update your profile to win more jobs

Jean S · Jun 3, 2015 01:09:27 PM

After having problems with a fixed price contract I was advised by CS that I should try to take on hourly work rather than fixed price. Unfortunately in my category many of the jobs are fixed price only and not hourly. I found this a little disconcerting to be advised to ignore fixed price contracts.

Douglas Michael M · Jun 28, 2015 10:24:36 AM

@Jean S wrote:
After having problems with a fixed price contract I was advised by CS that I should try to take on hourly work rather than fixed price. Unfortunately in my category many of the jobs are fixed price only and not hourly. I found this a little disconcerting to be advised to ignore fixed price contracts.

*sigh*

How can it be seen as anything but totally inappropriate for Customer Support to advise us on our business models and practices? How can they be allowed, possibly encouraged, to advise in areas that are beyond their remit and quite likely their expertise?

Best to all,

Michael

Abdul R · Jun 3, 2015 08:06:19 PM

Hello valeria,

I am thankful to you for kind consideration to help me. At last I got message that your profile is perfect. I was really worried about it. They also told me that there is bug that was a reason to get reaptedly messsages.

Thank you,

Abdulrazaq

Hadiya U · Jun 28, 2015 07:44:54 AM

Hello am new here I got the same message that I should edit my profile and I have been doing it since but is still showing me the message please I need help on how to get it done the right way. Thanks

Preston H · Jun 28, 2015 10:57:15 AM

Hadiya,

Your profile is definitely not ready to be approved.

Your profile text needs to be completely re-written. Not by you. It needs to be written by a native English speaker. It is too short and is mostly a demonstration of writing mistakes you would make if you worked for a client.

You do not have any portfolio pieces, and you definitely will need them.

You need to remove all references to "article writing", "copy writing", "proof reading" and "English proofreading", as these are not skills you should be offering.

Your photo is cropped TOO closely for a new contractor. Crop it that closely when you have completed at least 5 jobs successfully on Upwork.

You need to do more research about Upwork and you need to carefully read hundreds of examples of job postings and also hundreds of profiles of other contractors who work in the areas you are interested in. You are young! (I envy you your youth.) Don't be in such a hurry. Take some time to learn more about Upwork, compile a portfolio of work you do on your own, and acquire new skills. I hope to see you back here in six months.

Natacha R · Jun 28, 2015 01:38:48 PM

@Preston H wrote:
Hadiya,

Your photo is cropped TOO closely for a new contractor. Crop it that closely when you have completed at least 5 jobs successfully on Upwork.

Why? Please let me know the reason, I'm curious to know why.

Preston H · Jun 28, 2015 02:43:09 PM

Hadiya's photo looks different from the photos of most contractors on Upwork. It strikes me as either unprofessional, lazy or quirky, none of which she can afford to be at this point.

Sharon L · Jun 28, 2015 12:53:42 PM

Hadiya: I would recommend studying English grammar and spelling. Study it like you would have done at school, by taking notes, summarising, memorising, writing practice sentences, writing essays, etc. Once you have got started, estimate how long it will take you to finish the grammar book or dictionary, and allocate time to do your studies every day. This is not something you can do very quickly. Since you classify yourself as an article writer, I would not disencourage you from the article writing jobs, but understand you are competing against quite an experienced group.

Specifically, you need to score at least in the 50 percentile, I would have thought, for each of your tests.

Douglas Michael M · Jun 28, 2015 05:13:11 PM

@Sharon L wrote:
Since you classify yourself as an article writer, I would not disencourage you from the article writing jobs, but understand you are competing against quite an experienced group.

Sharon,

I am not sure why you would not (ahem) discourage the writerly aspirations of someone who posts here with an unpunctuated run-on sentence and gives nary a clue of writing skill in her profile. I see discouragement as kinder, and certainly less presumptuous, than laying out a lesson plan for a provider who might be better off promoting, for example, her Excel skills.

Best,

MIchael

Preston H · Jun 28, 2015 05:25:04 PM

Sharon was being nice. To her credit, Sharon was not minimizing the amount of work Hadiya would need to do in order to become an article writer. If you read between the lines, it is clear that following Sharon's plan will take YEARS.