The Struggle is Real: Poor Job Descriptions on Upwork - Making Upwork a Better Working Place

[#1]

Hey fellow freelancers,

I wanted to open a discussion about a common issue many of us face on Upwork: poorly written job descriptions. It's frustrating to spend precious connects on proposals for jobs where the client hasn’t provided enough detail for us to understand the scope of work. Here are some of the main issues I've noticed:

1. Lack of Scope Definition: Many job posts don't clearly outline what the client actually needs. Vague descriptions like "Need help with a website" or "Looking for a writer" and in my chosen field, "Need help with audio" but then no clue about the project's size, specific tasks, or end goals. It leaves us guessing and often leads to a mismatch in expectations.

2. No Examples Provided: Having examples can significantly help freelancers understand the client's vision and standards. Unfortunately, many job posts lack any reference materials or examples, making it difficult to gauge what the client considers quality work.

3. Missing Language Requirements: Especially in projects involving languages, clients often forget to specify which  linguistic skills are required. This omission can lead to misunderstandings and wasted time for both parties. Is it Spanish, English you need? What is it?!

4. Spending Connects on Guesswork: Freelancers are required to spend connects to apply for jobs, and when job descriptions are inadequate, it feels like we're gambling our resources just to find out what the client wants. This system puts the burden on us and can be quite costly over time.

How Can We Address This?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and any strategies you've found effective in dealing with this issue. 

Thank you!

Pedro

[#2]

Pedro,

Many freelancers are frustrated by poor job descriptions; it's one of the biggest complaints about Upwork clients and the jobs they post. I think Upwork believed the integration of generative AI tools like Grammerly would help clients create better job descriptions, but those descriptions are sometimes worse because they lack depth.

Here is what I would do if I were Upwork: I would add a "Pre-Application Feedback" button that allows freelancers to provide feedback on job descriptions. See a graphic below. (Luckily, I have a few graphic design skills; otherwise, this would have taken me forever!)

The idea is, allow freelancers to leave feedback (similar to the Flag as Inappropriate and thumbs down features) where clients can actually see and analyze the feedback.

If I were a client and knew that 100 Top-Rated Plus and Expert-Vetted freelancers labeled my job description as trash, I would change my job description.

[#3]

Yes Clark!
thank you for your reply and solution. Something like that is exactly what we need, alongside with most likely better guidelines for clients to submit their proposals. There should be a way to stop job being posted that do not meet certain criteira, and I think that shouldn't be hard to achieve. A simple checklist would be good to help clients fill the job description properly.

The same goes for jobs that have been hired but they still remain open for everyone to apply for, or jobs that are simply left there because the clients decided to go elsewhere or he found out that it's impossible/expensive.

[#4]

Hi Clark and Pedro,

I definitely understand how poorly written job descriptions can frustrate freelancers or even discourage them from applying in the first place. I can assure you that we've heard this feedback and will ensure that the relevant teams are aware.

Clark, I also greatly appreciate that you've taken the time to even share what implementing this could potentially look like! Your reply is incredibly helpful and I've taken the liberty of sharing this exact post with the broader team. 

[#5]

That's great Luiggi, but the concerning part is this -

I've taken the liberty of sharing this exact post with the broader team. 

It implies that other comments are not shared as written, but perhaps lumped into a group or???

[#6]

Hi Jeanne,

Apologies if it came across that way, Luiggi only meant to let you know that he particularly shared this post with me and the other moderators internally because he thought we would like to see it. And we do, it's awesome!

For Community feedback in general (in which this will be included as well,) I can assure you that we share the verbatim we see here in the Community with other Upwork teams along with links to the specific threads, so they can come and see exactly what you've all been discussing.

I hope that clarifies, thank you for your concern.

[#7]

Thank you for the clarification.

[#8]

Clark makes a good suggestion, but in my case, once I've determined the clients description is vague enough that I cant spend the connects to apply, I move on and never see the job again.  In Clarks scenario, the client "might" use the feedback and change their project details, but how many freelancers are going to revisit the job post after a couple hours, a day, a week, now that the job is burried 5 pages into a search?

[#9]

Good point.

Most of these issues could be solved with additional functionality, but implementing it might be cost-prohibitive for Upwork. For example, when a client so graciously updates their job description based on feedback, all freelancers who submitted feedback could receive an email update. It could still be problematic, but it might be better than what we have now, which is no feedback provided to clients.

But you're right--I think most freelancers see a poorly written job description and just leave.

[#10]

I have to disagree with your last comment. I repeatedly tell freelancers they must have all the skills for a job, and many will apply for anything. There is a mindset, perpetuated by some "gurus" that you just gut your fees, and apply for anything just to get your first job.

However, no matter what tools you give those people, they wouldn't use them and apply anyway.

[#11]

Yeah... I said "most freelancers," but you're right; my statement is inaccurate. Like your response to David below, I was thinking more of the highly qualified freelancers who carefully consider jobs and don't simply apply to anything and everything, and that's not "most" freelancers.

Unfortunately, it appears that most freelancers on Upwork--probably the bulk of the 18-20 million freelancers--is comprised of unqualified, low-skill freelancers who throw money at anything.

[#12]

You carefully consider the job, and most freelancers do not.

[#13]

This would be amazing, and I appreciate your significant effort. Unfortunately, despite what the moderator said, the moderators don't make the decisions, and Upwork management will never allow so much useful and pertinent data. 

[#14]

I hope that's not the case since both parties lose.
If the job description isn't good enough, freelancers do not apply for the job, hence UW misses and opportunity to cash out on connects...

[#15]

I base my comments on observing and using Upwork/Elance/ODesk for years, and reading the community for almost as long. Upwork could easily improve in the ways Clark has suggested.

Unfortunately, freelancers, usually inexperienced and probably not highly-skilled, will apply for any job and throw connects. Despite the experience and advice from excellent freelancers, some people believe the ads, and throw away money until they have none, and no job.

[#16]

That's one of the problems with implementing such a feature. There will always be freelancers throwing Connects at jobs no matter how terrible the job description is.

Even if a client receives feedback from 92% of 120 freelancers that says: Job description is vague or lacks sufficient details. The job doesn't clearly define responsibilities, requirements, or expectations, there will still be clients who think: "Well, I've already received a few proposals, so there must be somebody who thinks my job description is just great!"

[#17]

I agree. I've thought about a feedback function for a while, which is why it took very little time to create the infographic after reading Pedro's post.

Useful, pre-defined feedback is more palatable than the feedback freelancers would really like to leave! I've seen job descriptions where I wanted to say to the client:

"What kind of job description is this? The content I'm reading is ridiculous and a bona fide waste of characters, words and space. My two-year old can string together a better description than this--with wooden alphabet blocks! I suggest you go back to the drawing board and use a different set of crayons next time because the mess you scribbled cannot be deciphered without the universe exploding.

Please do a better job of explaining your requirements and stop wasting people's time!

Thank you."

Probably more effective, but definitely more offensive. LOL

[#18]

Have actually done that once. Okay, maybe more than once.

Resulted in 'client' sending an equally toxic response, swearing to 'report' me, and then blocking my profile . . . all at the same time.

It was kind of funny, but not really worth the time, so - now I just ignore it all.

[#19]

Oh my gosh. I've been wondering why I see so many similar posts that say so much yet absolutely nothing at all. These companies and their "power of AI"....

[#20]

I agree Pedro, the dicaription and locations are vauge and you have to spend connects just to try and get more info. and then the client does not even respond or interview you.

very frustrating and discouraging.

[#21]

My Finance and accounting profession also have issue samiliar. I read content of posting, I don't see mention to Accounting system, detail requirements.... The contents are so concise, short, they make me guess and feel headache to consider using valueable connects to send Proposal with no ensure results of jobs. Do Clients view Proposals? Are they choose and invited interview?

Confuse and uncomfortable every time I read posts. 
I consider and ask myself. Why do they don't permit Freelancers text some messages to have more information to make clear before we decide to use these valuable connects???? 
And I answered myself about that. Answering always No. 

[#22]

It doesn't make sense to spend time, energy, and money sending proposals for these posts, so I don't. That's my strategy.

There aren't that many decent/good job posts in the Voice Talent category anymore and what does come up is as you explain 99% of the time, so Upwork doesn't even bring in enough income to buy me gas for the week. And I don't leave my house much!

It's especially complicated for what I do because more often than not the vertical calls for a believable, natural delivery, so that means I first need to know what voice print they are looking for. But, that information is the least likely to be posted.

Knowing what the brand or who the audience is could help me determine if I'm a match should the vocal requirements be missing, but it's rare to even see that.

And, yes, the scope--length of script, at minimum--is missing a lot of the time.

Then, there's the hourly problem. We work with fixed rates in the industry, yet the way Upwork urges clients to post hourly by telling them it's "popular" and making it the default doesn't do anyone any bit of good in my category. It can take as long as 10x the final recording time to record, edit, and master a project and there are also standard usage licensing considerations.

At least I used to be able to ask clients what they needed for free when I would get the two maximum invitations per month, but that ability has been stripped away, too.

[#23]

Yes--paying to respond to invitations has all but eliminated the opportunity to communicate with clients for free to get a sense of their requirements.

It would really be nice if pre-defined, pre-application feedback statements were tailored to specific jobs. Clients are asked to choose a category, speciality, and skills when creating their jobs. For example, for voice talent jobs, the pre-defined feedback statements could be specific (i.e., voice print, target audience, etc.) with a few generic statements sprinkled in. And other skill categories (e.g., content writing, project management, real estate, graphic design, etc.) would have their own pre-defined feedback statements.

That's a bit much though, and I don't see Upwork implementing a function with that level of detail.

[#24]

Unkowns are probably more profitable!

[#25]

Perhaps a simple button on the job post freelancers can click that would ping the job poster after a certain threshold with "freelancers have requested more information on your job post". 

It's really unfortunate because several of my best clients posted TERRIBLE job descriptions, but because I was invited to apply, I could ask clarifying questions without wasting connects. But those days are gone now, sadly.