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4fa5ad81
Community Member

Qualifying Experience on UpWork

It would be great if UpWork would allow for equal opportunity to qualify for projects. Instead of requiring that a freelancer have earned a certain amount of money on UpWork, could you ask for project experience or job references? Because I am new to UpWork, I've found myself immediately disqualified from some great projects simply because I have not earned enough (yet) through Upwork. In many cases, I have several years of experience that directly relates to the project. We have to start somewhere on UpWork, so why not let our experience speak for itself?

4 REPLIES 4
petra_r
Community Member


Maggie C wrote:

It would be great if UpWork would allow for equal opportunity to qualify for projects. Instead of requiring that a freelancer have earned a certain amount of money on UpWork,


Upwork require no such thing at all. Clients (!) set preferences, which you are free to ignore. Everyone started from 0. If you feel you are a great fit for a gig, apply anyway.

 


Maggie C wrote:

 We have to start somewhere on UpWork, so why not let our experience speak for itself?


Why don't you? Is anything stopping you?

 


Maggie C wrote:

 I've found myself immediately disqualified from some great projects 


Nope, you never found yourself "disqualified"

 


Maggie C wrote:

It would be great if UpWork would allow for equal opportunity to qualify for projects. 


"Equal opportunity?"

You think the rest of us were somehow born with a hiring history, money earned and jobs under our belts?

We weren't. We started at 0 too. So there's your "equal opportunity" right there.

petra_r
Community Member

sorry weird double post gremlin strikes again.

Back when (IIRC) the experience preference could only be given in hours worked (not amount earned), I landed a job which asked for 500 hours even though I only had about 100 hours. I expect that's not unusual,  though it's the only case I remember from my own experience.

 

Even if there was no built-in feature for clients to express such a preference, there's be nothing to stop them from ignoring proposals from freelancers with less Upwork experience. At least this way you've got a warning that your proposal is liable to be ignored. Whether it's worth applying anyway is a judgement call. 

tlbp
Community Member

Your profile is an excellent place to detail your past experience and qualifications. You can add examples of previous work, client testimonials, and even detail previous employers. There is nothing preventing a new freelancer from demonstrating their skills, it just requires effort. 

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