Reposting
Post from Julianne G - 2015
Proposals are one of the most critical factors of job awards. But how can you win if you don’t know the rules of the game? Well, I had a teeny tiny job that I needed done, and so I posted a job on UpWork. My first one here. If nothing else, it was certainly an interesting exercise in understanding how things work here, and what the client sees when they read our proposals. For what it’s worth, I thought I’d share for other Elance to UpWork migrants, or any other new person.
1) The job posting process was fairly straightforward and simple. I was forced to choose between the $, $$, and $$$ metric, although I wanted to leave that blank, since I have to put a budget in anyway (the budget is my budget; who am I to say whether that rate is equivalent to an inexperienced or experienced freelancer rate?)
2) During the posting process, I was prompted several times to accept recommendations from UpWork for who I would invite. I declined multiple times. I’d like to invite my own freelancers and am completely unconcerned with who UpWork thinks I should hire. Asking more than once seemed silly.
3) The search feature for providers seemed adequate. I was able to filter by how recently they’ve been active, where they are located, and what their skills are. The search results seemed applicable.
4) I invited about 10 people. The next morning, I was inundated with emails. I received two emails for each applicant. Not sure why this was necessary. A little overkill, perhaps.
5) When I logged into UpWork to view the proposals, the screen showed 6 applicants, with NO OPTION to scroll further, and no option at the bottom to go to the next page of applicants. If I hadn’t looked to see a tiny little number on the top right hand side, I never would have even known there were more proposals than what was showing on the screen. It does not say “page 1 of 2” or anything like that. Just six proposals. But in a box on the right, it shows 13 applicants. It took me a minute or two to figure out how to view all the proposals. This seems super unfair for those who didn’t make the first page. The six that did show up on the first page were on there because they were “recommended” by UpWork (didn’t I already tell them on several occasions that I didn’t want their recommendations?”)
6) What’s really interesting is what shows up on the page where you view all your proposals (or should I say, the 6 that UpWork thought I should see). Providers, when you are writing your proposal, IF you respond to the question “Do you have any questions about this job?” the first line of your answer shows up. That’s it. Even if you entered “No.” (so that's all that would show up) If you didn’t enter anything at all in this box, what shows up is the first line or two of your actual proposal. Now, I don’t know about every client, but if I had 30 applicants, I wouldn’t read the entire proposal for all candidates, or investigate them all (unless I found no suitable candidates). It seems to me that this first line could be your only shot at getting the client’s attention.
7) I looked at a few profiles for the applicants. On the first profile I viewed, there was a popup next to the JSS that said, “Is this helpful?” asking me to click yes or no. This tells me UpWork is not yet sold on the JSS, and is asking clients their opinion on this. For all you JSS haters, there is hope.
😎 Also from this proposal page, there is a little box on the top of each application that lets you remove the applicant from the possible choices for a variety of reasons. The reasons are as follows: “Okay, but not quite right” , “Clearly not qualified”, “Qualified, but too expensive”, “Poor comments in work history”, “Poor quality cover letter”. “Other”, “Report to Upwork...” It says “The freelancer will not be notified. Your feedback helps Upwork improve our freelancer recommendations.” Meaning that clients are now able to influence who UpWork recommends with this feature, without the applicant being notified. (This might be bad news for all you robot bidders.) So the next time you think about answering a proposal just for the heck of it, or repsonding with questions, or responding to an invite to a scam job with a note to the client about how they can't ask for free work or homework, or whatever--don't.
A few other comments. I wish I was clever enough to provide a screen shot (and blur out names) of what the client sees from the page where all the applicants are displayed. Oh well. I'll just explain it. This is what shows up on the list of applicants page, from left to right, top to bottom:
Line 1 a)Profile pic. If they were invited, the profile pic has a “invited” text box below the pic. b) HUGE YELLOW BUTTON that says “Recommended” if UpWork recommended them. This is bigger than anything else on the page. WHY? c) Name. d) Title (Elancers, if you migrated, this is still your tagline unless you changed it!) . e)Button to either shortlist the applicant or kick them to the curb.
Line 2 a) Bid amount (but it took me a while to figure out if this was their normal rate, the bid itself, or what. It’s not labeled, just the amount itself). b) Badge (top rated, rising talent, or nothing). c) Job success percent. d) How many hours they have (this is not good for providers who mainly worked fixed price, which seems silly since I was hiring for a fixed price job), OR “new to UpWork” if they have no hours. e) Location.
Line 3. “Do you have any questions about the job description?”
Line 4: Answer to above
Or if that question wasn’t answered…
Line 3: first line of actual proposal
Line 2: Second line of actual proposal
It occurred to me only when I was a client, and not a provider, that there is no official place to put turnaround time, how long it will take to complete or anything like that. I’m used to Elance requiring this.
A bit about who was recommended of the applicants: I was unable to determine what logic is used to decide who is recommended and who is not. I had “New to UpWork” applicants who were recommended—not even history to calculate a JSS. There were also “Top Rated” providers who were recommended, as well as applicants with an 88% JSS. On the other hand, there were top rated providers with 100% JSS who did not get that “recommended” status, who clearly had the skills listed that I required.
I received one decline from my invites. I could not see anywhere that it said why the invite was declined. I’m not sure this is passed onto the client, and that's too bad.
I realize in retrospect when I received two emails for each proposal, this is incorrect. I received two emails for each recommended applicant. I received one email for all other applicants, unless they messaged me, in which case I had two.
Inviting a provider is the same as asking them to “interview”. Who knew?
In the one decline notification I received, UpWork again suggested three more possible candidates to hire. This seems like a desperate attempt to ensure each client finds a suitable provider...
Well, there you have it.
--Juli
