Adding to the list of problems with potential clients

[a_lipsey]

I'm not really in need of advice. I know how I will deal with situation, and I feel like lost connects, to an extent, are just a fact of life. It sucks, but I'm over it. 

I would like to raise again this issue to UpWork about clients who post jobs when they are actually not even ready to hire, don't even know what their project is, and they are seeking "information." 

Honestly, I wish just like there were categories for novice, intermediate, and expert freelancers that you had the same categories for clients and their project/work. Are they an expert in that area? Or is it new territory for them? I don't mind taking on novice clients, but their projects can often require a lot more handholding and teaching, whereas with my "expert" clients, they give me the assignment and I go. In the grant writing field I see a lot of clients who are doing new ventures, etc., and not only do they not have any experience with grant writing or fundraising (and many of them have worked with grant writers before or done fundraising and understand what they have to do on their end), but they are actually really new to the kind of project they are doing. They want me to write a grant proposal, but they actually need strategic planning built into the grant writing process. This is fine, but it's a different scope of work and is a different time investment and different kind of time investment. Novice clients like this require many, many phone conversations where I'm either advising or walking the client through the process of building their program or project. 

Job descriptions are so vague it's impossible to know who actually has a viable project before I even apply to the job (and therefore it's a viable job) or who has some completeley unfeasible idea that is not even eligible to seek a grant. And as I have posted elsewhere, per the GPA's code of ethics, I'm not going to simply write a grant just for the work when there is no hope of the client actually getting it. Not only does it waste the client's time, it actually messes up my grant seeking approval rating. 

So it would be nice and less of a time waster (which means less time not earning and more time earning, meaning more $$$ for UpWork) if they had some way to identify the client or the client's background - like categorizing their years of experience in the field or some other identifier that could help freelancers know more about what kind of project it is, before wasting 6 connects on a job that is just the client seeking information. (And I don't need ideas how to handle the client, I know how I'm dealing with it; I'm just saying that it's not the job description I applied to. So I'm not even sure I'm interested in the job anymore.) 

[abinadab-agbo]

If Upwork does that, you'll still complain the clients aren't honest about their experience, won't you?
Upwork cannot vet the client's purported level of experience.

[colettelewis]

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Abinadab A wrote:
If Upwork does that, you'll still complain the clients aren't honest about their experience, won't you?
Upwork cannot vet the client's purported level of experience.

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_________________________

It could, but it won't. There is a big difference ... 

[abinadab-agbo]

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Nichola L wrote:

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Abinadab A wrote:
If Upwork does that, you'll still complain the clients aren't honest about their experience, won't you?
Upwork cannot vet the client's purported level of experience.

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_________________________

It could, but it won't. There is a big difference ... 

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We're actually saying the same thing lol, Nichola L.

Can't, not in the sense of, theoretically impossible, but in the sense of, restraining factors that make it impracticable.
For instance, they're now retiring tests for freelancers because they don't have resources to continue developing them and keep them up to date for freelancers.
Should we then, be led to believe that they have resources to develop and continuously improve tests for clients? Of course not.

There's a long list of reasons why they wont proceed to rigorously vet clients' experience level. Those are the reasons why they can't.
Admittedly, these two modal verbs can take us round and round circles and land us both the same place 😉

Spoiler

[joansands]

Just think of all the employees who would have to be added to Upwork in order to "vet" all the prospective clients. We would end up paying really big fees to cover all that!

[a_lipsey]

I wasn't suggesting that UpWork vet the clients. I was thinking clients could self identify. I know it's not perfect, and I don't expect perfection, but a little more information on who clients are and what they need would be helpful before wasting connects. It seems like a lot of people think the only thing that will do is one perfect solution. I don't think there is one perfect solution. But there are possibly some implementable ways to make it better than it currently is. 

[lysis10 · Accepted solution]

One issue they have is that clients are hesitant and don't trust them well when they come here. It's easy to force freelancers to ID themselves, because there are plenty of them and it doesn't matter if someone refuses, but for clients it's different. They can legit have money to spend, but they've heard the horror stories of some guy in China that pretended to be in the US and stole money from some sucker. Things like that. So they kinda sorta want to talk to you and mess around and take a look at things to feel comfortable. 

I really hope they don't ever ID clients. I don't even care about half the stuff Freelancers complain about. I know it's frustrating to work on Upwork and some of the stuff makes me rage too, but a lot of it is just part of the game.

[a_lipsey]

True, some people who mislabel themselves either unintentionally or purposefully. But yes, I will offer ideas for ways to make it better. I understand that not all ideas are perfect solutions. There is not one perfect solution for this answer. But have got to be some ways to make it better. I do not understand all this lashing out at simple ideas to help connect the right freelancer to the right client. This is like the first time I've commented on this issue, so I don't know why you're suggesting I've complained about it a lot. I'm trying to think of constructive feedback for UpWork to improve job descriptions from clients. Seems like you want to crucify people for making suggestions at all. 

[abinadab-agbo]

Unfortunately, Amanda, you have radically misinterpreted all of my responses.

So be it.