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deborah-ponzio
Community Member

My first job on Upwork - reflecting on feedback

Hello, I am new to this system and on the learning curve. I have plenty of experience and positive client feedback under my belt out of here and approached my first job opportunity here with enthusiasm.

I have a dilemma about feedback now. 

As a start, I accepted a small fixed price job that the client believed would be sorted out in one hour. I knew that it might not be the case since the start, but I accepted the deal anyway as reviews on the client are mostly excellent (except a couple) and I didn't mind spending more time to complete it without being paid more hours.

The challenge was: obtaining detailed and personalised information from a complex local organisation heavily impacted by COVID19. I cannot be more specific for the sake of confidentiality. The hiring process was quick and smooth and the client seemed a nice person via messages (we never interacted directly out of Upwork even after the contract signing so I just rely on messages for my impression). 

I put myself to work and updated the client regularly. I produced two reports on findings, including all the information that I collected via several phone calls, hanging on the phone for hours and being treated like a ping ping ball from one number to the other by people busy and in a hurry and reluctant to listen and accommodate my request. .They are prioritising COVID19 right now, but such organisation would be a challenge even during normal times. 

I eventually secured the email of a key contact who has been given to me as the only one who could answer the questions posed and can only be contacted via email, obviously in his local language as a start. It was clarified to me that nobody would answer such questions by telephone as they involved too much responsibility and detailed knowledge.  

I delivered the findings ahead of time and with clear instructions on next steps. 

The client stayed silent for about 36 hours and I left him/her alone to avoid over-communication. 

Even if under a fixed-budget I was not obliged to, I filled the work diary both with manual time and via the upwork desktop app (which I installed after starting the work). I did this for the sake of transparency so that client could access all details of what went on. I did not ask for any extra hours to be paid at any stage. 

After about 36 hours of silence, the client popped up last night suggesting that my findings required further correspondence via email and asked  if I could carry it out.

I confirmed that I would be happy to, however, having already spent a longer time then contracted on this task, I asked if he/she was okay with starting a new contract for this new piece of work. 

Client's response was: "I understand Deborah, but my initial question was to understand if we can send the documents in English or not. That's fine, I will find another solution! Thanks for your help on this job!"

A few seconds later, the client approved the milestone and ended the contract without any further comment.

I had already answered such question before and I answered again after this message: the documents had to be sent via email in Italian and, by following up, we would eventually find out if our key contact could also correspond in English.

I was a bit stunned and disappointed and after a short while I sent a thank you message for closing the contract, wrote that I had suggested a solution and that I would be happy to assist further. 

Soon after I received an email from the system encouraging me to provide my feedback to client if I wished to see his/her feedback. I haven't yet posted any feedback.

I feel a bit emotional and disappointed right now and would appreciate insights and suggestions on what to do. Thanks for bearing with my long message.

 

ACCEPTED SOLUTION


Deborah P wrote:

Thanks for coming back and yes, maybe there's too much tension in me re. this first job.

I am concerned to find an unfair feedback that could tarnish my reputation here. I am thinking through the best words for my feedback. I was so happy for my first job here and ended up with an headache. 


His feedback will appear on your profile no matter if you provide one or not, so it looks better if you do it, IMO. You don't need to write a text, you can just rate stars, if you prefer. 

View solution in original post

16 REPLIES 16
martina_plaschka
Community Member

I see it's your first contract and you worry about every little thing. That is not necessary. You provided too much work for too little pay as a start, and the client ended the contract when you declined to proceed like this. 

I see not much wrong with any of the things any of you did. Just do the feedback thing, be honest but professional, but don't mention he ended the contract when you just wanted to negotiate. It's perfectly within his rights to do so. He might not be the most polite client, but we've heard worse. 

Thanks for coming back and yes, maybe there's too much tension in me re. this first job.

I am concerned to find an unfair feedback that could tarnish my reputation here. I am thinking through the best words for my feedback. I was so happy for my first job here and ended up with an headache. 


Deborah P wrote:

Thanks for coming back and yes, maybe there's too much tension in me re. this first job.

I am concerned to find an unfair feedback that could tarnish my reputation here. I am thinking through the best words for my feedback. I was so happy for my first job here and ended up with an headache. 


His feedback will appear on your profile no matter if you provide one or not, so it looks better if you do it, IMO. You don't need to write a text, you can just rate stars, if you prefer. 

Makes a lot of sense, thank you very much. I am thinking on the right and concise wording for my feedback and, if nothing suits me, I will just rate with stars.

You might want to wait until the last possible minute before giving your feedback, though, so you can try to land another job first.

Thank you, I have already shared my feedback at this point as I wanted to remove this issue from my mind and look ahead. I have not seen the client feeback anywhere yet and there is a chance that no feedback was given at all. I will continue monitoring it and see how it goes.


Deborah P wrote:

Thank you, I have already shared my feedback at this point as I wanted to remove this issue from my mind and look ahead. I have not seen the client feeback anywhere yet and there is a chance that no feedback was given at all. I will continue monitoring it and see how it goes.


No, if the client ended the contract there is no way he didn't give feedback. 

Thnak you, I will look again and do a better search then. I am curious. 

Gosh! I got 5 stars, no comments. Sigh of relief. 

Thanks to you all for your kind support. 😉


Deborah P wrote:

Gosh! I got 5 stars, no comments. Sigh of relief. 

Thanks to you all for your kind support. 😉


Girl, I knew you were too worried about this thing from the start.

Happy to say that you are right. Thanks for sharing your time with me and have a great day 😉

Don't let them get you down... Getting started on UpWork can be tough, I think all of us have been at some point concerned that one bad apple might tarnish our reputation here and stop us from being successful users of the platform, but don't worry, it gets better with time!

 

I see nothing wrong in the way you proceeded, sometimes clients just stop being interested in putting the time or money it takes to get the best results. It's OK, just let them go in peace! Also, make sure to fill in honest, professional feedback. I can tell by the way you express yourself that you won't be one to do this, but I've seen some terrible rants left by freelancers that speak worse of them than of the clients! I would, as it has been suggested, wait until the last moment to fill in the feedback, as there is a possibility that you will receive less-than-ideal feedback, not that it's fair but that's the way it is. For what it's worth, I always check the scores a potential client has given to previous freelancers, if they seem extra-picky it's a no-no for me, but it's also true that once you complete a few more jobs it won't really matter all that much what one client has to say... Patience and perseverance!

Dear Kevin, thank you very much for your kind words of encouragement!

I have submitted my feedback already, I could not stand this lingering in my mind any longer. I have chosen the most rational and calm words that I could - I am not a native English speaker so it takes more thinking for me - just focusing on my gratitude for my first job here, my efforts to delivery best results and challenges that I faced and that I would have appreciated a more explicit recognition of my running the extra mile. Let's see how it goes, I hope for the best. After all, those who may take the time to look at my profile would realise that I would not have retained certain jobs for so many years if I was unprofessional. Have a good day 😉


Deborah P wrote:

Dear Kevin, thank you very much for your kind words of encouragement!

I have submitted my feedback already, I could not stand this lingering in my mind any longer. I have chosen the most rational and calm words that I could - I am not a native English speaker so it takes more thinking for me - just focusing on my gratitude for my first job here, my efforts to delivery best results and challenges that I faced and that I would have appreciated a more explicit recognition of my running the extra mile. Let's see how it goes, I hope for the best. After all, those who may take the time to look at my profile would realise that I would not have retained certain jobs for so many years if I was unprofessional. Have a good day 😉


This tension is too much! Go to your profile, refresh (change something like your availabilty) and you will see the feedback. And then you need to tell me what he said!

Hey,

I have completed my first hourly job and I have got money in my account also, the job went very well and the Client was happy with the result also, but one thing is bothering me, how will I get feedback, whenever I go to feedback section, it shows - This contract is not yet eligible for feedback.

When will I get my feedback?

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Noorien,

 

The person who closes the contract will be prompted to leave feedback on the contract right away. The other party will also be notified and asked to provide their feedback. 

 

We recommend the freelancer to let the client close the contract because in this case the client will be prompted to provide feedback for sure. If the client doesn't reply to the requests to close the contract, the freelancer can close it.

 

Thank you!

~ Bojan
Upwork
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