Rylee Chapin

“I think, I think HiRey is kind of, kind of what I've been looking for in Upwork because it's, it's much more user-friendly and it's much more upfront about things.”

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FreelancingGame developmentQA testingPlaywrightAI job matching
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From earlier

In Rylee's words

Freelance tech worker with a background in game dev, QA testing, and data entry, exploring careers in tech

Riley discusses their freelance experience, comparing the HiRey network favorably to Upwork due to its usability and transparency. They highlight the value of HiRey's task scheduling, AI-driven job matching, and 'who I met' tracking feature for both convenience and security, and describe how the platform's AI helped guide them as someone new to the tech industry. Riley also praises HiRey's open-source approach and free access, noting it builds trust compared to opaque AI tools.

I think, I think being able to have somewhere where you can just go day to day and be like, Hey, find me, find me a list of the jobs that I can apply to that best fit me is super, super helpful.

Key facts

  • Recorded and uploaded by Mark
  • Riley Chapin is a freelance tech worker.
  • He has coded a couple of games to teach himself programming.
  • He has done QA contract work, building test suites using Playwright.
  • He has recently done data entry work.
  • He has prior experience using Upwork as a freelance platform.
  • HiRey is currently free to use with no monetization requiring payment.
  • HiRey's explore page includes a dedicated client section where users can view full client profiles, which Riley says he hasn't seen elsewhere.
  • Riley suggests adding a profile-edit button to the HiRey website.

Story

Freelancer Finding His Footing in Tech

Riley Chapin is a freelance tech worker who taught himself to code by building games, has done QA contract work building test suites with Playwright, and has recently taken on data entry work. He describes himself as newer to the professional tech world and still figuring out the best path into the industry.

Comparing HiRey to Upwork

Riley has used Upwork for freelance work but finds it lacking in usability and transparency. He sees HiRey as solving those problems: it's more upfront, lets you connect with people without jumping through hoops, and offers a fuller view of the marketplace, including full client profiles, something he says Upwork doesn't allow.

What Stands Out

Riley highlights HiRey's task scheduling feature, which he says he'd use daily to plan his work, and the AI-driven job matching, which he finds more accurate than typical algorithms because it learns both him and the clients. He also points to the 'who I met' tracking feature as a potential security and dispute-resolution tool, since it creates a written record of interactions.

Guidance for Newcomers

As someone new to tech, Riley says HiRey has helped him see where to go and what to share about himself. He described asking HiRey's AI how to break into the computer industry and getting back a list of current job listings on the platform along with skills to develop, using real site context to inform the answer.

Remaining Feedback

Riley thinks the core functionality is strong but says the UI could still be ironed out over time. His concrete suggestion is adding a button on the site to edit your user profile directly.

Good matches

HiRey product team

Riley offers concrete UX feedback (profile-edit button, UI polish) and validates features like task scheduling and 'who I met' tracking from an active user's perspective.

Freelance marketplace founders

He can speak firsthand to what's missing in Upwork-style platforms, especially around transparency and client visibility.

People new to tech looking for a way in

Riley's own path via self-taught game dev, QA contracts, and data entry offers a relatable roadmap for breaking into the industry.

People to meet

  • Feedback on freelance marketplace usability and onboarding for newcomers
  • Perspective comparing HiRey to Upwork from an active freelancer
  • Input on QA/testing workflows using Playwright
  • Understanding what early-career tech freelancers need from a platform

Interview chapters

  1. 1:00
    Introductions and interview format

    Mark explains the plan to have a casual conversation about who Riley is, his tech background, and his experience with HiRey before introducing himself and Riley Chapin.

  2. 2:21
    Riley's freelance and tech background

    Riley describes his freelance work on Upwork and his tech experience including game dev, QA testing with Playwright, and data entry.

  3. 3:18
    Comparing HiRey to Upwork

    Riley explains that HiRey feels more user-friendly and upfront than Upwork, letting him connect with people without unnecessary hurdles.

  4. 3:56
    Value of the Tasks app and AI matching

    Riley says he would use the Tasks app daily to find jobs matched to him via AI that learns both him and clients better than an algorithm.

  5. 4:54
    Who I Met as a security feature

    Riley suggests the who-I-met tracking feature could serve as a written record for resolving disputes, like a paper trail.

  6. 5:43
    Guidance for newcomers to tech

    Riley describes how the platform's AI gave him a roadmap and job listings to help him break into the tech industry.

  7. 7:38
    Open source and transparency benefits

    Riley credits the platform's open and clear communication about its AI for making users more willing to trust and try it.

  8. 8:45
    Explore page and free platform access

    Riley highlights the Explore page's client browsing feature as a standout compared to other platforms and notes the platform is currently free to use.

Transcript

Read the full interview transcript (1,472 words)

Hello. Cool. So, for, I think the way we can do this profile is we can just have a quick conversation about who you are, what you do in tech, and what you'd use the HiRey network for, and then what your experience is with it and why you think it's a cool idea. And then, yeah, we'll just do that. Sweet. All right, just go whenever. Yeah, so my name's Mark. I'm, I work with HiRey. I've been here for a few years. And here we have Riley Chapin. And yeah, we have been talking through the HiRey network and testing it. And yeah, he's hear a little bit about yourself, Riley. Yeah, I'm Riley. I've been kind of doing freelance work for a bit now, and I've been working on a similar platform called Upwork, and it it's similar, but it doesn't have the same usability. So yeah. Yeah. And then what's your, what's your background like in tech? What do you, what have you been doing in tech these last couple of years? So I've been, I've been doing a bit of game dev. I've coded a couple of different games just to really teach myself how to code, and I've been doing a bit of QA work with different contracts. I've done, I've built some test suites using playwright and things like that. And a bit of data entry more recently. And yeah. Very cool. And why don't you talk a little bit about what you, what you think about the HiRey network and what type of things you'd, you'd use it for and that type of stuff. Yeah, I think, I think HiRey is kind of, kind of what I've been looking for in Upwork because it's, it's much more user-friendly and it's much more upfront about things. And you can kind of just connect with people without having to jump through a bunch of loops and go through a bunch of semantics, basically. And it, I kind of already brought this up, but the, the tasks app in specific, I think I would use a ton, like every day, all day, basically to schedule out my every day, basically. And I think, I think being able to have somewhere where you can just go day to day and be like, Hey, find me, find me a list of the jobs that I can apply to that best fit me is super, super helpful. And it's much more accurate than any, any type of algorithm is going to be because it, it's able to kind of learn me as a person and also learn the clients as people and match us up better that way. Yeah, by using like kind of your AI that knows you and is accustomed to you, you think that'll help get you better, better connections. Yeah. And I think the, the who I met will also, also be a really A good way to not only track people you meet, but I think it could also be a good security feature almost to kind of have in writing the The people who you've met and what, what those interactions have been. So then if, if there's something that needs to be disputed, that's all, that's all there in writing. Yeah. Yeah, having that kind of paper trail a little bit, kind of like a a little receipt or something like that. Yeah. And I think, I think something that that stands out right now is the, the functionality and the user friendliness. I think that, I think a lot of the UI can be ironed out over time. And I think, I think as a, as a newer person in the professional tech world, at least, it's, it's been really helpful in kind of showing me where to go and what I should be sharing about myself and what clients are looking for and just things like that. Could you elaborate on that a little bit? Yeah, so it, I think being newer, newer in tech, I kind of don't, don't really know where to go. Like there's not, there's not a good roadmap for this is how you get into computers. And so being able to, like I even asked mine today, like, I'm, I'm just looking to get my foot in the door in like the computer industry. What can I do to help that? And it gave me like a list of job listings that were currently on the, on the HiRey website and basically broke down what I should learn and what I should start working on to, to be able to give clients what they want, basically. Oh, that's really cool. So your AI knew to use the context from the HiRey plugin to kind of inform the answer that it gave you about breaking into tech. Yeah, exactly. Wow. That's really cool. Yeah. I think, I think the fact that everything is really open source and very clear about what it's doing as well makes it much more likely, I guess, for the broader user base to use it. Because I think, I think with how a lot of people view AI right now, they're, they'll see an AI thing they don't understand and just kind of scoff at it or whatever. But I think the fact that it kind of clearly breaks down why it's so helpful on the website makes it much easier to be like, okay, I'm gonna give this a try. Yeah, yeah, I think without context, without the context of the website, that's kind of hard to like, to kind of see what, you know, where the value is in the end and know what it is we're trying to do, what we'll try to do with the tool. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think, I think overall the, the functionality is really good and most, for the most part there. I kind of talked about like adding maybe a button on the website to edit your user profile from there. But other than that, it, it kind of, it really clearly breaks down what each different section is for, which is, I think where it really stands out. So you're able to go to the client section and look for a job that'll fit you. And it's much more, I guess, personalized. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, having that kind of guidance to adding that button to kind of take you directly to the client section, is that what you said? No, sorry, I was saying that on, on the explore page, there's, there's a section dedicated to clients. And that, I don't know, I haven't really seen that many other places. And I think it's something small, but it, it is very, very big, if that makes sense. Yeah. No, that's a big difference. Yeah, having kind of like, oh, I get what you mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As opposed to like other common platforms, there's not really like that explore page, like it's totally available. Right, like things like Upwork, for example, there's like, you can scroll through what you're given basically. And then that's it. Whereas this, you can kind of scroll through all the clients and look at a client's profile like by itself, which I, I know you can't do on Upwork. I don't know about other platforms. But yeah. Yeah, more transparency in the micro, in the, in the the marketplace. I think, yeah, with the data, I don't think they really let you, they don't let you have like a full view of it. Yeah. Yeah, and I, I don't know, I don't know what the monetization looks like, but that I haven't had to buy anything or anything and that's been also really pleasant. Yeah, yeah. I've never, I've never seen that before. Yeah. Yeah, right now we're, we're totally free. Yeah, so to try and just kinda test it out and connect with people, you can do all that on our platform without any cost right now. Yeah. Well, cool, man. Well, thanks for taking a few minutes to kind of talk about yourself and talk about, talk about your experience with the platform. I'm really, really, really glad you, you liked it. And, you know, that you kind of see the concepts, see the vision. And yeah, I'll, I'll trim this up and then we'll put it on our, on kind of our featured page and yeah, and we'll, we'll talk more about everything else through our channel and I'm gonna go ahead and add you on LinkedIn too. Awesome. Sweet. Thank you so much. Yeah, no problem, man. All right, you have a good one now. Take care. Yeah, have a great rest of your day, Mark. Thank you. You too.

  1. Freelance developer and QA tester exploring tech careers, using HiRey's AI-driven job matching and transparent client marketplace as an alternative to Upwork

  2. Riley Chapin on HiRey

Published, attributed HiRey Moments — never private notes.

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