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upworkjim06
Community Member

I am still not getting hired. Can someone check my profile and why I am not getting hired?

I have been with upwork for quite sometime now and have been having a hard time getting hired. I have updated my profile, did research on proposals, gone through threads here in the community and tried multiple ways yet I still an not getting hired. Any tips the community can share? Is my profile up to par or does it need revisions? What else can I do?

11 REPLIES 11
joywriter
Community Member

Hi Jim! 

 

Do you have some examples of proposals that you are sending to your clients so we can check it out?

 

Best,

Hugo

Anyway I can send it to your through email? I'm not really comfortable displaying it here.

Hi Jim!

 

The best would be to share it here so we can all learn and help you!

 

I see that you added a video! That's awesome,  but if I may, I would work on your video a bit more.

 

Here are  few good examples that I looked up when doing some research.

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

The above are not the best examples but you can get some positive elements from each and work on improving your profile video as well.

 

 

 

Here are some tips I can give you for your profile.

-  Since you have no experience at all, try lowering your rate on Upwork to $5 per hour. Clients will start contacting you more. Get some experience and increase your rate as you go. As you build experience, the more clients will be willing to pay more. 

 

 - in your profile you describe yourslef as  a  Customer Service Lead, and then "Moving to freelancing, I am a Virtual Assistant and an online email and chat support with more than 3 years of experience"
I would shorten your profile description and start with talking about your experience as a virtual assistant and how your can service your clients including with customer service.

 

Now, when it comes to your proposal, whenever you are ready, feel free to share some proposal examples here so we can take a look at.  Sharing here on the forum is better than privately.

 

A few tips are:

 

-Make sure your proposal are not very long and boring

-Make them short and sweet, straight to the point

-Make the client feel like you care about the job/project you're applying for  and reassure them that you will be there for them.

- highlight how your skills are suitable and go along with the project that needs to be done/compelted

-Communication is key, so be responsive at all times

 

Can't wait to see your getting some awesome jobs!

 

Best,

Hugo

Thank you for the response Hugo. I have edited my profile and will be editing my video soon.

 

For now, here is a copy of one of my proposals:

 

"Hi,

 

You’re looking for a customer service and this is exactly what I specialize on. Talk about a perfect match! I’ll keep this short and we can go into more details when we chat.

 

This job is something that I am very capable of, as I have been a customer service team manager for more than 7 years, handling multiple associates in one of US' premiere Business Process Outsource company, both in technical and retail and sales. If you need someone hardworking and does the job efficiently, contact me so we can discuss the task you needed to be done."

JS,

 

I would concur with H.R.

 

You may want to revise your profile copy once more.

If you're selling Customer Service/VA effiency, your profile copy is unfortunately very inefficient and the language is a bit awkward.

 

Please be aware also, right now is a very unstable time for many UW FL's and clients so...hang in there!

 

Best of luck to you,

wb



Here's some feedback on your proposal submissions:

 

"You’re looking for a customer service and this is exactly what I specialize on. Talk about a perfect match! I’ll keep this short and we can go into more details when we chat."

 

Remove the above.  You're not keeping it short.  Include only pertinent details customized to the job description and remove unnecessary fluff.  Assume client has 20 seconds to read your submission (if that). 

 

"This job is something that I am very capable of, as I have been a customer service team manager for more than 7 years, handling multiple associates in one of US' premiere Business Process Outsource company, both in technical and retail and sales. If you need someone hardworking and does the job efficiently, contact me so we can discuss the task you needed to be done."

 

If you didn't think you could do the job, you wouldn't apply so remove the first line.  Continue with:  "As a customer service team manager for 7+ years, I've handled multiple associates in one of the US premiere business process outcource company (what is this?) in the technical, retail and sales departments (you do customer service for these departments?)

 

Looking forward to connecting and understanding your business needs better.  

 

Other things to include:

* Your availability

* Questions you have to the client based on the job description

* Attach relevant previous experiences or add reviews from previous employers (you need personal and professional recommendations if you're a newbie on Upwork).  

 

Hope this helps.

 

Good luck!
Robin

Thanks. Great insights. I'll work on my profile and proposals. 

Hi Jim,

 

Robin was awesome rewriting what you were putting out there because what you had at the beginning of this post was full of grammatical errors and poor word choices. I use the Grammarly plugin for the desktop, automatically flags my poor typing and I believe there are advanced features to use the right word. Always look over what you wrote in a proposal a few times and find a way to make it a little better. 

 

I totally disagree to lower your rate to a measly pitiful $5. Show confidence in your experience and put it at least $20 (I have no idea of the rates you would use for your profession, but the idea is to be in the middle range, minus a tad).

 

I thought your sample was excellent in length, humorous opening line, but you need to make sure you are using the right words grammatically ie. "what I specialize on." Would it be "specialize in."?

petra_r
Community Member


Jim G wrote:

 

I totally disagree to lower your rate to a measly pitiful $5. Show confidence in your experience and put it at least $20 (I have no idea of the rates you would use for your profession, but the idea is to be in the middle range, minus a tad).

 


In his combination of niche, background and location, $ 20 is not realistic. You may think $ 5 an hour is "measerly," but in the OPs location, it is acually a whopping 25% above the average hourly rate for a doctor.

 

For $ 20 the client can (and will) get senior level US based native speakers.

In Customer Service for an English speaking market native level English is the be all and end all as far as the ability to ask for higher rates is concerned. The OP does not have that.

Hi All, 

 

Great comments in general.  Specifically regarding price, it can be very tricky and I can't say that either low price strategy or high price strategy are without merit.

 

On the one hand, the price of a product or service is what someone is willing to pay for it.  So, by that thinking it should be totally client-led. 

 

In normal circumstances I would say adjust your price according to how often you're getting work.  If you're not getting hired often enough, lower the price.  If you're getting hired regularly, move the price higher by incriments until you find a reasonable level.

 

The problem is that these don't seem to be normal circumstances.  There are a great number of freelancers who previously enjoyed regular work (in a range of fields and at a range of price points) who now seem to be finding it inexplicably hard to secure projects.

 

It's a head-scratcher for sure.  Hang in there Jim, you're certainly not alone.

And I am one of them!

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