100% Job Success Score Freelancer About to Give Up on Upwork

[#1]

I'm an Award-Winning, 100% Job Success Score, Top-rated freelancer with more than 10 years on Upwork and I'm seriously thinking of giving up on this platform. 

I used to blame myself for not being able to obtain anything like consistent work.  I used to think hirers just didn't want to pay higher rates for experienced professionals, or that time and Connects wasted on scammers were something I had to just put up with.  No longer.   AI Hire Guides were the last straw. 

AI has assisted clients to churn out identical, generic, vague job descriptions that made it impossible for me to tell if my skills were a match for what clients were looking for.  They also help scammers post fake ads that look exactly the same as real jobs. 

I spent quite a bit of time crafting messages on this forum to bring these problems to Upwork's attention several weeks ago.  I thought I'd made a difference.  Freelancers wouldn't have to guess and gamble their Connects anymore.  The only thing that has really changed is that I now reject those jobs for "Vague Description" rather than risk money on them.

I have absolutely no desire to break Upwork Guidelines.  If a client is dishonest enough to screw over Upwork by asking me to work off-platform, they're probably happy to do the same to me.  Upwork seems to be able to snag those fake client messages the second they post their contact information, but not to refund the Connects I spent for nothing. 

When a recent project ended, I spent three weeks, tons of time, and not a little money dedicatedly scouring Upwork for work.  I got... Nothing.  The only messages I received were from scammers or cheap clients trying to undercut my rates.  I figure if I, with all my 5-star ratings, awards, skills, experience, and badges can't get a decent gig on this platform without wasting TONS of time and money, what chance do new people have?

Upwork, if you want me to stay, PLEASE give me a good reason to.

[#2]

Hi Paula, It is so sad to be reading this as I recently joined Upwork in hopes to start my freelance journey.  I do think that it is really difficult to get a proposal even seen by the clients since you have to be super fast. I hope you get gigs more frequently, do you use other platforms? Maybe publishing your work in Behance can be an option too. Up until now I thought that Upwork was the most decent one to get clients but I'm getting a little discouraged.

[#3]

Me too, I tried many others and they were way worse for my area (PR). Upwork use to be much better than it is now. It seems like things took a dive when they added the boosting, it drove away a lot of quality clients. And now the economy isn't doing so good, the ones that are left seem to not be as willing to spend. Most of the posts I see and messages I get are from cheap or unserious clients.

[#4]

I'm a freelance illustrator and portraitist.  There aren't a lot of other platforms out there that offer what I do and I haven't been impressed with the pay rates of the ones that do.  You're absolutely right about publishing.  What I need to do is stop mucking about with short-term fixes like Upwork and take the hard step to consistently get my work out to publishers and social media.  It's psychologically harder, but I really sick of the timesuck that is this platform.

[#5]

I agree, using Upwork just drains so much time and for nothing. I been focusing my energy on doing PR for myself and building up my own website.

[#6 · Accepted solution]

I use to feel the same way, I thought it was me, but I have done a lot to improve my profile. It really is that the quality of clients here. I applied for about 5 jobs that got viewed and only one actually made a hire. And I have been trying to apply to more jobs where the client has a decent hire rate and paid for somewhat high budget jobs, but the same thing happens.

[#7]

AI has assisted clients to churn out identical, generic, vague job descriptions that made it impossible for me to tell if my skills were a match for what clients were looking for. They also help scammers post fake ads that look exactly the same as real jobs.I spent quite a bit of time crafting messages on this forum to bring these problems to Upwork's attention several weeks ago. I thought I'd made a difference. Freelancers wouldn't have to guess and gamble their Connects anymore. The only thing that has really changed is that I now reject those jobs for "Vague Description" rather than risk money on them.

I've been advocating for a feedback system that allows freelancers to inform clients about the quality of their job descriptions, particularly when they are poorly written or have unclear requirements. See Poor Job Descriptions On Upwork. It's not a perfect system, but I think it will help legitimate clients craft better job descriptions if they're serious about hiring the best talent.

Many freelancers are facing the same challenges as you. The quality of jobs on Upwork has declined over the years and the decline can be attributed to the platform's openness to millions of unqualified freelancers. Almost nothing has been the same since.

[#8]

What is your proposed solution to "unqualified freelancers?" I would think the answer would be that if they don't get any work, that will dissuade them from continuing on in their endeavors. I could be wrong though.

[#9]

The lack of quality job means qualified freelancers aren't getting work either.

Unqualified freelancers are always a problem for freelancing platforms (i.e., poor quality work, decreased client trust, platform oversaturation, etc.) Upwork could restore skills tests and make them more challenging. They could also implement a vetting process for freelancers.

Vetting requires human (not AI) and financial resources, and Upwork doesn't seem interested in doing either.

[#10]

And some clients are asking high quality work in very cheap rate with revision too

[#11]

Prior to June 2022 Upwork had readiness tests which kept out some of the poor quality Freelancers.  But this was intentionally removed so that UW could extract Connects money from these people.  

[#12]

Well said, Paula.  Hayden Brown and her regime have destroyed the platform in pursuit of short-term profit which is obviously not sustainable.  Sloppy AI integration has made hiring less transparent and more convoluted from both Client and Freelancer perspectives.  Both parties are wasting more time and effort than ever.  Quality Clients and Freelancers like yourself are giving up on the platform because of how much more noise UW has thrown in the way of the signal.  

Whenever a Freelancer makes an effort to share constructive feedback with Management it is ignored.

And UW's wasteful $100M advertising spend has emphasized low cost, fast turnaround work which of course attracts even more low quality Clients and low quality Freelancers again, alienating the most profitable Clients and Freelancers.  

[#13]

Definitely not sustainable, why would a freelancer keep spending on connects when they're not seeing any results? The top talent is leaving and from what I see in the amount of people applying, the unskileld ones leave too. It's just a matter of time before they go under if they don't change things. I highly doubt they're making the same boost connect money. Combine that with the 10% service fee and top talent leaving, the profit will surely drop bad.

[#14]

My Stats for 2024:

[#15]

This is straight unacceptable. This is what it's like, this whole year I have been hired twice, not counting 2 others that hired me but never repsonded after doing so.

[#16]

Based on your post, I'd say the model is sustainable, at least more than "we" expected.

I've been hoping for the "saturation point" to be reached for about a year now, but there's no sign that it's happening anytime soon. 

So I'm still thinking that they won't go broke or something like that. Looks like it's very easy for them to switch to any other model when they start seeing something doesn't go right (which we may not see as we don't have the actual data).

To make them reach the saturation point, people need to stop playing along with their games, which didn't happen, every time I said this there are 10 new people coming in and think I'm a negative.

[#17]

They can't just switch to the old model, because the clients will be already gone.

[#18]

Many people both clients and freelancers have left already in the past year, but I still don't see any clues that Upwork is nearing any saturation point.

They do seem to pass some 'flags' that prompted them to run other plans, but the other plans are still about 'milking the users'.

I actually think, if they suddenly just switch to the old model, those old clients and freelancers will return. But why would they do that? Did you know they are having lost for nearly a decade, where the 'changed vision' have finally brought them profitable quarters?

And they definitely don't need to do that, at least now, there are still so many people, old and new, are willing to play their games.

[#19]

Mine is not looking much better.  More interviews but only 3 hires.  So many of these interviews with incredibly cheap clients who couldn't afford anywhere close to my services.  So, no refund on Connects money and time wasted.  

[#20]

Do you have a better option?

I don't think Upwork really cares who stays and who leaves.

[#21]

I heard similar thing from top rated, top rated plus people and they said same that they are not getting actual clients seems like Upwork generated a post that take a connects and earn. I applied on job post after all check 100% hire rate, past good reviews and spend and after applied I seen their hiring rate is 54%, and nowadays I observe too that client spending showing different in app and web difference is more. If all this are bugs and they have to fix it and better to do business with clearity. My jss not changing that much even though I have very good feedback and those are repeated clients I was top rated till Feb and when this connects increase and AI integration come jss not change that much and looks like this is also their business model to make freelancers to keep spending on connects to improve jss. 

but still they can take feedback lots of people are talking in community regarding actual opportunities and actual hire they have to take those feedback from top rated people just like you to improve their platform because those are actual user of platform and have idea about outcomes.

[#22]

Upwork seems to be able to snag those fake client messages the second they post their contact information.

They do?

[#23]

"I have absolutely no desire to break Upwork Guidelines.  If a client is dishonest enough to screw over Upwork by asking me to work off-platform, they're probably happy to do the same to me.  Upwork seems to be able to snag those fake client messages the second they post their contact information, but not to refund the Connects I spent for nothing. "

I feel the very same. I have been strictly on the platform before the contract is started, and that was one of the things that drew me to Upwork. there is integrity at least in the contractual aspect of it. I am not about to ruin any business on here that deviates from the platform. But is it my fault that there are so many scam/spam jobs out there? Yes, it is incumbent upon me to pay attention to the jobs I answer to, I will no longer be answering to vague jobs, and I also plan to make my proposals far more personal. I might even start using made-up works with "quotes" around them to let people know I am now "motivized" to be the mote in the Turing test giving people indicators that there is a human being on the other end of the text response.

[#24]

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