to ensure you see statuses relevant to you. In the scenario you described, you’d see the status ‘Completed’. I tried to outline this above:
“If you’ve auditioned for a job but weren’t selected, you will see this job as Completed, as you don’t have to take any further actions.”
You can also check out this FAQ article for a simpler list of statuses and their corresponding meanings.
I hope that clears things up for you and your workflow 🙂
Cornelia…
Thanks for the reply, but this is what I’m talking about (from your explanation chart above):
“Note: If you haven’t been offered the project, you will still see Deciding as the job status.”
If someone else HAS been offered the project, we’d like to know, even if they have not yet agreed or begun work on it. “Deciding” means we are still in the running. If it’s been offered elsewhere, we are NOT, and shouldn’t be led to believe we are with the “Deciding” icon.
Hi again Mike!
Thanks for taking the time to explain your question again – I really appreciate it and what you’re saying.
To try and be as fair as possible to both client and talent involved, until a job has actually had all parties in agreement it made sense to leave the status as ‘Deciding’. We had enough instances of agreements falling through, other talent being chosen afterwards, or multiple talent being needed but not all offered at once that this was the clearest way to communicate this state. You do have a chance of being selected until the status flips to ‘Completed’. We also didn’t want talent deleting auditions and taking themselves out of the running!
By splitting up the statuses, we’re also answering talent’s requests to make clearer which jobs they need to action at a glance. The bolder colors require action and should stand out in folders (which I know can get a bit hectic!).
Hopefully, you’ll see success with these new statuses and they will allow you to work more efficiently. If you need any additional help, please don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected].
Have a great day!
I too, feel like it was nice to see the “working” status even if the job wasn’t mine. Sometime a client will hire multiple talent so if once they hire someone, the job is set to “completed,” it may not be true.
Also, I feel like it makes me think – wow, all these client pay really fast! When before, it was interesting to see how long some jobs were still in the “working” phase.
Thanks for your hard work.
Morning Charlotte!
I really welcome your feedback 🙂 I know this was something that talent were curious about. From comments/emails we were getting it became clear that voice actors were getting overwhelmed with jobs that they had auditioned for vs being able to focus on new opportunities. We are also working on speeding up payment release with clients.
You make a really great observation with your other point! Depending on a client’s workflow, statuses may change back and forth. If a client offers to multiple talent, the job will remain in ‘Deciding’ until at least one voice actor has accepted the work. If you were selected, your status will flip to ‘Offering’. If you weren’t chosen for this job, then you will see ‘Completed’. If they were to offer to you afterwards, you would then see ‘Offering’. WHEW! Remember, these statuses are here to help you see jobs that need action at a glance and speed up your workflow.
Should you need some more help, please feel free to send us an email at [email protected] and we can connect further.
Thank you again for all these points! I hope we can continue to improve your experience at Voices.com 🙂
Hi all, as of last week, the board was easy to understand, now, after a notice that there would be maintenance on the site, I cannot get anything to say whether the client got my audition or not. i have gone through everything at my disposal. tech support did get back to me, but the site is definitely not working right, I can see words overlapping each other, which means there is a malfunction somewhere. and now I cannot retrieve all the work i’ve done today. it appears to have vanished. I have checked my comp and it is working correctly. PLEASE bring the other site back!! it is MUCH better. and so much easier to understand.
my status names still look the same? why is that?
Hi Sharon,
I’m not sure why that would be! I’ve sent your info over to support and someone will be reaching out to you shortly.
It got confusing when I had six different private invitations to the same two jobs. I had to open up each one to see if there were slight variations in the script and compare them one by one. That was time confusing. I wasn’t sure if they wanted new reads, or if I should attach the same two mp3’s I recorded already for the first two invitations. Finally, I wrote to the voices.com producer who had contacted me to follow up with a more personal invitation and he said there was no need to record again if I had already submitted the first two reads. I was encouraged to audition to the first two invitations because there were only 27 people auditioning, but when I saw in the next 4 job listings (again for the same two projects) there were up to 70 plus people responding for each. I felt less encouraged. I no longer respond when there are so many people responding. It hasn’t turned out to be cost/time effective for me. What was supposedly a private invitation wasn’t so private after all. Then on a previous job invitation I got, the job listing remained in the “deciding” stage for weeks. I contacted support asking them to look into it and rather than contact the Voices.com producer, they proceeded to explain how the system works and what it meant when a job is in the “deciding” phase and told me that it was up to the client to decide when he wants to make up his mind. I suspected it was actually completed or cancelled, but hadn’t been updated. I finally got a straight answer after weeks of going back and forth and it had indeed been cancelled. You have to communicate better.
Hi Victor,
I just want to first say that I’m sorry for your experience – and want to thank you for your feedback. We take continuous improvement of our platform and customer experience seriously, and hearing firsthand from those who are using it is always helpful.
I hope you don’t mind, but I have forwarded you comment on to customer service, as well as our product improvement team.
All the best & thank you again,
Tanya