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lnjeffers0n
Community Member

Upwork Hours vs Fixed Fee Projects

Is there a reason why the hours spent on fixed-fee projects do not count towards your Upwork Hours? This seems to create a detriment to those freelancers whose work is mostly in the form of fixed-fee projects?

 

LaRhonda

10 REPLIES 10
martina_plaschka
Community Member


LaRhonda J wrote:

Is there a reason why the hours spent on fixed-fee projects do not count towards your Upwork Hours? This seems to create a detriment to those freelancers whose work is mostly in the form of fixed-fee projects?

 

LaRhonda


Because hours can only be recorded with the time tracker on hourly projects. I don't think it's detrimental to freelancers, but I would be totally fine with upwork taking out the hour requirement in job postings. 

Thanks for your quick reply.  I think it is a detriment when submitting proposals because a lot of client proposals are selecting the Upwork Hours requirement and despite the fact that a free-lancer has worked multiple fixed fee projects when submitting a proposal, the client is automatically notified that you don't meet this requirement.  This requirement is used as a screening out tool by the client; otherwise, they wouldn't have selected it. 

 

I think the same applies for Job Success Score and Include Rising Talent as well. 


LaRhonda J wrote:

Thanks for your quick reply.  I think it is a detriment when submitting proposals because a lot of client proposals are selecting the Upwork Hours requirement and despite the fact that a free-lancer has worked multiple fixed fee projects when submitting a proposal, the client is automatically notified that you don't meet this requirement.  This requirement is used as a screening out tool by the client; otherwise, they wouldn't have selected it. 

 

I think the same applies for Job Success Score and Include Rising Talent as well. 


Clients can also select by amount earned, and if you hide your earnings, you take yourself out of the running right at the start. Generally speaking, I've never seen the advantage of hiding earnings. 

If you are new to Upwork, all those things still work against you.  I use to be a recruiter so I'm aware of how they use requirements to screen out candidates.  

 

All is just from my perspective. I've been on Upwork now for almost 8 months and I've only landed 1 project that wasn't really in my core practice.  I try to submit at least 3-5 proposals per week and despite the fact that I know I'm qualified (in experience, education, and portfolio pieces) for the projects I'm submitting to, I'm not getting any responses. So I'm just trying to figure out how Upwork really works for new freelancers. 

How to quantify it? 

How long does 1,000 words take, for example? 2 hours? 3 hours? 4? There's no single answer to the question. 

If writing is what you do, you should be able to quantify it based on past writing jobs or projects.  Quantifying your work is quite easy, not to mention there are several tools you can use to estimate time.


LaRhonda J wrote:

If writing is what you do, you should be able to quantify it based on past writing jobs or projects.  Quantifying your work is quite easy, not to mention there are several tools you can use to estimate time.


Nope. 

500 words will sometimes take 45 minutes, it can sometimes take 1 hour and 20 minutes. It depends on the complexity of the job and how much research needs to be done. Articles for new clients also tend to take longer because I need to adjust to their requirements. Plus, some writers are simply just faster or slower than others. There's all sorts of variables that can change how long it takes.

tlsanders
Community Member

There is a simple solution to this, which is that Upwork could change the "at least XX hours" requirement to "at least XX hours or YY fixed price jobs completed".

 

Historically, it hasn't created much of an obstacle, because clients often ignore their own requirements for the right candidate--I've been hired on several jobs where I didn't meet the hours requirement. But, I'm not sure how that plays out now, as I don't know whether those proposals that don't meet the hours requirement are being sorted to the collapsed "other proposals" folder.

And to 2nd what Tiffany said... I am a buyer as well as a freelancer, and I don't pay much attention to these things when hiring. Even JSS is not a deal-breaker if I am suitably impressed. 

alexandernovikov
Community Member

Because how do you count those hours? They are not tracked anywhere.

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