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Danish's avatar
Danish M Community Member

Add Portfolio Project to General Profile

I created new "specialized profile". First turn off was I can only create two specialized profiles, so in total I have three profiles. Not a big deal but now I am facing an even bigger issue:

 

I can not add a portfolio item to my general profile. The portfolio I am trying to add doesn't relate to my two specialized profiles and should go to my general profile. But there's no way to do that. 

 

Currently, I see these options on portolio editor:

Capture.PNG

As you can see under specialty, my two specialized profiles are listed. Ideally, if I leave that blank the portfolio should be added to my general profile but I can't leave it blank. 

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Valeria's avatar
Valeria K Community Member

Hi All,

 

Based on the feedback from talent and data collected over time, we are seeing that requiring freelancers to attach Portfolio items with Specialized Profiles creates unnecessary barriers to completing effective profiles. We are making Related Specialized Profiles setting optional when adding portfolio items. We’re first running it as a test but planning to expand it to all talent in the following weeks

~ Valeria
Upwork

View solution in original post

90 REPLIES 90
Virginia's avatar
Virginia F Community Member

The specialized profile issue is a mess, especially regarding portfolios. Do a search on the forums and you'll find quite a few threads/unhappy freelancers, like this one:

 

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Help-My-Specialized-Profile-Ate-My-General-Profile/td-p/...

Avery's avatar
Avery O Community Manager

Hi Rodrigo, 


The screen grab didn't attach to your post. Could you please post it again (making sure that you black out any private information such as username, and/or email address), so that I can look into this and assist you further? 

I'll wait for your message. 


~ Avery
Rodrigo's avatar
Rodrigo F Community Member

Hi, Avery.

 

My bad. Uploaded!

 

Thanks for your reply.

Avery's avatar
Avery O Community Manager

Hi Rodrigo, 

 

Thanks for following up. I'll go ahead and check this with the team and come back here once I have more information. 

ETA: Rodrigo, can you please confirm if you are adding the portfolio item from your General Profile (general profile > Add portfolio), or from a specific specialized profile (Specialized profile > Add portfolio)? 


~ Avery
Rodrigo's avatar
Rodrigo F Community Member

Hi, Avery. I'm doing it from my general profile.

Avery's avatar
Avery O Community Manager

Thanks for confirming, Rodrigo. I'll go ahead and look into it. 


~ Avery
Avery's avatar
Avery O Community Manager

Hi Rodrigo, 

Sorry for the delay as I had to check this with the team. They have confirmed that this is working as designed. Since you only have one Specialized Profile, the option to select a Specialized Profile is disabled. Once the portfolio items are posted, you can go to the Portfolio section of your Specialized Profile and edit this section. From there, you can deselect the portfolio item so that it only shows in the General profile. 

Let me know if you have other questions and I'll be happy to assist you.


~ Avery
Rodrigo's avatar
Rodrigo F Community Member

That worked. Thank you!

Wayne Edward's avatar
Wayne Edward C Community Member

Avery suggested; "Since you only have one Specialized Profile, the option to select a Specialized Profile is disabled. Once the portfolio items are posted, you can go to the Portfolio section of your Specialized Profile and edit this section. From there, you can deselect the portfolio item so that it only shows in the General profile."

 

That suggestion does indeed make my problem project visible only in my general profile, and since I did not make any selections on the drop-down menus on the Add Details page, those Specialized Profile-specific and inappropriate headings did not appear in the public's view of the project.

However, the suggestion does not deal with the core of the problem, which is that on the Add Portfolio Project page I cannot deselect my specialized profile, and I do not have the opportunity to choose my general profile as a selection.  I don't know why the programmers assumed that freelancers would only want to add portfolio projects that relate to specialized profiles, and not to general profiles.  Because of this I cannot change the inappropriate specialized profile heading that is visible to the public on my problem project, and I cannot add any of the appropriate selections on the Add Details page, since the drop-down menus still show the inappropriate headings.

Perhaps I could have added portfolio projects that relate directly to my general profile if I had added them before I added my first Specialized profile, but it seems that it is too late for me to take advantage of that now, unless I delete my specialized profile, or perhaps all of my profile, and start over.

Vladimir's avatar
Vladimir G Community Manager

Hi Wayne,

 

Regarding your question about adding Portfolio items to your general profile, please know that this is working as designed. This is to encourage users to create specialized profiles as this allows freelancers to better customize their skills and experience. You may read more about it here through the announcement post and if you haven't already, consider creating an additional specialized profile to showcase your Voice Talent skills.

~ Vladimir
Upwork
Syeda's avatar
Syeda N Community Member

Hi, Avery.

 

My bad. Uploaded!

i am add portfolio General profile but it`s add the Web Design profile...

 

Thanks for your reply.

Bojan's avatar
Bojan S Community Manager

Hi Syeda,

 

This is by design, you won't be able to upload a new portfolio item without selecting a related Specialized profile. If you don't want a portfolio item to show on a Specialized profile, you can go to that profile's portfolio section, select the pencil icon in the upper right corner and then un-select that item from the list. This will remove that item only from that Specialized profile but not from the General one.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
Syeda's avatar
Syeda N Community Member

Hi Bojan S,

 

Thanks for reply

but i do not have access to any of the related specialized profile category. please check the attached image.

 

Thanks

~ Syeda.

Goran's avatar
Goran V Retired Team Member

Hi Syeda,

 

As Bojan mentioned, this is by design and your portfolio will be added to your specialized profile. Once it's added you can remove it from your specialized profile and it will be listed under your general profile.

If you don't want a portfolio item to show on a Specialized profile, you can go to that profile's portfolio section, select the pencil icon in the upper right corner and then un-select that item from the list. Thank you.

~ Goran
Upwork
Wayne Edward's avatar
Wayne Edward C Community Member

When I first filled out my General Profile I used it to describe my Creative Writing work, but then I decided I would change my main freelance category here to Voice Talent performer, and I made that the thrust of my General Profile.  I now have a Specialized Profile for my Creative Writing work.

 

I first added a portfolio project to my portfolio that related to my creative writing.  Now I want to add a project that relates to my General Profile as a Voice Talent performer, but the first page of the Portfolios editor; the 'Add portfolio project' page, first has a space for the Project Title, then there's a space for Related Specialized Profile that is pre-filled with 'Creative Writing', and I cannot change that to my General Profile.

Then, on the third page; the Add Details Page, under "
Select the specific services and skills you demonstrated while working on this project" it lists the categories: Creative Writing Deliverables, Creative Writing Skills, Writing Genres, and Languages, each with a drop-down menu of appropriate selections, and I cannot change those categories to Voice Talent categories.

 

How do I add a portfolio project that relates to my Voice Talent work?

Bojan's avatar
Bojan S Community Manager

Hi Wayne Edward,

 

Could you please try the suggestion Avery shared above and let us know if it worked?

 

Thank you.

~ Bojan
Upwork
Jordon's avatar
Jordon B Community Member

Let me save you all some time.

This company is getting rid of general profiles.  They are purposely vague and/or are attempting to trick people into utilizing this feature by using language that does not make sense because they want to get rid of general profiles.

 

If a person specializes in a field, they do not then become unable to perfrom general tasks in this field, meaning if you now want a general profile one of the 'specialized' profiles will have to be it, meaning you don't really have 2, you have 1 specialized profile.  The workarounds they give you to put things on your general portfolio are meant to lull you into a sense that this is a temporary thing, rest assured they will eventually force you to these new profiles despite so many people hating them.

 

These are not specialized profiles, they're just new profiles with more limitations than your general profile. AKA - 'You can only target 1-2 very specific things on our platform' profiles, or 'Even though we do a terrible job navigating clients to appropriate categories and your jobs can come from one of many too friggin bad' profiles.

 

You're welcome.

Isabelle Anne's avatar
Isabelle Anne A Community Member


Jordon B wrote:

Let me save you all some time.

This company is getting rid of general profiles.  They are purposely vague and/or are attempting to trick people into utilizing this feature by using language that does not make sense because they want to get rid of general profiles.

 

If a person specializes in a field, they do not then become unable to perfrom general tasks in this field, meaning if you now want a general profile one of the 'specialized' profiles will have to be it, meaning you don't really have 2, you have 1 specialized profile.  The workarounds they give you to put things on your general portfolio are meant to lull you into a sense that this is a temporary thing, rest assured they will eventually force you to these new profiles despite so many people hating them.

 

These are not specialized profiles, they're just new profiles with more limitations than your general profile. AKA - 'You can only target 1-2 very specific things on our platform' profiles, or 'Even though we do a terrible job navigating clients to appropriate categories and your jobs can come from one of many too friggin bad' profiles.

 

You're welcome.


I came to post the same thing, but you put it much more eloquently. They are going to force us into this soon. I really have no idea why Upwork thinks it knows our business & services better than we do.

Vladimir's avatar
Vladimir G Community Manager

Hi Toni and others,

 

I'm merging this thread with the other one discussing the same subject regarding adding Portfolio items to general profiles only, which isn't currently an option. While your feedback is being considered, the process will remain as it is now for the time being. Please refer to the information we shared on the second thread and in the announcement post for more details.

~ Vladimir
Upwork
Chris's avatar
Chris H Community Member

Hi there. I'm trying to figure out how I can change the order of images inside of a portfolio item (NOT change the order of each category of my portfolio).

 

It seems that there used to be some kind of way to move images within a portfolio? But now, it seems that I can only move an entire category, which I don't want.

 

Thank you.

Renante's avatar
Renante V Community Member

I don't see any option to order them.

 

Try uploading according to the sequence you would like them to appear.

Chris's avatar
Chris H Community Member

Right. I was just wondering if there was a way to move them without having to delete them and re-uplaod every time I want to update my portfolio.

Virginia's avatar
Virginia F Community Member


@Chris H wrote:

Hi there. I'm trying to figure out how I can change the order of images inside of a portfolio item (NOT change the order of each category of my portfolio).

 

It seems that there used to be some kind of way to move images within a portfolio? But now, it seems that I can only move an entire category, which I don't want.

 

Thank you.


Click on the up and down arrows on any portfolio item - it will bring up a list (Reorder projects)

of all your files. You can click, hold and drag them in the order you prefer.

 

 

Chris's avatar
Chris H Community Member

That seems to only move the entire portfolio category, right? I'm trying to move individual items within each portfolio item (e.g., book cover images you see after clicking the book cover section).

Virginia's avatar
Virginia F Community Member


@Chris H wrote:

That seems to only move the entire portfolio category, right? I'm trying to move individual items within each portfolio item (e.g., book cover images you see after clicking the book cover section).


I guess I don't get what you're asking. This does move items individually, so that you can place them in the order you want them viewed in your portfolio.