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Re: Talent Specialists (AGAIN)
Feb 28, 2018 01:25:24 AM by Vladimir G
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Feb 28, 2018 01:09:09 AM Edited Feb 28, 2018 01:26:31 AM by Vladimir G
The **Edited for Community Guidelines** moment when one of the so-called "Talent Specialists" invites you to a job with your existing (current) client. A job you are ACTIVELY WORKING on...
In my case it wasn't a problem as I was perfectly aware that she is looking for an extra (additional) person but how awkward would it have been had the client been looking to replace me?
So for once the job as such was relevant, but the invite really was entirely inappropriate.
I also saw some client mention that he actually PAID for the talent specialist services... Is that true?
If that is the case, I am mortified, because as a "free" service to clients it was bad enough. If clients now PAY for it, it's horrifying.
Solved! Go to Solution.
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Feb 28, 2018 01:25:24 AM by Vladimir G
Hi Petra,
I'm sorry about the invite you received for a job posted by your current client. Can you please pm me the screenshot of the invite and the job post link, so we can take a look and follow up with the agent if necessary?
Could you please also message me the details of the client you mentioned stated that he was charged for this service, which is free of charge? I'd like to investigate and confirm if the charge they are referring to is possible related to a different process.
I'll also edit out the abbreviation you used in your comment, which is not in line with our Community Guidelines.

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Feb 28, 2018 04:04:11 AM Edited Feb 28, 2018 04:05:55 AM by Charles K
These "talent specialists" are an embarrassment to everyone involved, most especially Upwork. I cannot recall even once having one invite me for any project that I even ended up bidding on. Most of the time it's like they didn't even read the project listing, my profile, or both.
Every time an invite appears in my inbox and then I read the email and see "talent specialist" I just sigh...
Like most things in business, the root cause is likely insufficient funding for the program.
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Feb 28, 2018 04:28:55 AM by Phyllis G
Goran, I realize the standard response is "send us [screenshots/thread links/more details] and we'll look into it." When the issue is troubleshooting an isolated malfunction, that is appropriate. But the situation with the Talent Specialist program has been thoroughly described and is not going to be addressed effectively using engineers' troubleshooting techniques. It's a management problem: the program is poorly conceived, inadequately funded, incompetently run, or some combination thereof.
Frankly, it's ridiculous to expect freelancers to spend their valuable time documenting specific instances of TS gaffes, and anyhow, that will not reliably provide a comprehensive view of what's going wrong. Whoever's charged with investigating the efficacy of the TS program (and someone needs to be, today) needs to go at it from the inside. Look at what the TS's are doing: what messages are they sending, to whom, regarding which job postings? Why are there so many mismatches and outright fumbles?
Believe us when we say it's creating drag on the hull. Maybe a little, maybe a lot, but it's undeniably not helping.
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Feb 28, 2018 04:31:54 AM Edited Feb 28, 2018 04:35:07 AM by Charles K
Everything Phyllis just said. It's not an isolated incident where it's worth PMing. It's the entire program.
Here's how it goes from my end.
1. See "Invitation to interview for..." in my inbox.
2. Reaction: "Cool, possible new client and interesting work."
3. Open email.
4. See talent specialist boilerplate at the top.
5. Sigh.
6. Open the job anyway.
7. Realize it has no relevance to what I do.
8. Waste my time politely declining to the client.
9. Hope that the client doesn't think it was ME who wasted his time by sending him a proposal.
Asking us to write up specific incidents is wasting even more time and effort, and really just kicking the can down the road. A can that's pretty beat up at this point from being kicked a lot.
Instead you could do this:
1. Offer competitive pay for this position.
2. Hire people who actually have a relevant background for this sort of staffing work.
3. Give them adequate training.
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Feb 28, 2018 04:40:47 AM by Phyllis G
@Charles K wrote:Everything Phyllis just said. It's not an isolated incident where it's worth PMing. It's the entire program.
Here's how it goes from my end.
1. See "Invitation to interview for..." in my inbox.
2. Reaction: "Cool, possible new client and interesting work."
3. Open email.
4. See talent specialist boilerplate at the top.
5. Sigh.
6. Open the job anyway.
7. Realize it has no relevance to what I do.
8. Waste my time politely declining to the client.
9. Hope that the client doesn't think it was ME who wasted his time by sending him a proposal.
Asking us to write up specific incidents is wasting even more time and effort, and really just kicking the can down the road. A can that's pretty beat up at this point from being kicked a lot.
Instead you could do this:
1. Offer competitive pay for this position.
2. Hire people who actually have a relevant background for this sort of staffing work.
3. Give them adequate training.
4. Scrap the TS program and invest the resources and attention in platform improvements that would actually help clients and freelancers find good-fit matches, e.g. make skills and categories a little more flexible, improve search filters (so that "SurveyMonkey" and "Survey Monkey" don't bring up two distinct, non-overlapping search results). Also, see Jess C's "Punch List" post in the Coffee Break forum.
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Feb 28, 2018 05:02:24 AM by Goran V
Hi Maria, Phyllis and Charles.
I understand your frustration with this and I can confirm that some of the reports we reviewed and escalated were confirmed as errors on the part of our agent. We take the feedback we're receiving through your reports seriously and that's why we investigate each case in detail, to determine if the invite was sent in error and to identify the root cause. Our team takes appropriate action afterwards and we've updated the procedures the team is using and also conducted additional training.
Please note that each case is escalated directly to our Program Managers and your reports are highly appreciated. We'll continue streamlining our processes in order to ensure freelancers received invites that are matching their skill set.
