Hi there,
I have been a freelancer on Upwork for over 3 years now, and during all this time, I notice that the quality of the site is deteriorating more and more.
Fist of all, the fake offers posted by scammers several times a day and for months. It took a lot of effort to eradicate some of them, and the response from Upwork's customer service is always the same: click on the flag to report the scam attempts. There are less such posts now, but there is still some work to remove them all.
Then, freelancers who publish their services on the job offers page. I'm so upset when I see this, it's another proof that Upwork doesn't apply any publication restriction, and that anyone can post anything and anywhere on the site, as long as nobody reports the publication.
And finally, the recent change with the new "bet" function when applying for a job.
What the hell is that, but only a way for Upwork to make even more money on our backs.
Have you noticed that on certain offers, some freelancers are ready to bet 60 connects, sometimes even 80, maybe more !!!!
That's insane, and the thought came to me that they can't be real freelancers, but that Upwork pays someone to make those bets just for us, the real freelancers, to bet more, and when we don't have "connects" anymore, we have to buy new ones.
Why do I think that fake profiles are those who do the huge bets ? Because no one is enough stupid to spend so much money just to apply for a job, without knowing if they will be hired or if they will have the chance to get the connects back if the client remembers to click on "refuse the proposal" (which leads to the refund of the connects to the freelancer).
Maybe some newbies on Upwork think that they have to bet so much and that will lead them to get hired. But it's an utopia, or maybe someone had the huge chance to be hired in that way - ONCE. But clients are not idiots and they don't look only at the proposal with the highest bet, they look at least at the first 5 proposals, until they find the candidate they are looking for. That's a real fact !
And those who bet so much, if they are real freelancers, they must keep in mind that they have a real and strong competition among talented freelancers who really fit with some jobs, even within those who don't bet so much. You can't apply for a English-French translation job if your native language is Chinese and you are beginner in English. YOU JUST CAN'T !! So, your huge investment can't lead you to be hired, or maybe you will be hired, but when the client will see that you're not that much good for his job, he will just terminate the contract and will contact another better candidate. That happens to me sometimes, clients contact me after having made a mistake by hiring the highest bet, thinking it's a big talent, and then they are disappointed and go chose someone else who really fit with their requirements.
This bet thing is only a way for Upwok to make more money !! That's the sad reality, and some freelancers think that it's an opportunity for them to get hired if they bet the more, but it's an utopia !!
Something else makes me feel really upset : the clients who don't make an effort by clicking on "refuse the proposal", so the freelancers can be refund with the connects invested in their proposal. For 100 proposals sent, I can count 1% of clients who click on "refuse the proposal". 1%, that is my general statistic for the last 3 years I am active on Upwork.
What the hell is so hard for them to click on this button ? And when their offers are expired, what the hell is so hard for the clients to remove them from the platform, so all the freelancers who sent a proposal are refunded with the invested connects.
Upwork has a lot of work and efforts to do in order to make this platform more truthworthy.
In the recent months it became a real circus where the scammers enjoyed going fishing for naive people, and where the freelancers spend connects on fake offers (connects never refunded) and now have to spend a huge amount of connects if they want their proposals to be placed in the top 5, which is also an utopia.
Personnaly, I never send any proposal when I see that already more than 20 freelancers applied. That's insane, and I can notice that many of those offers which receive more than 20 proposals don't make any interview, the offer keeps posted, receiving even more and more proposals, and the clients don't make any step towards the freelancers.
My final thoughts is that we can still get hired without investing 100 connects per offer, and so I hope that a lot of you will understand that your skills and experience won't never ever replace any high bet. Use your talent to get hired, not the money you not have yet.
I would like to know your thoughts about those points, particularly the "connects" point, but of course, you can freely make your comments and share your opinions about every points I spoke about here.
All the best to all of you 🙂
