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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
rattanlal0501
Community Member

For Top Rated Plus Badge, how would you describe the long project in terms of SEO/SMO Skills?

rummanakhan
Community Member

Hey, i am a top rated freelancer, and i meet 2/3 criteria for the top rated plus badge, the last criteria of "Large Projects" is getting very difficult for me to achieve, as most of my projects are not that big in $$$ terms. Some more questions:
-Does this mean that a singular contract needs to be worth $5000 in the designing criteria? 

-What if client hires me on a singular job in which i am doing designing and marketing as well, which niche would it fall under? 

 

Thanks

Rumman

 

BojanS
Community Manager

Hi Rattan,

 

 

For the "Sales and Marketing" category, $10,000 is considered a large job. You can check this help article for more information.

 

Thank you!

vms-designs
Community Member
Hello,

I am sure this question is not new here. I started working on Upwork 8 months ago and I was fortunate enough to find a full-time client on my second bid. So I never had a chance to gather enough project ratings and my job success score has never been calculated.
I have earned over $16000 in 8 months in a single contract, have a rising talent badge, and 16 of 16 top rated eligible weeks.
But, I don’t have time to bid on other projects to gather ratings. How can I achieve the top rated and eventually top rated plus badge?

Thank you!
Mohit
william_freedman
Community Member

What do I need to do to achieve Expert-Vetted status as a freelance writer?

islemeghiref
Community Member

Hello to all the Upwork team and freelancers!

 

I actually have some questions about the Top Rated Pus badge and I'd be gratefull If I could have some clarifications about it. 

 

I'am actually a Top Rated Freelancer with 100% JSS score since two years now in the copywriting field. I'm a multidsicplinary french SEO copywriter and everything works fine for me. From now, I meet 2 criterias of the Top Rated Plus Badge : 1) I'm going to have soon the 10K earning before 12 months 2) I'm a top rated plus.

 

My question is about the third criterion : the large project. I was actually wondering If I meet this criterion since I worked in a large project from where I earned more then 5K - this is the limit established for the writing field -  but this project has more than 2 years actually. This contract is still active tough ! The fact that this contract is still active, altough it started more then two years ago, will allow me to fulfill this criteria ?

 

On the other hand, I actually worked with the same client over the last 6 months, but he splitted the contract in two : the first one I earned 3900 usd and he closed it and the second which is still active, I actually earned 2000 usd and i'm still going to earn from it. If we count then, I'm having more then 5K with the same client but in two differents contracts - because we passer from a niche to another one. Is this enough to qualify me for the Top Rated Plus Badge ?

 

Thanks in advance for your answers and keep being awesome! 

 

PS : I'm actually a french copywriter, sorry for all the english mistakes I could have made. 

 

 

 

saif007_khalid
Community Member

Why Top Rated Plus is restricted to large contracts? You can set the limit of the last 12 month's earnings to 10,000, but the amount from the one large contract should be a maximum of 5,000. Plus the fee should be 5% after an earning of 5,000 instead of 10,000.

tlbp
Community Member

Because if it weren't limited, it would just be Top Rated. 

JoanneP
Moderator

Hi Saifullah,

 

Clients have told us that they have a difficult time finding talent that are both interested in larger projects and also have a track record of working on them on Upwork. This badge, which is visible to Enterprise, Business, and Plus clients, helps clients connect with freelancers who have a history of both.

brad-a
Community Member

I have to wonder if the product team really think these things through. This seems like another gimmick that just obfuscates the value of the original set of badges. DId anyone think to mention that these Top-Rated Plus changes will actually penalize long-standing Top-Rated consultants?