By when I will start getting direct invitations for the projects?

[ashobiz]

Hi, I have good ratings and good JSS. But still i am not getting any direct invitations. When can i expect invitations?

Thank you.

[sjbercot · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure how all the algorithms and stuff works, but it took over a year for me to start getting invitations regularly, with a steadily climbing work history and pretty consistently good JSS. I also know that it ebbs and flows because they reorder the search history so the same freelancers don't come up again and again at the top (please someone correct me if I'm talking out of my you-know-what). So I'll also go through periods where I get several invites in a month and sometimes none. I know some people get many per week; I've never had that.

I always reply to invites, but I DON'T rely on them to stay busy. Many are not work I'm interested in or work I don't actually do. I have landed some great clients through invites, but basically, I just applied to a ton of jobs, anything that I felt I could deliver a great service and paid decently. Invites are great, but they're the (sometimes rotten) cherry on top in my experience.

[ashobiz]

Thanks. 

[sjbercot]

Yw, good luck!

[bizwriterjohn]

Along with my work as a contractor, I have engaged as a hiring client for years upon the Upwork platform. My experience on the side of a hiring client:

- Once the job is posted the hiring client immediately receives a group of recommended contractors.  It is unclear what Big Data mechanisms are engaged to make the selection -- it works fairly well in terms of match to categories and work skills.

- But at the same time, hiring clients are provided a list of 5, 10, 20, 30, at times 40 contractors that match the stated requirements.  They have a system to them, that is the same as open job listings to us.  A long pick list, in essence.

As you noted, invitations are perhaps a cherry on top of the core processes of scanning though category-relevant listings and proposing directly.   For the invitations received, there is basic good news.  You have been chosen from a potential pick list measured in the dozens or more.  How it works out from there -- one never knows until one knows.