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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.

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
BojanS
Community Manager

Hi Filip,

 

Currently, the Expert-Vetted program is by invitation only in select skill categories. However, we are slowly rolling it out and plan to gradually increase the number of freelancers we vet in more categories.

filip_knezevic
Community Member

Thanks, Bojan.

I think this can apply to all highly techical professions.

Looking forward to expending the Expert-Vetted program. 🙂

And leave early payments on! We like those 😄

hidemi-takagi
Community Member

Just wanted to see if anyone is with me in a suggestion to improve how Upwork is evaluating freelancers for "Top Rated Plus".

At the moment, we have the following requirements:

Top Rated
Earned over $10,000+ in the past 12 months
Worked on a large contract in the past 12 months
 
looking at the "Worked on a large contract in the past 12 months"  - the definition for "large contract" is as follows:

Large Contracts 

The criteria for a “large contract” is specific to the contract category. We base these amounts on the opportunities currently available on Upwork. For example, in certain categories, a large contract might be one with earnings of $5,000 but in others it might be a $20,000 or $30,000 contract.

Now - I am fine with those amounts but my suggestion is to change the requirement from "Large Contracts" to "Large Accounts" which means that the system will calculate earnings of $5,000, $20,000 or $30,000 not to any particular contract but for a total sum of the contract you have with a client.

The reason and logic for that change in the definition are that in many cases, we have clients we work with on large projects which broken down to a few contracts.

Looking only at individual contracts as a criteria for "large" is not the right way to evaluate the $ value -  the right way to do it is to calculate the total sum of all the contracts you have with each particular client and if that amount passed 5k, 20k or 30k - that will be the sum the system should evaluate for the criteria as "large" and bump you up for Top Rated Plus.

Anyone with me on that and see the logic in it? 

hidemi-takagi
Community Member

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inquisitive-stha
Community Member

@Hidemi

Maybe it's because of Sunday.

Well, just my opinion. At first glance, your suggestion looks great. However, if you take a deeper look let's take two scenarios:

 

1) A freelancer who created just 50 simple blogs costs $15000 in total from the same client. 

2) Another freelancer created just a single web app, which requires more depth knowledge as the database starts to grow, you need to show huge datasets on a single view.

 

So, I don't think these two freelancers should be in the same frame its because, for the second work, you need more in-depth knowledge.

Anyway, why don't you request your client to give all projects through a single contract? That should be your main focus. 

marafx
Community Member

Since the new system has been set in place many of us are waiting to be called for the EXPERT-VETTED team. 
Reading through the requirements some makes me think Upwork, somehow  ignore that among the PLUS  freelancers in marketing section, there are also Google Partners with not only certifications for 2020, but with specialisations that means they manage budgets far higher than  a simple certified  person, and do this  the right way.
But no, EXPERT-VETTED seems  has nothing to do with the quality of work, at least not for the marketing section.

I for my side am one of them- managing over $6mil/yer budget, have 100% client satisfaction, have 2 specialities as Google partner... but for Upwork... guess I'm not good enough despite being hired 99% of the times I get in contact with a client and having years long contracts....
Guess what... anyone in my situation we are not considered EXPERT-VETTED for some upworkian illogical reasons.

feed_my_eyes
Community Member

Antonia B. V wrote:

Since the new system has been set in place many of us are waiting to be called for the EXPERT-VETTED team. 
Reading through the requirements some makes me think Upwork, somehow  ignore that among the PLUS  freelancers in marketing section, there are also Google Partners with not only certifications for 2020, but with specialisations that means they manage budgets far higher than  a simple certified  person, and do this  the right way.
But no, EXPERT-VETTED seems  has nothing to do with the quality of work, at least not for the marketing section.

I for my side am one of them- managing over $6mil/yer budget, have 100% client satisfaction, have 2 specialities as Google partner... but for Upwork... guess I'm not good enough despite being hired 99% of the times I get in contact with a client and having years long contracts....
Guess what... anyone in my situation we are not considered EXPERT-VETTED for some upworkian illogical reasons.


Well, I did get Experted Vetted and my invitations have massively declined since then (and nothing at all from Business or Enterprise clients); I don't think I've even experienced the usual rotation to the top of the search results since late June. IMO, you're not missing out on anything.

VladimirG
Community Manager

Hi Antonia,

Thanks for reaching out and I'm sorry you feel this way regarding the Expert Vetted program. To clarify, 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.

xenubxeni
Community Member

I am eligible for top rated plus, but i cant see it on my profile.

AleksandarD
Community Manager

Hi Zainab,

 

I will look into this further and will get back to you once I have more information.

 

Thank you.