How is your proposal is presented to a client if you don't meet the minimum requirements?

[kbadeau]

Like if you're a client, and you have your list of proposals, and the top ones might say "Boosted-this client really wants to work with you" or "BEST MATCH" for the freelancers Upwork thinks are a good fit.

Like if a freelancer doesn't work in the Eastern Time Zone, or doesn't have xx hours of experience on Upwork, that sort of thing... is there any kind of notification on their proposal? Or do we just end up at the bottom of the list of proposals? Or...????

 I usually explain why I'm a good fit anyway (mostly it's that I'm on PST but if I'm at my desk at 6 am what difference does that make in NYC?) But I don't want to waste my time on proposals if it's super unlikely for my proposal to even get viewed because of the way Upwork presents my "lack of required skills" or whatever. TIA!

[williamtcooper]

Kelly,

The main modification that needs to be made in your Profile is that there are too many "In Progress" jobs. In my experience, both clients and the Upwork algo are looking for a number less than 10. It looks like you are too busy to take on new clients, Invites, etc. Also add a Project Catalog. Thanks!

[kbadeau]

Thanks William. That wasn't my question, at all. I've seen you offer that advice to others, and I it's something I've been working on, but in my opinion (and in my experience) it is better to have a bunch of jobs in progress than it is to close all your in progress jobs at once and then end up with a ton of contracts in a row that have no feedback.

So I've been closing out old projects when I close a current contract, so I get a good review to go with every "No Feedback Given" contract.

[williamtcooper]

Kelly,

If that is your strategy, then your Profile will always appear that you are too busy.

You could wait until there are several clients in a row that will give Reviews. Close out all the old Contracts and then then close out newer clients that will give Reviews all within a short period of time. This will place the Reviews on the top and bury the No Feedback items.

Until then, it appears that you are too busy to the Algo and clients.

Yes, it wasn't your question, however the original question is mute until the above is fixed. There are steps to answering the spirit of your question which is you want more leads and new clients or at least that is my interpretation.

[researchediting]

Oh, good heavens, William, if you'd been paying attention, you would know that Kelly, who points out that she has plenty of work, isn't asking for a fix or how to improve anything. Why not read the letter of her posts rather than how you "interpret" their "spirit"? She asked a technical question about how clients are shown results under certain circumstances. If you have no insight into that question, can't you just move on?

[tlsanders]

It seems not.

[tlsanders]

There are a great many successful Upwork freelancers who have a lot more than 10 open jobs and get plenty of invitations, meaning that both the algorithm and clients are smarter than you give them credit for. For the few that aren't...well, a lot of us prefer to work with clients who have at least rudimentary reasoning skills.

[ArjayM]

Hi Kelly,

Submitting proposals doesn't always guarantee that you will get hired or get a chance to be interviewed, but you shouldn't give up on sending proposals to potential clients.

In addition to William's advice, I've also pulled a few resources that may be helpful to you. Check out these articles to help you create a profile that stands out and improve your profile title and overview. For some great tips on writing proposals that win jobs, check out this article.

[kbadeau]

Thanks Arjay. That also does not answer my question in any way, and if you looked at my profile, you would probably see that it seems to be working for me.

[yofazza]

Fun fact 😁

I pasted the entire first post (added "in upwork" at the beginning) to ChatGPT, and it returned the usual long boring answer but more relevant than Arjay's response above. It talks about algo, where they're not disclosed by Upwork, etc., while we see there's no reference to algo in the question.

---

Radia L wrote:

Humans has flaws. You see sometimes there are threads about simple questions that doesn't get a response for days, until a moderator steps-in. Even sometimes some mods responds (paste a canned response) incorrectly.

This question is not simple. But a free-to-use AI can still "select" a "canned response" more carefully than humans.

[tlsanders]

Are these questions answered by a bot now? It seems the responses are always loosely related to a key word or phrase that appears in the post, but in no way related to the actual question asked.

[kbadeau]

PS I am, in fact, too busy to take on new clients, but that might (hopefully) be changing in the near future.

[celgins · Accepted solution]

The way Upwork's platform is behaving these days, your proposal might end up at the bottom of a pile of 50+ proposals even if you boosted it with 100 Connects! 😂

You will probably get a better response to this question if you post it in the Clients Forum (if you haven't already). I don't see things from the client side, so I'm not sure what exactly they see. My guess is, your response does not show any bright red flags if you don't meet all or some of the preferred requirements.

I rarely pay attention to those Required Qualifications like Time Zone, JSS at least 90%, etc. I only pay attention to real deal-breakers like languages I do not speak, locations outside of the U.S., etc. Sometimes, the deal-breakers are written in the title or job summary (i.e., females only, etc.). In those cases, I definitely don't bother.

I have been hired for several jobs where I didn't meet the qualifications and like you, it's probably because I explained in my cover letter why I'm the best fit. However, if anyone with client experience chimes in and says it does show prominently when you don't meet the requirements, I may adjust my approach!

[kbadeau]

Good suggestion to try the client forums, thanks!