Unresponsive and Spam Job Post - frustration overload :P

[milton006]

What in the heck is going on in Upwork? According to my statistics, 40 percent of job postings are unanswered and 20 percent are spam; how can these situations be resolved? A job costs 6 connects, and now the boosted proposal things have arrived; to stay at the front of the pack, you must boost your proposal rapidly. Every five jobs that apply cost an average of 40-45 connects, and there is a smaller chance that your organic proposal will be viewed. But after all of this, things could go smoothly if people get hired, but in the last month, I've submitted 29 proposals, of which only 3 jobs have an active response, meaning clients have hired someone. In the remaining 26 proposals, the clients are unresponsive about hiring, and the majority of them don't even interview the candidates, so either it's a spam job posting or something is wrong. I've spoken with numerous freelancers from various categories, and they all face the same issue. Now it's becoming immensely difficult for freelancers to survive on this platform, as they must pay at every stage: to obtain the active badge, to boost, to apply, as well as even after receiving a job! Actually, does Upwork care about freelancers as opposed to charging money through connections as if it seems to be a money-making scheme? Who is paying for this platform's fuel? Why don't you concentrate on enhancing the primary prospects for both freelancers and clients? Contemporary clients are also losing faith in this platform, which may explain why there are fewer job postings and fewer hires than in the past. Alternatively, clients may have discovered a more cost-effective and trustworthy alternative to Upwork. Instead of changing having a good focus to UI/UX, try to do something that can truly assist freelancers and clients. The search engine is malfunctioning; I used to receive at least 5 to 10 invitations per month, but now I only receive invitations to virtual events from Upwork!:p There was once a time when I was a die-hard fan of this platform, but now everything feels messed up. Feeling extremely frustrated!
Perhaps now is the time to replace your sales and marketing team as well as your engineer. lol

[grendon]

I feel that. For me is the spam jobs that really annoys me. 

Just right now, I bidded for a job, it looked legit, didn't have the typical signs of being a spam/scam job. When All of the sudden I get a message from the "client" that I should contact the "Project  Manager" through a Telegram account, so I ask, why can't we do it from Upwork? No response, guy block me or goes offline, or both. So there, bye bye connects and boost. 

[the-right-writer]

Inform Upwork of the scammer, and they will return your connects.

[pgiambalvo]

Many of us agree with your observations and what you are saying.

[roberty1y]

With regard to boosting proposals, I think that on balance it's not worthwhile. I did it once, having surplus connects. I tried to think of how clients would react.

On the one hand, some might be more likely to open a boosted proposal and end up hiring the freelancer in question. But on the other hand, a lot of them probably treat boosted proposals in the same way as people treat the paid ads that appear at the top of the Google search results page. Many people just automatically ignore them, knowing somebody paid to put them at the top.

I think you're as likely to lose as gain by boosting your proposal.

[pgiambalvo]

I tend to agree with you. But I have boosted a few proposals just see if it made a difference. I can't see that it did. But like you suggested, if I were a client I would ignore the boosted proposals and go right to the unboosted ones first. The only thing I've noticed for certain in winning jobs is being one of the first to apply. Of course that means being glued to my screen all day and checking for new posts that interest me constantly. But for many of us here, I guess a big part of the work we do is looking for work.