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New talent badges are now available!

ilianamontauk
Community Member

Earlier this year, we shared some of our upcoming plans to highlight top talent on Upwork. We understood that you are looking for more ways to stand out and want better access to high-value opportunities with quality clients. As we continue to attract more businesses seeking flexible talent solutions, we have also heard their need to more quickly find talent they can trust for complex, strategic, and long-term work. To further our continued efforts towards this vision, we're excited to announce two new talent badges: Top Rated Plus and Expert-Vetted.



Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 8.54.10 AM.png

TOP RATED PLUS

 

What is Top Rated Plus?

 

Top Rated Plus is a new status for talent that has a proven track record of excelling on large or long-term contracts on Upwork. On average their contracts last 7 months. These professionals and agencies are highlighted because they have delighted clients on large contracts. Businesses frequently seek talent for large projects or longer-term relationships, and trust talent with this proven experience on Upwork. Right now Top Rated Plus talent has earned more than $100K on average through Upwork, four times as much as Top Rated talent.  



What are the benefits?

  • Priority access to work with Upwork Enterprise and Business clients: they will be able to find you more easily in search, and our Talent Services teams will prioritize inviting you to their invite-only jobs. 
  • A Top Rated Plus badge displayed on your profile visible to clients on Upwork’s Enterprise, Business, and Plus plans (to all other clients you will continue to appear as Top Rated)

 

What are the requirements to become a Top Rated Plus freelancer?

  • Earned $10,000+ in total earnings (all contracts included) the past 12 months
  • Worked on one of more large projects in the past 12 months without negative feedback. What is considered a large project can vary depending on the skill category:
    • $5,000: Design & Creative, Engineering & Architecture, Legal, Translation, Writing
    • $10,000: Accounting & Consulting, Admin, Data Science & Analytics, IT & Networking, Sales & Marketing
    • $15,000: Web, Mobile & Software Dev
    • $20,000: Customer Support
  • Are not an exclusive agency contractor
  • Maintained Top Rated status

 

What are the requirements to be Top Rated Plus as an agency?

  • Earned $20,000+ in total earnings (all contracts included)
  • Worked on one or more large projects in the past 12 months and no more than 10 percent of the contracts had negative outcomes. What is considered a large project can vary depending on the skill category:
    • $10,000: Design & Creative, Engineering & Architecture, Legal, Translation, Writing
    • $20,000: Accounting & Consulting, Admin, Customer Service, Data Science & Analytics, IT & Networking, Sales & Marketing
    • $30,000: Web, Mobile & Software Dev
  • Maintained Top Rated status

Timing

  • The Top Rated Plus badge was released today to some clients. If you qualify for this badge, clients on Upwork’s Enterprise and Business plans will now see it on your profile, as will some clients on Upwork’s Plus plan. You will start seeing the badge on your own profile and MyStats later this summer - we’ll notify you by email once you can see it there.

 

Screen Shot 2020-07-07 at 8.54.16 AM.png

EXPERT-VETTED 

 

What is Expert-Vetted Talent?

 

Expert-Vetted Talent is a new status for talent that has deep experience in their field, on or off Upwork. Upwork invites this talent to participate in a rigorous pre-screening process. We chose to highlight these professionals because businesses frequently seek talent with a strong combination of expertise and soft skills, and they trust talent that has been pre-screened by professionals in the relevant field. This talent will get prioritized for clients on Upwork’s Enterprise and Business plans, whose average project value is over $8,000. 

 

What are the benefits?

 

  • An Expert-Vetted badge on your profile to help you more easily stand out and find quality work with top clients on Upwork’s Enterprise and Business plans. All other clients will see your Rising Talent, Top Rated, or Top Rated Plus badge if you have one.
  • Priority access to work with clients on Upwork’s Enterprise and Business plans
  • A personal relationship with an Upwork Talent Manager who helps match you to opportunities aligned with your goals

 

Our team is hard at work to further enhance the Expert-Vetted experience, so expect more exciting updates on the horizon including opportunities to engage with this exclusive community of professionals like you and other ways to more easily access high-value work.

 

What are the requirements to become an Expert-Vetted freelancer or agency?

This opportunity is available by invitation only. Keep your eyes peeled for an invitation in your email inbox or when you log into Upwork. Once we are able to offer this opportunity to more people, we will provide an update here.

 

If you are invited to participate, you will need to pass a rigorous pre-screening process which may include a portfolio review, coding tests, interviews, or other steps relevant to your area of expertise. Agencies participate in a similar process to assess the agency’s expertise.

 

Our initial focus is Design & Creative; Web, Mobile, and Software Development; and Sales & Marketing.   



How is this different from previous programs, like Upwork Premium?

Expert-Vetted replaces previous programs for expert-level talent. We’ve done extensive research with businesses seeking expert-level talent on Upwork for large projects and created new criteria in line with current client expectations. If you’ve previously taken an assessment for Upwork Premium or Upwork Pro, thank you! We have your results on file and will take them into consideration as we grow the program and extend additional invitations. Your results also continue to be available to our Talent Services teams which take them into consideration when sending invitations to jobs.

 

Timing

  • The Expert-Vetted badge was released today to some clients. If you qualify for this badge, clients on Upwork’s Enterprise and Business plans will now see it. You will start seeing the badge on your own profile and MyStats later this summer - we’ll notify you by email once you can see it there



RISING TALENT & TOP RATED

 

Freelancers who are currently Rising Talent or Top Rated will continue to keep those badges and benefits. Expert-Vetted and Top Rated Plus are not replacing Rising Talent or Top Rated.

 

When you earn Expert-Vetted or Top Rated Plus status, your new badge is only visible to Upwork's Enterprise and Business clients—as well as select Plus clients for Top Rated Plus.* All other clients will see your Rising Talent or Top Rated badge if you have one.

 

See the chart below to learn which badge clients see when they look at your profile, depending on the client type.

Screen Shot 2020-08-17 at 6.57.38 AM.png

 

 

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We care deeply about helping you succeed on Upwork. There is plenty more to come! We will continue to invest in our talent badges and other solutions. We'd love to hear your thoughts on how these new statuses impact your work and other ways we can help you achieve your goals.

 

Thanks!

 

Iliana Montauk

Product Manager

 

*Beta test update July 2021: We are always working to improve features on our platform, from time to time some users may see options while we test changes for this reason. Over the next few weeks we'll be testing a way for badges be visible to all clients when searching Project Catalog. If there are any changes that will permanently take effect we will update you here!


559 Comments
badee_k
Community Member

Hi Iliana,

 

I think these are new additions and deserve appreciation, and you will definitely support the talented here in Upwork and abroad because the Upwork account has become a luxury feature and brand, but I still have a question if I have an open contract for a long time, will it be counted under these badges?

 

Thank you for your effort
Badee

k_nadel
Community Member

Alex D wrote:

Another level of segregation for freelancers, great! The easy entrance for newbees is closed forever now?


Yeah, because clearly Business and Enterprise clients (the only ones able to see the TR+ badge) were always going to be looking to hire newbies... smh

firescue17
Community Member

Alex D wrote:

Another level of segregation for freelancers, great! The easy entrance for newbees is closed forever now?


Forever. Forever and ever and ever.

 

... or they can build their business and earn their reputation in a legitime manner just like every other freelancer with multiple years of experience and multiple tens of thousands or multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings.

VladimirG
Community Manager

Hi Badee,

 

Thanks for sharing your feedback and support. Please check the qualifying criteria and note that earnings on active contracts do contribute towards meeting these requirements.

 

  • Earned more than $10,000 in the past 12 months
  • Worked on one of more large* projects in the past 12 months with positive feedback
  • Are not an exclusive agency contractor
  • Maintained Top Rated status


*What is considered a large project can vary depending on skill category. For example, in certain categories a large job might be one with earnings of $5,000 but in others it might be a $20,000 or $30,000 contract.

 

kristenselim
Community Member

     Good Morning, I am new to Upwork. I want to thank you for your valuable information. 
Warm regards,

Kristen Selim

badee_k
Community Member
*What is considered a large project can vary depending on skill category. For example, in certain categories a large job might be one with earnings of $5,000 but in others it might be a $20,000 or $30,000 contract.

Thank Vladimir for a reply,

This is a very important point, Could you clarify it further.

Regards

coachcohen
Community Member

Hi Iliana, thank you for the detailed reply. I love the idea of adding relationship value to the top rated plus badge when the same client hires multiple times. I also completely undertstand limiting the number of badges so as to not dilute their prominence. 

kmdeyle
Community Member

Thanks all for raising this question. It was my understanding a project needed to be closed to receive a referral and rating; since goal is serving client's needs long term this is can work against us in ratings. It would be a good feature fix. I would like to be considered top rated badge as well. Thank you!

 

Warm regards,

 

Kristin

fred-masika
Community Member
Let me take this opportunity to appreciate up work team for working so tirelessly to come up with the idea of talent badges, it will create more love to working with upwork while striving to getting also a badge. Thanks a lot upwork team.
mohammad-vaseem
Community Member

Hi this is vaseem its good to hear your opportunities,

a small suggestion from a freelancer, please put any premimum levels are any other plans to have good growth for starters in upwork.

most of them trusting upwork a good platform to build carrier with thier experienced skills which gained in off of upwork.

i request you to please consider of new comers of upwork who having experience in subject,need for good ways to sucess.

TAHNKS &REGARDS

vaseem