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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
islemeghiref
Community Member

Hi, I asked a question about the Top Rated Plus Badge but no one answered me. 

 

I'm a top Rated freelancer and I'd like to know more about it, if possible.

 

Here is my previous message, thanks : 

 

"

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. "

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member

Hi Islem,

 

Thanks for reaching out. To be eligible for a Top Rated Plus badge you must earn a certain amount on one contract. For example, if you work in the “Translation” category you must have worked on a single large contract totaling at least $5,000 in the past year. If you work two $3,000 contracts in the category -- even with the same client -- you are not eligible because the amounts are spread over two contracts. Once you earn $5,000 on one of the contracts, you’ll be eligible to obtain Top Rated Plus status. 

islemeghiref
Community Member

Thanks for you answer Goran!

 

But as I said, I earnd more than 5K iin one contract. The contract is still active and continues to generate money. 

 

The thing is, this contract started two years ago. 

 

My question is : does active contract with more than 5k earning - for writing field - that started 2 years ago will allowe me to obtain the Top Rated Plus Badge ? 

 

Thanks !

g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member

Hi Islem,

 

Unfortunately no, your contract will not be counted towards the Top Rated Plus badge. The earnings will need to be in the last 12 months. To learn more about this, check out this Help Article. Thank you.

himanshu5692
Community Member

How do i apply to get "Expert-Vetted" badge?

BojanS
Community Manager

Hi Himanshu,

 

Thanks for your question. 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. The best way to get invited in the future is to create a complete profile, stay active on Upwork, and maintain a great reputation among your clients. 

piyushseem
Community Member

First of all I would like to say a big thanks to Upwork, because they are continue trying to make its better system for both clients and freelancers. However, today I was thinking about one very important topic in contrast of assigning badges and its core benefits. I mean, there should be improvement in TOP RATED PLUS criteria. For example: under the category of “Web, Mobile & Software Dev”, the term large contract will consider if or if its threshold criteria will exact on $15000 (for individual) and $30000 (for agency). Now a days, the scope of under this category (web, mobile and software) is on top (as compare to all other categories), so the competition is also too high under this category where client want to make the product under $5k (I have got lot of requests to make PubG type game clone only for $5k). So its almost impossible to achieve $15000 job as an individual (I am not saying for an agency because they has the team caliber to show strength for $30k project) for mobile app/game projects within 12 months. I have been working on upwork since 2011 but could not get any single job with $15k budget.

 

Conclusion: I have been working on Upwork since 2011 when it was oDesk (I did not migrate from E-Lance), and purely working for game development from my first day. So you can say I am master in this category with 9+ years of experience only from upwork and overall I have 12+ years of work experience in same area, even I could not get any of single job/project with the budget of $15k. Means I am not a Top 1% candidate as per upwork’s current system??? I am sure there will be few more high experienced freelancers like me, but they are struggling for getting high budget job because they had outed from current system. So, to save highly experienced freelancers career, today I am just trying to explore reality. I hope Upwork will understand my point and take the strong step immediately.

 

 

SUGGESTIONS: For the “Top Rated Plus” category, the long contract criteria should be reduced from $15k to $10k for individual freelancer, and from $30k to $25k for agencies. But if or if they has below specific terms:

 

A) For Individual freelancer
———————————————
√ Upwork experience 7+ years (E-lance experience should not be consider)
√ Upwork overall earning more than to $75k (E-lance earning should not be consider)

 

B) For Agency
—————————
√ Upwork experience 10 or more years (E-lance experience should not be consider)
√ Upwork overall earning more than to $500k (E-lance earning should not be consider)

petra_r
Community Member

Piush P wrote:

 

SUGGESTIONS: For the “Top Rated Plus” category, the long contract criteria should be reduced from $15k to $10k for individual freelancer, and from $30k to $25k for agencies. But if or if they has below specific terms:

 


 

Funny how people always want to convince Upwork to change their policies in such a way that by complete coincidence just happens to benefit THEM... Extra points for suggesting extra criteria that serve as a disadvantage for their competitors....

NikolaS
Moderator

Hi Piush,

 

Thank you for sharing your feedback and suggestion, I will be sure to share this with our team. Please know that you can find more information about Top Rated Plus in this help article

 

Thank you, 

piyushseem
Community Member

Petra R wrote:

Funny how people always want to convince Upwork to change their policies in such a way that by complete coincidence just happens to benefit THEM... Extra points for suggesting extra criteria that serve as a disadvantage for their competitors....


 

It’s not funny at all, because it’s just your assumption while the truth is I am not here for myself, I am here for those freelancers who are struggling since long time for a big budget job but they could not get the chance because they are not lucky like you guys but they has 2 times much skills and experience even they are suffering and you guys are making your way clean to avoid my points, because there could be minimal competition.

On the other side, I was talking about the specific category (web, mobile and software dev) because the criteria in that category was much higher than yours (3 times more). You can be happy because the standards in your category are quite good but it does not means that you will criticise like above (which is really looking funny).

**Edited for Community Guidelines**