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velascocedrick
Community Member

I'm Losing Hope

I know this sounds absurd, I just have to open this up. When I began working and looking for jobs here in Upwork I kept in mind that I just have to be consistent when it comes to seeking for a job that matches my skill set, that there are just a lot of people to compete with and you just got to be your best and show that you are unique.

 

But this past few days, I feel like there is really something wrong that is going on.  Connects aren't free anymore, and some jobs cost like 6 connects that makes it so hard and you just got to look for something that is worth it for your proposal.

 

I feel like this isn't about skills anymore, it's luck. You will see a job post with 20 - 50 proposal sent to the client and all you'll see is that they are sending invites and ignoring the other proposals. That is actually something that looks like freelancers are wasting connects and time to respond to several questions for the proposal.

It would be better if Upwork actually separates clients that are only for invites and clients that are only seeking for proposals. Like what's the point of 20- 50 freelancers sending proposals and trying to get in there just to see that the client sent invites and it's visible there if an invite was answered. What is going on?

Connects aren't free, freelancers like me are actually paying for it and it's just so unfair that you let the client send invites while 20 - 50 freelancers are there in line waiting. This should be two different things.  Clients that are for invites only and clients that aren't and just for proposals. I understand that even if you're invited for a job you still need to send proposals as every freelancer does. Please think about the freelancers who are there waiting just to see that the client was there only for invites. What will happen to those unread proposals? I think that you should also put an option on how many proposals a client can handle so there will be no wasted connects that is actually paid in the first place.


I know the chances of this message getting up there is just 15/85 and I feel lame by just doing this. I can't handle my frustrations anymore and I'm losing hope.  15 proposals and each one cost 6 connects. I'm a loser.

 

Dear universe, please hear me out.

 

 

29 REPLIES 29
lexidh
Community Member

I totally agree with you, they should be able to get the option of only picking freelancers to invite, or put it out to the crowd to apply for. It wastes everyones time, and our money, the way it is now. 

martina_plaschka
Community Member

Job postings that are invite only will never show up in your feed. The jobs you see are therefore from people expecting proposals, and some of them might invite freelancers, or not. If you are invited, you don't need connects. 

Not from the universe, but I hope I could clarify some of your misconceptions. 

I know that if you're invited you do not need connects I totally understand that. There are still clients posting for a job open for freelancer and then there you'll see invites. 

  • Proposals:  20 to 50 (Can you see how many connects are wasted here?)
  • Last viewed by client:  2 days ago
  • Interviewing: 1 (What are the odds that this was from those 20-50 proposals) 
  • Invites sent: 7 - (Be fair for freelancers who pays for connects, if a client wants to send only invites why not go to that option.)
  • Unanswered invites: 3

People are paying connects to send proposals, and there should be a separate option for clients who just send invites that. Not everyone can have an opportunity to be invited but maybe give other freelancers a chance for their proposals to be read. 

And have an option for the clients to set a number of proposals that they can handle, connects aren't free.


Cedrick V wrote:

I know that if you're invited you do not need connects I totally understand that. There are still clients posting for a job open for freelancer and then there you'll see invites. 

  • Proposals:  20 to 50 (Can you see how many connects are wasted here?)
  • Last viewed by client:  2 days ago
  • Interviewing: 1 (What are the odds that this was from those 20-50 proposals) 
  • Invites sent: 7 - (Be fair for freelancers who pays for connects, if a client wants to send only invites why not go to that option.)
  • Unanswered invites: 3

People are paying connects to send proposals, and there should be a separate option for clients who just send invites that. Not everyone can have an opportunity to be invited but maybe give other freelancers a chance for their proposals to be read. 

And have an option for the clients to set a number of proposals that they can handle, connects aren't free.


If you feel that you don't have a chance to land a job when the client has invited freelancers, then don't apply for those. 


If the client sends invites after they have posted the job and you've submitted an application, then it is probably because they don't want to hire you. They are sending invites in hopes of getting better candidates after having given you and other freelancers a chance.

 

 


Martina P wrote:

Job postings that are invite only will never show up in your feed. The jobs you see are therefore from people expecting proposals, and some of them might invite freelancers, or not. If you are invited, you don't need connects. 

Not from the universe, but I hope I could clarify some of your misconceptions. 


This. I usually don't post jobs publicly and just do invite-only. 

Anonymous-User
Not applicable

This topic is being posted over and over and over.

We all have a choice. Stay and see how it works out for us individually for 3 to 6 months, or leave.

Putting all your eggs into one place is a business killer. Diversify your business and ride it out, or find a place that works better for your business.


Cairenn R wrote:
This topic is being posted over and over and over.

 

I'm super confused. You've posted twice in the same thread pointing out that this topic has been posted over and over again. I'm not saying you're wrong--obviously none of us catches every thread--but in 2.5 years on this platform this is the first time I've ever seen someone suggest forcing clients to choose between open bidding and invitations. 

Anonymous-User
Not applicable

Keep your eyes on your own paper, Tiff.
abinadab-agbo
Community Member


Cedrick V wrote:

. This should be two different things.  Clients that are for invites only and clients that aren't and just for proposals. I understand that even if you're invited for a job you still need to send proposals as every freelancer does.

Dear universe, please hear me out.

 

 



Well, here's my suggestion, which builds out of the frustration that gave rise to your suggestion.

The number of invites client has sent should update in real-time. This is not the case presently; it updates after a few hours. Which is not helpful when trying to know which gig is worth your connects and which isn't. But I don't think making invites versus no invites mutually exclusive will be particularly helpful. What if nobody applies to the client's job?

velascocedrick
Community Member

It's just funny how I thought posting this will help me at all.

Really.

It's also funny how you marked your whining as the solution to your own whining 😉 How 'bout that for some comic relief?

 


Cedrick V wrote:

It's just funny how I thought posting this will help me at all.


Venting might help. And knowing that we are all in the same boat... 

Anonymous-User
Not applicable

This isn't FB. And there are 20 other threads of venting when the entire platform has yet to be moved over to the new plan.

It's months away from bugs being worked out.

They are not going to change it. So, the best approach is wait it out and make adjustments as needed.



Cedrick V wrote:

It's just funny how I thought posting this will help me at all.


You're free to post anything you like, but people are also free to disagree with you. As somebody already pointed out, clients already have the option to make their projects invite-only. If they haven't done so, it's because they want to get other bids.

 

It's not impossible to bid on projects and win them even if you're not invited - I've done it lots of times. I'm sorry that you're frustrated, but the information on how many people have been invited and how many freelancers are being interviewed is at the bottom of each project, so if you don't feel that you've got a good chance, you don't need to waste your connects.

 

Well, I'm not quite sure what advice exactly did you expect to get here?

One thing I can recommend, though, is to NOT apply to jobs where already 20 to 50 people placed their bids. It makes no sense. 

Also, truth to be told, not all jobs have a lot of invites.

There are clients that will spam 20-50 invites. Keep away from those too.

 

Also, you can't really fight the Upwork Community Wolf Pack. 

Playing Tetris makes more sense and will lead to less frustration.


undefined:

Also, you can't really fight the Upwork Community Wolf Pack. 

Playing Tetris makes more sense and will lead to less frustration.


Please define "Tetris" and "Wolf Pack".


Abinadab A wrote:

undefined:

Also, you can't really fight the Upwork Community Wolf Pack. 

Playing Tetris makes more sense and will lead to less frustration.


Please define "Tetris" and "Wolf Pack".


My god, man. Never heard of Tetris? Do yourself a favor and find the 90's sensation game that you could spend hours wasting your time after your parents told you to go to bed and couldn't play Duck Hunt anymore.


Abinadab A wrote:

undefined:

Also, you can't really fight the Upwork Community Wolf Pack. 

Playing Tetris makes more sense and will lead to less frustration.


Please define "Tetris" and "Wolf Pack".

 


You are free to use Google or online dictionaries to discover the meaning of 'undefinied' words.

All the best luck.

Who knows, maybe you discover the meaning of some additional undefined words along the way, such as cynicism.

 

tlsanders
Community Member

Newer freelancers seems to spend an awful lot of time imagining patterns and cause and effect and then wanting Upwork to change systems based on their assumptions. That's not the way to make money.

 

I usually invite a few freelancers to every job I post. Nearly always, I end up hiring someone I didn't invite. As a freelancer, I've been hired on jobs where the client was already interviewing multiple people when I submitted my proposal.

versailles
Community Member


Cedrick V wrote:

it's just so unfair that you let the client send invites while 20 - 50 freelancers are there in line waiting.


Whaaaat? I don't post jobs often, but when I do, I want to be able to invite whoever I want even if the job is public. It has happened to me that the proposals I got were meh and that I decided to invite people. If you're not happy with how Upwork works, you're free to stop using it.

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
funkewoe
Community Member

Ah, I don't get it at all.

I totally agree with Cedrick V on this. Excuse my words but all the responses here are off the mark.

I honestly think that Upwork got all this wrong; perhaps they needed to do their homework well, weigh the options before rolling this out. Yes, I understand they want to make the platform better, but then not like this.

 

A lot of people are complaining about this "**bleep**", and so that should tell you the level of frustrations out there. This is what a colleague of mine went through recently;

 

She was on the basic plan and ran out of connects. Saw a job that matched her skills, bought connects, applied for the job with less than 15 proposals submitted by then. Client begun the interview process with her, and asked her to download the Excel files to be worked on and do a trial. Later, she realized the client was interviewing 2 more freelancers. That did not deter her. She went ahead, did the trial and sent the file to the client only to be told by the client that he no longer needed the work done. What about that? She just lost 4 connects out of the 10 she bought, and with money.

 

This is just one of the many frustrations out there.

 

The buttomline is that Upwork is milking us. You charge me when I get paid by clients, and that was increased not long ago. And now this???

 

What is more to all this is that I do not see any improvement in the system; in that I do not see what impacts this system has so far made. I still see more than 50 proposals submitted on jobs, and that perhaps is because it is not everyone who has been moved to the new plan. And if that is the case, then the freelancer who had to buy connects is being disadvantaged; likewise the Pro-freelancer who had to pay $14.99 every month.

 

It's sickening!

Your friend was **Edited for Community Guidelines** to do that free work. Hope she learned her lesson.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

A little education here. A lot of clients who post data entry jobs here on Upwork, and that requires that you work in Excel, would usually ask freelancers to do a trial to be sure they could do the work before awarding contracts. This is a very common phenomenon within the Data Entry, Web research and Excel work circles.

 

A check on your profiles show that  you do not do such work, and I would not blame you for your "ignorance" in that regards. That is what my friend did. The actual job required that the hired freelancer cleanse and merge a total of 80 spreadsheets. As a result, she was asked to do a trial on 2 of the spreadsheets before being awarded the job.

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

Smiley LOL

petra_r
Community Member


Felix S wrote:

 

.....A little education here.

....... I would not blame you for your "ignorance" in that regards. she was asked to do a trial on 2 of ..... the spreadsheets before being awarded the job.

 

 


Wow. Ignorance AND arrogance in one makes such an ugly combo... Pick one, or the other.

 

Such public displays of cluelessness, while calling those who know what they are talking about "ignorant", tend to backfire.

 

Clients asking for free work are breaking the terms of service.

Freelancers who do free work are free to do so, but shouldn't whine about it having chosen to so so.

 

 

kbadeau
Community Member


Felix S wrote:

 

A little education here. A lot of clients who post data entry jobs here on Upwork, and that requires that you work in Excel, would usually ask freelancers to do a trial to be sure they could do the work before awarding contracts. This is a very common phenomenon within the Data Entry, Web research and Excel work circles.

 

A check on your profiles show that  you do not do such work, and I would not blame you for your "ignorance" in that regards. That is what my friend did. The actual job required that the hired freelancer cleanse and merge a total of 80 spreadsheets. As a result, she was asked to do a trial on 2 of the spreadsheets before being awarded the job.

 

 

Smiley LOL


Freelancers have the ability to create contracts and milestones and soon will have the ability to create new milestones in existing contracts... there is no good reason to work for free. You just say "I'm sorry that's a violation of Upwork's TOS. How about $X for the trial? I will be happy to set it up for you."

Felix, what you've just described to us is that your friend ignored Upwork's near-constant warnings against free work and helped the client who requested it violate the TOS, but you think that Upwork should somehow have protected her from her own decision to blatantly disregard the rules?


Tiffany S wrote:

Felix, what you've just described to us is that your friend ignored Upwork's near-constant warnings against free work and helped the client who requested it violate the TOS, but you think that Upwork should somehow have protected her from her own decision to blatantly disregard the rules?


Next he will complain that another client promised to pay him through Paypal, then didn't, and he'll want Upwork to fix it.

 

Reminds me of the girl in another thread who said she always uses Upwork to complete her first project with clients, because she thinks Upwork "deserves" it, but then goes off platform for subsequent work.


Felix S wrote:

This is what a colleague of mine went through recently;

 


What does this have to do with anything? I don't know why your colleague accepted to work for free, but at which point is this Upwork's fault?

 

And speaking of frustration, man, only a tiny fraction of people on Upwork earn money. Yes, many of them earn very well, but the majority earns almost nothing. Like any other, this marketplace is hyper-competitive, it has way more freelancers then clients, way too many of them. It just doesn't work for everyone. Is that what frustrates you?

 

 

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"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless
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