Job recommendation

[susvi1]

Over the course of the last week, I have recieved two separate emails suggesting that I apply to a "recipe writing" job that Upwork thinks is a good match for me. I have looked at the job a few times. It turns out that it actually involves rewriting existing recipes. I have a few problems with it.

1. Where do the recipes come from? (Are they plagiarized? I'm not willing to spend connects to find out.)
2. They are asking for 40 cents per recipe. Not worth it. Even if they are just rewrites.
3. Why does Upwork think I am a good fit? I write food articles because I like food, but I don't have a enough of a culinary background to develop more than the most basic recipes.
4. Why does the same recipe proposal show up anew every night

The fact that the same job keeps appearing makes me wonder why it needs to be reposted so often. I don't even know why it bothers me so much. Maybe its because I got two separate emails about it. Maybe recently going through the "send us a sample" scam has made me jaded. Just was wondering what some more experienced Freelancers think.

[aocumen]

Hi Susan, 

I'm not sure about your questions for number 1, and 2, as I am not privy to the client's needs. For question 3, I've shared this to the team so that the job recommendation emails can be improved. 

I wanted to clarify on your fourth question, do you repeatedly receive the job on every job recommendation email? 

[susvi1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Avery,

Thanks for responding. The email was not the typical list of recommendations. I receive (about two different job offers that seemed to be the same person asking for the same exact work) twice. It looked like this:

Dear Susan,   Act fast! This job was posted less than five minutes ago, and we think it’s a good match for you. If you submit a proposal now, you’ll be one of the first candidates. You may even catch the client while they’re still online!       Rewriting cooking recipes Posted Tue, May. 22 - Fixed - Est.Budget: $50.00   Hi, - We're looking for writers for a long-term working relationship to rewrite cooking recipes. We'll give you a set of 365... more   Skills: recipe-writing   Submit a proposal       We’ll continue to send you freshly posted jobs we think are a good match with your profile and work history. Feel free to pursue them or search for more jobs.

Regards, The Upwork team

[tlbp]

(My opinion) Ignore the 'act fast' emails. If you receive an actual invitation to bid from an Upwork Talent Specialist, you'll need to decline just as you would any other invitation to keep your response rate up. But for the generic 'here are some jobs' emails- delete. 

[charles_kozierok]

Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap."

This was written before the Internet. Now 99% would be more accurate.

For the algorithm that sends job recommendations, add another order of magnitude: 99.9%. I mean, I live in the Northeast and do technical editing and data processing mostly, but have received recommendations to apply to jobs requiring full-fledged lawyers admitted to the bar in California. Things that literally have zero overlap with any work I've ever done here and for which I am objectively unqualified.

This site has some wheat and a lot of chaff. You have to be prepared to do some serious winnowing. You may on rare occasions get a good recommendation but 99.9% of the time, just ignore them.

[moonraker]

*Where do the recipes come from? (Are they plagiarized? I'm not willing to spend connects to find out.)*

Plagiarised? They should not be. Rewritten, maybe. A recipe is a recipe. It's not as though you can write a recipe for lasagne with completely different ingredients and methods, that wouldn't be lasagne. A lot of writing is taking information that already exists and re-writing it into something 'original'.  Or maybe they want you to come up with new recipes? You'd have to ask them. 

*They are asking for 40 cents per recipe. Not worth it. Even if they are just rewrites.*
Then don't apply/accept.

*Why does Upwork think I am a good fit? I write food articles because I like food, but I don't have a enough of a culinary background to develop more than the most basic recipes.*
The people that find these 'matches' don't seem to be particularly good at it. 

*Why does the same recipe proposal show up anew every night*
No idea

[susvi1]

Thanks for the insight, Jamie and Charles.

[charles_kozierok]

"The people that find these 'matches' don't seem to be particularly good at it. "

I'm 99.9% (that number again) sure that these are fully automated based on some (very bad) matching algorithm.

Upwork won't even pay people to screen and remove obviously invalid/illegal jobs so I seriously doubt they are going to pay people to send these recommendations. The exception would be the talent specialist recommendations, but they're much less common.