The wording of the Program Eligibility section is misleading. It states:
"New freelancers are added to the program once they qualify and meet the criteria below."
Then goes on the enumerate the criteria. Later, it states:
"As a reminder, we look at a variety of factors when determining whether to award Rising Talent status. This includes client feedback, the overall strength of your profile upon submission, including prior experience and skills and your educational background, as well as the opportunities available in the market. Therefore, even new freelancers who have yet to complete any projects on Upwork can be admitted into the Rising Talent program."
This all seems random. How are either the accuracy or strength of my prior education and skills verified? Why should the market opportunities be a factor in deciding whether I, myself, am qualified as a Rising Talent? Does a strong market with many opportunities mean that I should be more likely or less likely to be designated a Rising Talent? Am I being compared to other freelancers in determining my eligibility or am I being judged on my own merits?
I see that Rising Talent is a preference stated in many job postings. So, it must be deemed important to job posters. Taking a look at **Edited for Community Guidelines**, there's a lot of confusion and disappointment from freelancers about how the program eligibility works.
It's easy to tell me to "keep submitting proposals, strengthen your profile, and get good feedback." But, when the criteria seems random, other freelancers express concerns that the badge comes and goes for no apparent reason, and Upwork can't tell me anything specific about what more I can do, the badge and my efforts to achieve it seem frivolous.
As a business owner and marketing professional, I understand the value that the badge should have for both a freelancer and job poster. In its present state, it seems to offer questionable value as a differentiator among freelancers.
Perhaps Upwork can provide statistical evidence of the badge's value. For example, for those job postings whereing a RT preference is stated, what is are the percentages of freelancers chosen with Top Rated, Rising Talent, or neither? Across all markets and skills sets, what percentage of freelancers currently have RT status? Sharing transparent statistics would be reassuring.
Retired Team Member
