Additional review for new freelancers that want to join Upwork

[Garnor M]

The Upwork marketplace is growing every day, with new freelancers and clients excited to join in this new way of working. Unfortunately, not all new freelancers are going to find immediate success on the platform and that can be a frustrating experience for everyone involved - unsuccessful freelancers struggle to get started, qualified and in-demand (experienced and new) freelancers find it harder to stand out as the overall pool of freelancers grows, and clients are challenged to identify the best fit for their projects.

Because of this, we’re introducing a change to how new freelancers join Upwork. We've been doing this with a limited number of new registrations and we’re ramping this up over the next few weeks.

In short, Upwork will now review new freelancer registrations and if we find that our marketplace does not have opportunities for them based on their combination of skills and experience, their registration to Upwork will not initially be accepted. There will be an opportunity to resubmit, however. Read below to find out more.

Here’s how it works:

When a visitor comes to Upwork and wants to sign up as a freelancer, their first step is to create a freelancer profile. After submitting that profile as part of the registration process, our team is going to do our standard review along with evaluating the profile’s skills and experience with respect to the projects currently available on Upwork. If we find the availability of projects is a fit with the freelancer’s skills and work experience, then they’ll be able to enter the marketplace and start submitting proposals.

If the freelancer’s skills and experience are not a match with the projects that are available on Upwork, then we will send them a notice informing them of this. The freelancer will have the opportunity to re-submit their profile for another review, after adding more experience and skills.

New freelancers who are invited to Upwork directly by clients or by Agency Owners who want them to join the team will bypass this review. That is, by joining Upwork via the direct link from the client or agency owner, they’ll be able to sign up without going through this process. [ETA] They will only be able to work exclusively with that client or agency in that case.

We’ll continue to refine this process along the way. We welcome new freelancers and clients to Upwork and we hope that with this change, along with programs already in place like Top Rated Freelancers and Rising Talent Freelancers, we will enable more of you to achieve success in the marketplace.

Thanks,

Garnor

[Preston H]

It is a kindness to reject a potential new contractor who is not ready to succeed on this platform.

I live in the United States. MOST people my country are in NO WAY ready to work on Upwork.

They are wonderful people. They can succeed in other venues. Maybe their calling is to be a chef. Or a police officer. Or a doctor. Or a retail professional. Or any number of things.

But they lack the type of skills and expertise that clients are able to hire people to do on a platform such as this. They also lack the temperment to work as a freelancer. It would be a disservice to lead them to this website and encourage them to spend time creating a presence here when doing so will simply be unprofitable and frustrating.

[Stephen B]

I'm being serious and positive here - this will be a good idea if your reviews are done by humans and not algorithms.

[Olga Q]

I'm a bit shocked, I must admit.

When I joined Upwork, 3 years ago, I had no idea that I'd be working as a web researcher in the following years. I was unemployed and was basically trying to figure whether I could find a place here. I joined Elance too, and by absolute chance had a client asking me to conduct some research. After finishing the project, I thought, "hey, this is great! Maybe I can work as a web researcher". And that's how my career started.

So, basically, I'm now a bit shocked because, today, I wouldn't be able to follow this path... 

[Garnor M]

Thanks for sharing the experience Olga. I disagree with your assumption. In looking at your profile, e.g. skill tests, employment history, etc. it's clear you arrived to oDesk and probably Elance with skills and experience already in hand. Add to that your strong communication abilities and passion for delivering great work, and it's more than likely you would not only complete the registration process but continue on the path towards building a career as you have today.

[Olga Q]

Garnor, believe me, I had no experience when I joined! When I worked as a journalist there was no such thing as the Internet.

If this policy was in place back then, I would have no skills and experience whatsoever to allow me to pass the new evaluation process.

[Stephen B]

and while you're around, Garnor, could you please clarify whether the reviews will be done by people or algorithms (or a mixture)?

[Garnor M]

All of the above. In order to efficiently manage a process like this, it has to be a combination of automated and manual efforts.

[Stephen B]

Thanks for clarifying that Garnor. I'm afraid in that case I'm going to have to change my mind and declare it a really bad idea, at least at this point in time. (just MHO).

[Armela C]

That is  a  "laugh out loud!"  And to thnk of Phonetic Spectrometry!  Whew!