How helpful would it be if Clients noted their industry and/or products/services in their listings?

[purplepony]

IMO it would be very helpful as there are certain industries-products-services I'm more interested in than others.  Some I'm not at all interested in.  As a result, I'm not open to accepting some Invitations and/or applying for certain projects.  I thought there may be others that agree with me.  If so, it'd be of great assistance if Upwork would require Clients to state their industries-product-services in their descriptions.

[wlyonsatl]

Anything that helps freelancers understand a potential clients industry, etc. before submitting a proposal would be helpful.

[purplepony]

I appreciate the agreement, Will, and am hoping others will comment as well which will lead to Upwork requiring Clients to provide that information.

[ArjayM]

Hi Pat,

Thank you for reaching out and raising this query here in the Community. We certainly understand your concern and we truly appreciate you sharing your feedback/suggestions. Please know that we also ask clients series of questions to help make sure the right professionals see their job post as well. One of the great details they could include is scope of the work.

Freelancers will see this description section second, after the title, and it helps them decide if the job fits their expertise. On your end, trying several search combinations and a variety of filters can help you find the projects you're looking for more quickly. Your search results include a “Filter By” menu on the left. You may check this help article for more details.

[purplepony]

Hi Arjay,

Thank you for your response.  Since I've been a successful freelancer on this site (originally on oDesk) for several years, I'm familiar with what you've stated.

My initial suggestion stands.  I sincerely believe it would be of great assistance to both clients and freelancers.  When will you be able to share this with the decision makers? 

All the best,

Pat

[ArjayM]

Hi Pat,

We genuinely appreciate you being valued and loyal members of the platform. Your feedback and suggestions are extremely helpful for us to improve the service. We'll continue sharing your suggestions with the rest of the teams. Rest assured that all relevant teams are working collaboratively to address each of your concerns. We'll also keep this forum posted for updates.

[researchediting]

[withdrawn]

[tlsanders]

You ask clients a series of questions to ensure the right freelancers see the job post, and none of them is "what industry are you in?"?

[ArjayM]

Hi Tiffany,

I agree! The specific industry for the job is really important and will indeed simplify the process. This is why clients can put a "Job Title," which is an overview of what they need and appears as a title on their post. Placing a job title or industry in this section is a good idea because It’s what freelancers will read first. We’ll select the keywords in the title to match with the right professionals.

Please keep these feedback/suggestions coming as the rest of the team reviews them. Thank you!

[tlsanders]

The job title very often provides no such information. For example, I constantly see titles such as "Ghostwriter for non-fiction book" or "Need content writer for my website." 

Very experienced and higher-billing writers tend to be niche specific, which means that many writers who may be the best qualified for the job will bypass it, because they have no idea whether or not it falls within their niche. 

I've seen people complain about the same thing with development--that clients want someone to work on their website but don't mention what it was built in. These can't be the only two fields where this is happening.

[purplepony]

Arjay, FWIW Upwork's matching regarding me has most definitely been sub par.  I know many others that agree with their own personal cases.  As a result, I never rely on Upwork's matching. 

In fact, oftentimes it can be quite entertaining; and I find myself asking "Really? How could they have possibly matched me with that?"  Actually if the algorhythms would be improved, it most probably could be a very useful tool. 

[192218fd]

Hi Pat,

Thank you for bringing this up.

For instance, I know that there are many more vegetarians now than 30 years ago, and I am sure that we would all benefit if we knew that a client is in the fur or meat business before wasting valuable connects on a proposal, plus our and the client’s time. It is certainly unconfortable to have to say ‘no’ to a client that has selected your profile over 50 others (which is also time-consuming for them) when in the interview you discover that they are in a no-no industry for you.

Have a productive day everyone!

[tlsanders]

It would be super useful for me, because I only write for law firms and legal technology companies. I bypass hundreds of jobs that say the client is looking for a ghostwriter for a non-fiction book or content for their website because there's no way of knowing whether it's in my niche.

[celgins]

Pat,

Are you suggesting more details regarding the industry/sector a client is in or a more granular view of a client's industry? I agree it should be required for each job listing and for those the currently list an industry/sector, it would help if it were more specific.

What is confusing to me is that some jobs provide an industry/sector, while other jobs do not. This tells me that clients can choose an industry/sector and it is not required that they do so.

Plus, the industry/sector shown in the "About the client" section of a job doesn't appear to be aligned with the Categories under "Filter By."

Or maybe I'm totally missing Pat's message?

[purplepony]

Clark, I definitely believe it should be required and that evidently it's not.  Also, I believe more details in addition to the basic classification would be of assistance.

[celgins]

I agree.

[purplepony]

Just popping in to give this a bump.  I'd sincerely think that more would be interested in this than have been expressed.