Top Rated developer with no work!

[Waqas M]

Hello fellow mates

I have been working successfully on Upwork since the time of oDesk. Things went well in the last 8-9 years. But after coming back from a long term contract (more than a year), I am witnessing it is been extremely hard to get hired again. Most of the time I don't get any response from clients although my profile 100% match to the job criteria.

Is it because there have been too many freelancers? Or has the demand for Senior backend developers faded day by day?

I am just looking for some opinion/advice. 

Thanks in advance

Regards

Waqas **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[Rene K]

I think that Upwork is pretty much saturated with freelancers.

[Waqas M]

Thanks for the prompt response, Rene!

Ya, it looks like the main reason. Some jobs get 50+ proposals in just 30 minutes of posting! How can one stand out in that crowd unless he is 'Taylor Otwell' or 'Evan You' perhaps! But they don't need Upwork I am sure.

I hope the situation will be better after the new pricing model ($0.15 per connect).

Regards

Waqas

[Fedar H]

Great theme!

It seems to me, the more current contracts You have now - than easier to get new ones. I can not prove this, but I have similar problems getting new jobs after 3 month's contract. But I was thinking it's because my section (Architecture) is not very interesting for Upwork. 

And it seems to me, last months there are much less proposals from the clients. I will be happy to be wrong.

Regards,

Fedar

[Rifat AL M]

I dont know if theres a lot of 50+ proposals in your sector but it is a common situation for my mobile applications development sector. But I dont think more freelancers is the only reason on for this rather if you check theres less quality job posting. Even if you get rid of all the new freelancers there will not be less proposals because Advanced experienced people will be there to compete for a quality job. Then the competition will be more extreme. 

I always want UpWork to be freelancers friendly because they are the reason it is the platform it is now. And recently I am not landing on more jobs also and I find lack of job posting in my sector.

[Waqas M]

Hi Rifat

Thanks for the reply. 

I am not looking for the end of the competition at all. Competition always made me a better developer than before.

Your point of low-quality job posting is absolutely valid. When a client has too many freelancers to choose from then he will not bother much about the job quality. He will know there is a long queue awaiting him to see their proposals. But once freelancers will start paying $ for applying to jobs then they will definitely not waste their money on low-quality/low-budget jobs. This will force the client(s) to bring some quality in their job posting and hiring procedure as well. 

Regards

Waqas

[Rene K]

Connects will cost only $0.15 and they'll still give away a bag of free connects to the tons of new people who register daily. Not sure this is gonna to help much.

[Waqas M]

Free connects to new people? That's news for me. As far as I know, every freelancer is going to pay for connects, one way or the other.

[Ajay S]

This is a bad idea. Higher rates keeps a balance for professional service
connected with good clients with real work.

[Ajay S]

True. 20% commission helps poor clients to keep at bay but connects are
going to give tough time in future. we got to be ready soon.