Expert vetted but no longer top rated?

[#1]

So... I just got my brand new Expert Vetted badge - thank you for that, Upwork, it somewhat makes up for the sting of not qualifying for Top Rated Plus (though not entirely). BUT, now my top rated badge is gone. I thought that the new badge would be in addition to the old badge, not replace it? Does this mean that I'll no longer show up in searches when clients are looking for top-rated freelancers? 

[#2]

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Christine A wrote:

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Ahmed A wrote:
Did you find anything became better after receiving the Expert Vetted badge?

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Definitely not. It's still early days and I'm trying to avoid drawing conclusions because this programme has coincided with an increase in competition in my category, but my theory is that "top rated" sounds better than "expert vetted" and that clients don't recognise this designation as being anything special. I still think that both badges should be showing in the profiles of all freelancers who qualify for both.

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In another portal that I will not name, the badges are added and all appear in the profile.
That means that, at a glance, you can see how this freelancer is better than other choices.
And, please Upwork, change the name as already mentioned. Simply "Expert" would be much better.

[#3]

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Maria T wrote:

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Christine A wrote:

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Ahmed A wrote:
Did you find anything became better after receiving the Expert Vetted badge?

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Definitely not. It's still early days and I'm trying to avoid drawing conclusions because this programme has coincided with an increase in competition in my category, but my theory is that "top rated" sounds better than "expert vetted" and that clients don't recognise this designation as being anything special. I still think that both badges should be showing in the profiles of all freelancers who qualify for both.

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In another portal that I will not name, the badges are added and all appear in the profile.

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Yes, I'm pretty sure I'm not asking for something that's impossible to do.

[#4]

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Christine A wrote:

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Ahmed A wrote:
Did you find anything became better after receiving the Expert Vetted badge?

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Definitely not. It's still early days and I'm trying to avoid drawing conclusions because this programme has coincided with an increase in competition in my category, but my theory is that "top rated" sounds better than "expert vetted" and that clients don't recognise this designation as being anything special. I still think that both badges should be showing in the profiles of all freelancers who qualify for both.

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I am also now Top Rated Plus and Expert Vetted. My subjective impression is that invitations have picked up a bit in frequency -- but not noticeably different than the normal, random ebb and flow -- but not in quality. I just tried to put some numbers to that but didn't get far enough to really say. I got TR+ back in the summer and EV around the beginning of September. So I looked at my invitations for the past month. About a dozen, two from talent specialists who congratulated me on being EV, so I guess those were EV oppt'tys. One I applied for (and never heard back) and one was not a fit. Four were from Plus clients, only one of which I accepted (and never heard back). One was from a Talent Specialist (regular flavor, I guess), applied and job subsequently closed. Of the others (invites from non-fancy clients), I accepted one even though his stated hourly budget was slightly below my rate (never heard back) and five I declined (low budgets, poor fits). The thing is, I can't really say how that compares empirically with pre-badge data because it's too tedious to extract. (Unless somebody else has a better way, I go to Notifications and open each one to look at the invitation. Because I've never tracked it myself.)

In any case, I agree with everyone else who's pointed out that Expert Vetted and TR/TR+ are separate achievements with separate, non-overlapping criteria. Therefore, both badges should be visible.

And I'd like to reiterate my plea to change Expert Vetted to Vetted Expert. 

[#5]

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Christine A wrote:

So... I just got my brand new Expert Vetted badge - thank you for that, Upwork, it somewhat makes up for the sting of not qualifying for Top Rated Plus (though not entirely). BUT, now my top rated badge is gone. I thought that the new badge would be in addition to the old badge, not replace it? Does this mean that I'll no longer show up in searches when clients are looking for top-rated freelancers? 

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Looks like Expert Vetted don't have the feedback removal perk, as per current help docs.

Are you still happy with your badge or would you have loved to undo it?

Is it even possible to undo it or are you now Expert Vetted for life?

[#6]

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Abinadab A wrote:

Looks like Expert Vetted don't have the feedback removal perk, as per current help docs.

Are you still happy with your badge or would you have loved to undo it?

Is it even possible to undo it or are you now Expert Vetted for life?

 She is still top rated and still has the perks of top rated. Just because for some bizzare reason Upwork only shows one badge does not mean she lost the perks of the status she earned.

[#7]

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Petra R wrote:

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Abinadab A wrote:

Looks like Expert Vetted don't have the feedback removal perk, as per current help docs.

Are you still happy with your badge or would you have loved to undo it?

Is it even possible to undo it or are you now Expert Vetted for life?

 She is still top rated and still has the perks of top rated. Just because for some bizzare reason Upwork only shows one badge does not mean she lost the perks of the status she earned.

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Petra is correct about the perks. As for the rest of your question, my invitations are still are at low levels - in both quantity and quality - since the badge programme was announced in July. (Can't blame the pandemic either, since business was fantastic from March-June, and has continued to be great with most of my non-Upwork clients.) My theory is still that clients don't know what expert vetted means, so I'm going to keep harping on about the need for both badges to be displayed.

I know that if I were a business or enterprise client and I was looking at the badges of the various freelancers who applied for my job, this is what I would think:

Top rated = Good
Top rated plus = Better than top-rated
Rising talent = Promising newcomer who's eager for work and will therefore give me a bargain price
Expert vetted = Passed some kind of a test and met minimum requirements? Competent? Who knows?

I don't care about shiny badges in and of themselves, but I also think that not having top-rated plus is really hurting me. If Upwork has decided to push the "plus" freelancers at business and enterprise clients and effectively labelled the rest of us as "unable to handle big projects" then this would (at least partially) explain why I get fewer high-budget invitations now.

[#8]

Any updates on your Expert Vetted successes? I'm curious since I got invited to the program but haven't decided yet. I agree they should display both TR Plus and EV badges... There was a table somewhere that showed only Enterprise clients can see your EV badge or something, all non-Enterprise clients don't see any badges if you are EV.

[#9]

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Tom Z wrote:

 all non-Enterprise clients don't see any badges if you are EV.

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Not true. They see whatever "normal" badge you have (if you have one) as usual. So Rising Talent or Top Rated.

[#10]

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Petra R wrote:

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Tom Z wrote:

 all non-Enterprise clients don't see any badges if you are EV.

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Not true. They see whatever "normal" badge you have (if you have one) as usual. So Rising Talent or Top Rated.

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That's correct.

Since qualifying for EV in July last year, I've received two invitations as a direct result (i.e. I got an email saying something like, "Because you're in the EV programme, you're being invited to propose..."). And I didn't get either of these projects. There's no telling how many invitations I may have gotten as an indirect result of having the badge, but overall, it's declined. But it's difficult to draw any conclusions about whether the programme has helped me, because there's also been an explosion in the number of graphic designers on this site (or at least, people who call themselves graphic designers - but I won't get into that right now). I seem to only rotate to the top of the search results about every 7-8 weeks instead of every 4 weeks like last year. Also, Upwork's "% ranked" algorithms are sabotaging my business, because they say that I'm in the top 50% of admin support and writers, and don't rank me at all for the main skills that I actually offer. 😞

I've actually just crossed the $5,000 threshold on one of my projects this week, so I'm finally qualified for the top-rated plus badge. Since Upwork for some reason only lets us have one badge or the other, I wonder if we get to choose which one shows to clients? This is something that I'll have to look into. 

So Tom, your turn - do you find that being TR+ has helped you?

[#11]

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Christine A wrote:

Also, Upwork's "% ranked" algorithms are sabotaging my business, because they say that I'm in the top 50% of admin support and writers, and don't rank me at all for the main skills that I actually offer. 😞

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That's really not cool. And you can be sure they will be ranking some cheats (that have already been caught cheating). 

[#12]

So the EV badge only shows to Enterprise clients? Non-enterprise will still see my TR+? If that's the case then... it's not that bad.

Well, this past year wasn't bad for me, I made about $30,000 less than my best year, but with all the chaos going on in the world I'm thankful.

I didn't notice too much difference in TR and TR+. I still get like 600 invites in a 90 day period, sometimes more.

Edit: how did you get EV before getting TR+?

[#13]

Business and enterprise clients will see your EV badge, and plus clients will see TR+ (at least, I think that's how it works). Clients in the normal marketplace can only see that we're top rated.

And you don't need to be TR+ to get the EV badge; you don't even need to be top rated or have a completely filled out profile. It's based on a portfolio review (or test, depending on the category) and an interview.

[#14]

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Tom Z wrote:

So the EV badge only shows to Enterprise clients? Non-enterprise will still see my TR+? If that's the case then... it's not that bad.

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Here's a chart that explains it. The main difference is that if you get the EV badge, business and enterprise clients will ONLY see that badge - they won't see your TR+ badge any more. That could well end up being a disadvantage; personally, I think that top rated plus sounds better than expert vetted (though I have no data to back that up - it would be interesting to set up a poll somewhere). I don't know whether the "plus" talent specialists will also stop putting you forward to business and enterprise clients, if your plus badge is no longer showing. It's unfortunate that we have to choose one or the other and can't have both badges on our profiles.

[#15]

yea that's the chart I was talking about... I agree, EV sounds a bit more... as you said. I don't know why they would only show the lowest ranking badge to regular clients. I think they should display the highest badge to all clients, and maybe if a regular client wants to contact a higher tier freelancer they'd be prompted to upgrade to Plus/Business/Enterprise.

If I was a regular client coming to Upwork for the first time, and only see the bottom tier contractor profiles, I don't know if I would be convinced to hire...

Did you see any increases in # of enterprise invites?

[#16]

I got interviewed today and got in - very cool guy the EV manager. Anyways, I probably can't share all the details but I can probably share this he did mention that there will be more badges relating to EV coming/in the works. Don't quote me on it though.