Phyllis G wrote:
The answer to your question might vary by category. I don't recall that getting the TR badge made a huge difference. It seems to me I picked up momentum as I got more contracts into my history (which of course, correlated with getting the TR badge). I breathed easier once I had the fb removal perk in my pocket. (I consider it a talisman as much as anything else!)
I will say that even after years with the TR badge and establishing some good long-term relationships, I've still encountered dry spells from time to time. A little over a year ago I was wondering whether the halcyon days on UW were over for me. But for most of this calendar year I've had as much as I can handle. (This is not my whole business, I have clients off the platform, too.)
I just checked my numbers. I have been on the platform exactly five years, give or take a week. I have 578 archived proposals, 471 archived interviews and a total of 56 contracts -- some of which actually contained several projects.
It's definitely a long game and it can feel like a grind. I got very efficient with proposals -- every one is written specifically for a job post but I rarely spend as long as 10 minutes on one and more often it's five minutes or less. I am not trying to get them to hire me, I'm trying to get them to answer me so we can get acquainted and do mutual fact-finding.
Thank you for your reply. That's a pretty successful proposal to interview ratio. I probably get an interview for one out of every nine or ten proposals (but I nearly always get the job once we get talking).
What I notice these days is a lot of people who don't seem to be serious about hiring anyone. I used to follow up on the jobs I applied for, and most of them weren't filled as a result of the ads here on the site.
I think perhaps money earned has a lot to do with being hired too. That figure on the left of the profile means a lot. If people have paid you $10k, you can't be all bad.
I tend to avoid certain types of job where the would-be client rarely follows up and hires anyone. People with ambitious book projects (especially grandiose autobiographic ambitions) seem to be the worst offenders. They often seem to forget all about the idea once they've slept on it.
