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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.



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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.

 

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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.

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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
mihaiz
Community Member

Hi Bojan quick question here as you mentioned "positive feedback on one large contract". That would mean that that project would be finished and closed.

 

What if the large projects are constantly ongoing projects (and thus the client doesn't have an option to leave an actual positive feedback on that)? I'd imagine that with the project just being active and ongoing means the client is happy with the work we're doing and would qualify as an "indirect positive feedback"?

VladimirG
Community Manager

Hi Mihai,

 

I apologize for the error, I can confirm you don't need to receive feedback or have the large contract closed in order to meet this specific requirement. To clarify, the requirements entails not receiving a negative feedback. You can find more information in this Help article.

altheadee
Community Member

Hi,

 

I have an issue with the Top Rated Plus badge. I am able to see it on my end but when I view it without logging in on upwork the badge is not visible.

 

Will be waiting for your response. 

 

Thank you!

JoanneP
Moderator

Hi Althea,

 

Business and Enterprise clients, along with Plus clients, will see your Top Rated Plus badge. We eventually plan to roll it out to all Basic clients too. 

zohaumar
Community Member

Apologies, Vladmir

I have one more question for you. 

I have one contract with the earning $43XY, I am about to get into another contract with the client to resume the work(had to ask him to end it because of dormancy). Do you think if I will ask my client to pay me a bonus in the same contract(not opening a new one) making it $5000 will still accept me as Top Rated plus? 

 

Trying to find out as much about it in order to avoid making new mistakes and repeating previous mistakes from the past. 

balazsdanku
Community Member

Hi there,

 

I'm a bit confused with the expert-vetted badge. I know it's invitation only and you would be representing 1% of all talents on Upwork.

However, there is no explanation of how I could deserve to be invited to the program. It looks like the invitation program is currently based on heads or tails methodology.

 

I checked out multiple freelancer profiles on Upwork that have the expert-vetted badge. There is no connection between earnings and reviews. Some people have the badge with 50k earnings and they don't even have too good reviews.

 

I'm currently on my way to achieving Top Rated Plus, which is very exciting, but I'm wondering what I should do to get the expert-vetted talent specialists attention? Should I go for shorter jobs and more 5star reviews, or longer higher-paying jobs?

 

Upwork, please define precisely what one needs to do to get the 1% badge. The "wait for our email invite" doesn't help...

 

Thanks for your help, guys.
Kind regards

 

Jesse Balazs Danku

VladimirG
Community Manager

Hi Jesse,

 

Thanks for your question and kudos on working hard to qualify for the Top Rated Plus badge!

As you noted, the Expert-Vetted program is currently by invitation only, in select skill categories. We are inviting freelancers to be vetted based on their skills and reputation and also on the demand for their skills in our marketplace. Right now we are slowly rolling out this option but plan to gradually increase the number of freelancers we vet. We are initially prioritizing freelancers who have already been successful on Upwork (as indicated by client feedback, Top Rated status, and contract history) but will also expand to newer freelancers in the coming months.

balazsdanku
Community Member

Thanks Vladimir for your quick reply.

 

That's great to hear. Will there be specific criteria by the end of the year for expert-vetted? Or is it gonna remain invite-only?

 

 

VladimirG
Community Manager

Hi Jesse,

 

While I don't have an update on that subject I'd encourage you to keep an eye on this thread for future updates (you can subscribe to the thread). Feel free to keep us updated on your Top Rated Plus badge progress. Exciting times ahead! 

civilengineer1
Community Member

To get Top rated must have 5000$  by large contract,
My question if there more one contract from the same client and the sum of earning from  these contracts >5000$ for Engineering category.
Is that conside large project ?