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jordonbaade
Community Member

Connects

Can anyone explain to me why connects expire when potential clients, who have made a listing for free, has decided to just not do anything with it and let's it expire?  This is a bulk of proposals I apply to and has been since I started here.  Why am I paying because someone has decided against using Upwork and just decides to make a post and then not do anything with it?

17 REPLIES 17
wlyonsatl
Community Member

Because Upwork has a goal to reduce the average number of freelancer applications clients receive on their new projects, which clients have apparently requested.

 

Increasing the price freelancers pay for the connects they use for proposals is one way Upwork has decided to achieve this goal.

 

Giving connects back to freelancers for any reason reduces freelancers' total cost of connects and does not help Upwork achieve its goal.

I highly doubt the reason is because of clients are requesting less bids on their job post. Think about that for just a moment. If I was seeking someone to fill a position do I want 5 or 500k applicants. Hmmm.... I would say thats a no brainer. 

Not to mention, 5 or 500k doesn't ensure that the candidates are a good fit for the project. Period. So this just reduces the clients chance of finding the right fit and yet more jobs will go unfilled becasue of it. Just my opinion. 


Russell T wrote:

I highly doubt the reason is because of clients are requesting less bids on their job post. Think about that for just a moment. If I was seeking someone to seeking to fill a position do I want 5 or 500k applicants. Hmmm I would say thats a no brainer. 

Not to mention, 5 or 500k doesn't ensure that the candidates are a good fit for the project. Period. So this just reduces the clients chance of finding the right fit and yet more jobs will go unfilled becasue of it. Just my opinion. 


500k is ridiculous, so let's say 5 or 50. If you have ever set out to hire someone on UW, then you know there's a high likelihood of getting at least 50 proposals. In the era of free connects, the vast majority of those would be copy-and-paste junk from totally unqualified people. Making FLs pay for connects is supposed to cut down on that kind of grabage, which was driving quality clients off the platform. It seems to be working to some extent--mileage surely varies across different categories and skill sets.

 

Junk clients are also a problem but a much tougher one to address because the last thing needed is to discourage good clients from using the platform. 

So does that mean there is no concern for driving away good freelancers?  I have a decent profile, not sparkling, but still good.  I feel pretty confident that I'm doing my best to avoid job proposals that don't have a ton of detail, because I want to make sure the client at least seems invested, and I do well to make my initial responses brief but full of any of the pertanent details you'd need to know about working with me, plus I comment on specifics in their proposals so they know that I read it.

I put in real effort, and yet I'm having to pay for people that just don't end up utilizing the service or take it outside Upwork even though they shouldn't.  I have jobs I've done a proposal for in my connect history dating back 21 days with zero interviews, invites, hires, and the client hasn't looked at it in 20 days.

 

Why am I paying for THAT?


Jordon B wrote:

So does that mean there is no concern for driving away good freelancers? 


Not really, no. Good freelancers are a dime a dozen.

I've made near 15 times what you made and had 5x as many contracts, and if I drop off the face of the earth tomorrow nobody will give a **bleep**.

 

We're not all that special. The second we drop dead or walk away, there are 10 or 100 eager to fill our shoes.

 


Jordon B wrote:

 

Why am I paying for THAT?


Feel free not no pay for that.



500k is ridiculous, so let's say 5 or 50. If you have ever set out to hire someone on UW, then you know there's a high likelihood of getting at least 50 proposals. In the era of free connects, the vast majority of those would be copy-and-paste junk from totally unqualified people. Making FLs pay for connects is supposed to cut down on that kind of grabage, which was driving quality clients off the platform. It seems to be working to some extent--mileage surely varies across different categories and skill sets.

 


To be honest 50 applicants is nothing from a hiring perspective. I would regularly have 300+ candidates to vet. Now that being said we did have filtering, key word search and online testing available to bring those numbers into focus. 

 

Not once did we ever charge people looking to apply. As the EEOC is very particular on when and how you can charge application fees and not all states even allow such practice. 



Russell,

 

Clients are lazy, busy, etc. etc.

 

They don't want to have to wade through 50 or more proposals to find the "right" freelancer for each of their projects, which is also the reason Upwork has created the Job Success Score system.

 

Upwork has provided no proof that a freelancer with a JSS of 89 is less capable, less reliable, etc. than a freelancer with a JSS of 90, but a minimum rating of 90 is the default minimum clients will use if they accept that default when creating a new project page. That minimum no doubt allows clients to think they're doing the smart thing by only considering proposals from JSS-above-90 freelancers.

In my prior career I did all the hiring, so I can speak from personal experience. More is always better, there shouldn't even be a discussion on that. Not to mention, clients here have have filters available to make selection easier.

The key piece is if you are going to find the right fit in the 5 that you recieve? Simple math says your odds are not good. 


Russell T wrote:

In my prior career I did all the hiring, so I can speak from personal experience. More is always better, there shouldn't even be a discussion on that. 


 

Try hiring on Upwork, we'll talk after.

 

And sorry, but there will be discussions on that. I don't want to browse through 50 applicants for a gig job. Especially through copy/pasted proposals.

 

 

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless


Rene K wrote:

Russell T wrote:

In my prior career I did all the hiring, so I can speak from personal experience. More is always better, there shouldn't even be a discussion on that. 


 

Try hiring on Upwork, we'll talk after.

 

And sorry, but there will be discussions on that. I don't want to browse through 50 applicants for a gig job. Especially through copy/pasted proposals.

 

 

 

 


To each their own I suppose. 


Russell T wrote:

I highly doubt the reason is because of clients are requesting less bids on their job post. 


Try hiring on Upwork and we'll talk later. I remember times when this was systematic. It's way, way, less the case now.

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

I don't particularly mind paying for the connects to be honest, I'm a fan of the new connect system overall, except where I'm losing connects for applying to proposals and then the client literally does nothing with it after making it.  If they cancel it I get my connects back, why don't I get them back if they effectively cancel it by making no hires and letting the posting expire?  It's not a failure on my part, they didn't just decide to go with someone else, they literally just make the post and then nothing.

 

Seems like just a cash grab to me.  


Russell T wrote:

I highly doubt the reason is because of clients are requesting less bids on their job post. Think about that for just a moment. If I was seeking someone to seeking to fill a position do I want 5 or 500k applicants. Hmmm I would say thats a no brainer. 

Not to mention, 5 or 500k doesn't ensure that the candidates are a good fit for the project. Period. So this just reduces the clients chance of finding the right fit and yet more jobs will go unfilled becasue of it. Just my opinion. 


I notice that you use the hypothetical "If I was seeking" rather than relating experience with this. Of course, everyone has different preferences, but this has been discussed here among people who have hired a lot of freelancers in the past, and there's been pretty much universal agreement that a huge number of proposals is a deterrent to hiring--especially when freelancers are casting wide nets and many of those proposals aren't targeted.


Tiffany S wrote:

Of course, everyone has different preferences, but this has been discussed here among people who have hired a lot of freelancers in the past, and there's been pretty much universal agreement that a huge number of proposals is a deterrent to hiring--especially when freelancers are casting wide nets and many of those proposals aren't targeted.

I don't dispute that excessive proposals can be a deterrent to hiring, but limiting clients to 3 invitations per job is also a deterrent, so there must be other reasons for these changes besides looking out for clients' best interest.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce



I notice that you use the hypothetical "If I was seeking" rather than relating experience with this. Of course, everyone has different preferences, but this has been discussed here among people who have hired a lot of freelancers in the past, and there's been pretty much universal agreement that a huge number of proposals is a deterrent to hiring--especially when freelancers are casting wide nets and many of those proposals aren't targeted.


Sorry Tiffany, I did try and clarify my prior hiring experiences in following posts. That being said, sure. 5 well vetted candidates are great for some that need to fill a position/job. but that is not what UpWork is delivering to clients is it?  The only qualifier is that they paid a buck fifty in connects. That as a employer says nothing. Just far less of a choice of candidates. 

chasb
Community Member

...never mind....

jordonbaade
Community Member

I appreciate all the replies but honestly y'all are just discussing something I'm not really talking about.

 

I understand why connects cost money, and wanting to reduce the number of people just pasting buzzwords to make hiring easier.

 

I do not understand why I am being charged for connects on proposals that have ZERO activity.  Surely they can reduce the number of bids by charging for connects while also refunding those for proposals that see no activity.  Heck even if they only refunded for those with absolutely no activity that would return A LOT of connects to me. 

Basically they are incentivizing taking things off Upwork and then charging the freelancers that follow the rules for it by not returning connects for proposals with no activity or hires.

Charge more for connects for all I care, just don't steal them from me because you haven't figured out how to keep people on your platform.  While they're at it give top freelancers a break and lower fees OFF THE BAT so they can charge clients less and offset the increased cost of connects.

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