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MichaelJ
Community Manager
Community Manager

Get Profile Feedback from Experienced Freelancers on Upwork

Hi Community!

 

Getting started on Upwork can take a lot of work and focus. To help make this process a little easier, we’ve created this post where you can request feedback on your profile. The Community is full of experienced Upwork freelancers who are passionate about helping others. These users will review your profile and provide feedback based on their experience.

 

If you’re interested in requesting help, make sure your profile visibility is not set to “Private” and then reply below. 

 

We’re excited to see how Community members can continue to help each other to grow!


Cheers,
Mike
ACCEPTED SOLUTION
MichaelJ
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi all,

 

This thread has been closed from further replies due to its size. We appreciate your participation in the Community and welcome you to continue the conversation here.


Cheers,
Mike

View solution in original post

1,163 REPLIES 1,163
lerighi
Community Member

Thank you for this initiative! Can you please review my profile so i can improve it?

 Nice Emojis and Why me section! Im interested in hearing more about your work!

Thank you so much! How can we get in touch to have a chat?

 

Cheers!

Hi Mr.Adam Timur A, I have created my account on upwork long ago but added my profile content and started working this year as now I have experience . Can you please review my profile? 

Kulwinder,

Keep this list going ... ". I can also provide you graphic design work like pamphlets, flyers, photoshopped images."

What else can you provide? You don't want clients to guesss ... maybe you can also do X,Y, or Z. Come right out and tell them.

You can also talk a bit about these options. Use a few superlatives like "eye-openinog pamphlets, colorful flyers, engaging photoshopped images."

This is the time to sell yourself. Don't overdo it, but don't lie down on the job, either.

Also ... take out the word "like." You don't do work "like" pamphlets. You do pamphlets. Be a bit more assertive.

Your work looks great, by the way. Add to your portfolio if you can. People like to see a variety of syles or they like to see that one style that resonates with them, so offer a few more styles that clients can review on your profile page.

Thank you so much for your kind words Mr. Anthony H. I' ll surely work more to improve my profile as you suggested.

Hello Anthony, 
I am far from a typical employee.  If I write myself up as a "Writer" I will miss out on anyone looking for a serious IT person or a serious anything else.  The thing is, I AM good at a wide range of things.   The next two huge problems are that I am 60 years old and a woman !  OMG.   And if that were not bad enough, I have been away from mainstream "serious" IT for more than 10 years.   How would you approach this interesting "problem" ?

Thank you so much for your time.  It's really great to have this kind of help for free.  

Sincerely
Paola


Paola M wrote:

Hello Anthony, 
I am far from a typical employee.  If I write myself up as a "Writer" I will miss out on anyone looking for a serious IT person or a serious anything else.  The thing is, I AM good at a wide range of things.   The next two huge problems are that I am 60 years old and a woman !  OMG.   And if that were not bad enough, I have been away from mainstream "serious" IT for more than 10 years.   How would you approach this interesting "problem" ?

Thank you so much for your time.  It's really great to have this kind of help for free.  

Sincerely
Paola


You are not an employee. That is a completely different mind-set. 

I like your profile, you sound like an interesting person that would be fun to have a cup of coffee with. 

Thing is, that won't get you gigs. Two things: the jack-of-all-trades method of throwing spaghetti on the wall seeing what sticks just don't cut it here. The secret is specialization. Pick what you are best at. 

The second: while it is ok to give the reader an idea who you are, you should make sure you don't talk about yourself only. Which is what you are doing. Yes, a client wants to know the person he will be hiring. But first and foremost, he wants to be sure the freelancer understands the task, is the right person, and will get the job done so that he, the client, can reach his goals. 

So, marketing. The secret is making the profile about you by making it about your client. 

Please lose the age and gender references. It's not appropriate, plus nobody cares. 

Thank you so much Martina for your detailed and excellent response.  I find it incredibly hard to be objective in this process, which is why your input is invaluable to me.  
Kindest regards
P

I would have to debate whether having (and showing off) multiple skill sets is 'detrimental' on Upwork.  It's NOT, especially in the IT field.  I fall into such a category and have used it to my advantage here on Upwork.  You'll see I have a MIXTURE of programming, writing, and project management/BA jobs in my history. There is actually a good 'market' for people on Upwork that actually know IT and can WRITE, not just a generic 'tech writer' that knows the "high level" stuff, but somebody who can write who has actually built networks, software, etc.  IT people can be expensive, and few clients will complain if they can get multiple talents in one person for one price tag.

 

However, the trick is to make wise use of Upwork's 'specialized' profiles. You could have one profile geared toward say, writing jobs and another profile highlighting your deeper technical skills.  You would then choose the appropriate profile to 'submit' with each proposal, depending on the type of job.

 

I also think you're profile is pretty 'empty' currently and needs more CONTENT show-casing your skills.  For instance, I see experience in "IT technician and network engineer" in the intro:  Maybe create a specialized profile where you actually fill in all the skills you have related to network engineering.  

 

As another person in IT, when I see "network engineering" on a profile, I expect to see more specifics: What types of servers? Were these wireless networks? A data center?  Virtual/Cloud?

 

If you go through all the Upwork skills categories on the profile and select all the skills you know well, your profile will naturally start showing up in more searches from clients looking for specific skills.   Usually when clients are searching for IT people, they are very specific about what they are looking for: A specific programming language, specific servers, specific technologies, specific knowledge areas.   A client will rarely post a job for a generic "network engineer", but will look for a "Cisco expert" or "VMWare expert", etc.

 

Also, take the time to fill in your employment history OUTSIDE of Upwork.  It does matter, especially when you are new to Upwork. If you have 18 years of experience, back it up in the employment history.   I hope these tips help

Hello CJ, you had made some comments on a different thread I started the other day. Your comments were really thoughtful and insightful. I would appreciate your time to review my profile and provide some constructive criticism! I had received several other comments that I was in violation of the ToS by providing my website url, which I have since removed. Thank you!

I have a very similar background to CJ and I was just hired for a job doing a WordPress website overhaul and the client told me the reason he had been interested in talking to me was because I had an academic research background. I was hired for one longterm job as an editor and wound up actually also working as lead website developer. I am currently working on jobs writing about art history, developing recipes, and doing web development. Some of the jobs I have had use multiple skillsets, others are very specialized.  I don't actually have separate profiles. I just tailor my cover letter for whatever the position is.

Paola,

Hi. Good to have you on board.

As always, I couldn't agree with Martina more. You need to find your specialty. You bill yourself as IT and a Tech. Writer. There is some overlap there, but I would really advise you choose one or the other. Then, I would say Technical Writer. Using abbreviations tells the costumer that you're a lazy writer and there are some guidebooks that don't accept the word technical written as "tech."

That said, technical writing is a very lucrative field. Technical writers were earning $100 per hour when I was starting out. If it was me, I would hone in on that one. (However, I'm not tech-oriented at all, so don't listen to me.)

See if you can get your headline down to three words or less. "Superb Technichal Writer." Or "Skilled IT Professional." 

Once you choose a speciality, it would seem superflous to mention you're a woman or your age or that you're well traveled. I don't think that hurts you, per se, but I would really mention that in passing. "I'm well traveled" should cover it unless you can connect it to your specialty, such as "I'm well traveled, so I understand cultural nuances that make me a more versatile writer."

The need to specialize has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the marketplace. If you say you can teach piano and bake cookies, there will be 100,000 competitors on Upwork who just teach piano  and they've created efficiencies, priced themselves to scale, and can really claim to be experts. The same goes for bakers. There's so much competition that all the bakers who don't waste their time playing the piano will beat you to every job out there.


Upwork has 17 million members. You have to stick out somehow and you can't to that being a generalist. Here, only experts surive. Friendly, confident, versatile experts ... that's how to make it on Upwork.


A really huge "thank you" for your detailed and excellent response, Anthony.  I find it incredibly hard to be objective in this process, so your input is incredibly helpful.  Kindest regards.   P.

Paola,

You're welcome. You know I thought of another angle to explain this that might resonate -- an insomnia-born insight, if you will. And the point is simply that I always feel more blunt and borish writijng these reviews than I envision myself to be. But here's the thing: Let's say you haven't been involved in serious IT work for ten years and you want to take a stab at it on Upwork. You have every right to do that. But just hypothetically, IT is the kind of field that leaps forward into new advancements every three minutes or so and you're ten years late to the party. But you bravely take on an IT assignment, best of intentions and all that, and it doesn't go so well. OK, life goes on.

But it doesn't go on. What happened is that you took a compromised IT job hoping to get your feet wet and on the other end of the equation is a guy paying for your service out of pocket and he's sore about how things went down. So he writes you a two-star review and posts this on your profile.

Suddenly, the concept of "expert" has a brand new twist to it. You can get absolutely scalded by a bad review. You have to take even more compromised, low-paying gigs not for money but just to get a few five-star reviews that will bury the memory of that first funky two-star review or to get enough successes to get Upwork to strike that two-star review from your profile.

So, when Martina and I say this is sink or swim -- know what you're doing or buyer beware, then you can see where the Internet can turn around and bite you in the butt. 

And, yes, this happened to me. I didn't blow the job, but the client backpeddaled and I held my ground on contract law and the review said, "Thanks for the lesson on kill fees, Anthony," and he gave me a two-star review out of spite. So, being an expert isn't only doing the work right, but being a savvy diplomat, as well. I lost a lot of work with that sh-- review taking up space on my profile. 

So, there's the morality tale for you. I really think -- and this isn't cynacism here -- you can fake it as a technical writer better than you can fake it as an IT technician and every new endeavor takes a combination of chutpah and luck to get the sparks flying. But, then, I'm just one opinion in a galaxy of yellow, blue and red stars. So, this is what writers do: They don't sleep and they get all manic on you the next day. We should all be shot, probably.

Hi Anthony!

I am new here.

I will appreciate it if you comment on my profile so I can effect necessary changes for better positioning.

Thank you!

You're off to a good start, Chinazor!

 

Here are three things you can work on right away:

 

Your rate: While I do see you are entry level in this position, $5 is not even minimum wage. You may find that you attract more potential clients with a slightly higher rate. I know that seems counter-intuitive, but think of it as kind of a "you get what you pay for", mentality. 

 

 

The second is your intro. You've got some good ideas here, but you'll want to turn the professionalism up a notch and turn down some of the casual tones, or it's going to sound more like a dating profile than a work profile. 

 

Include some of your past employment experience right on your profile, instead of in attached documents. This will help ensure that clients are more likely to see it.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

Hi Anthony H.
I'm new here and I would appreciate if you comment on my profile.
Best regards

Hi, Can you review my profile too, it would be great.

Hello, Anthony!

Can you please rate my profile?

I'm having a great experience but want to kick-start at Upwork as well.

Hello! I don't have any clients or experience on Upwork, but I want to give you feedback about your profile. I placed several bids and asked other freelancers questions about Upwork. I also reviewed, for my own sake, several profiles at random, on upwork. In your profile, you indicated too many things you're expert in. This is not the right approach to show too may technologies. I think you should pick one or two or most three things you want to specialize in. Also, You're not telling what you work you actually did. I think you should say something specific what you've done in several sentences on each line. You could look at my profile to get an idea. I picked Excel and Excel VBA b/c I done it a lot in the past. Now, you should state what work you will do in your profile in a few sentences on each line so that clients know what you're offering. Clients want to know how you could help and what work you could really do. For a freelancer, it is very hard to guess b/c each new project will touch on new skills or area of expertise to a certain extent. I think you should specifically say in your profile what your portfolio is about. I can't really tie your portfolio with the experience you're describing.  It will be nice to have github account (free) link if you worked in software development. I hope you find my feedback is helpful. Please feel free to comment. 

 

Hello,

I'll like to jave my profile reviewd. Thanks in anticipation. 

asdf

Plz My Profil Check...

Hi Mr.Adam Timur A.

Can you please review my profile? I am finding it difficult getting jobs on upwork.

Thank you in anticipation.

 

Gabriel,

Just thinking aloud here, Gabriel, but I would get rid of  all the lists and turn it into a friendly narrative. 
You should be able to talk about your skills in a friendly, confident manner. You sound like you know what you're doing in that department.
I think, just starting with your photo, you come across as goofy and young. It's nice to be light-hearted, but people spending money want to hire someone who is serious about their work. Coming across as goofy might not be the best approach.

Hello, Anthony! 

 

Thank you for your honest review. I'll start to improve my profile right away. After i've done it, i'll come back to ask you to look at it again. 

 

Cheers!

Hi Anthony,

 

If you can review my profile and give me feedbacks that would be great.

 

Thanks,

Preeti

Preeti,

Hi. Thanks for the invitation. I hope I'm not too late to help.

 

Advising a lawyer is a bit far fetched, but I see that your rate is very low for legal work. Is there a reason for that? The standard idea is to scout around and look at your rivals, then choose a rate that's somewhere in the middle of the pack.

My quickest concern, however, was trying to understand where your services are applicable. Are you licensed to practice ... everywhere or just in India? Maybe, that's just me, but I'm not sure how that works and you might want to explain that in your write up.

That said, there's nothing particularly wrong with your write up. One standard practice is to point to gains realized by your customers, but I'm not sure how to do that for legal services. It seems the gains are obvious -- you help people set their legal worries aside ... help people to stop worrying ... help people sleep at night. 

On my profile, I cut and pasted a few of my reviews and put then at the top of my write-up. I put the most favorable ones at the top.

You might like to try that. There are some items (your personality, whether you are a team player, things of this nature) where everybody says they are wonderful, kind, hard-working, friendly and it's not very convincing coming from yourself. It's advised for those hard-to-quantify items that you let a third party speak for you, as in "my clients say I'm hard working and easy to get along with" or, even better, quoting a client directly. What I did was use quotes from my reviews. You could do that, too.

You could look at my profile to see how I did it. Notice the first one says "he's a pleasure to work with ..." That's the kind of thing that sounds questionable if you try to claim that yourself. 

 

You sound pretty confident and that's great. Your write up comes off pretty well. It's dignified and confident, just as a lawyer should be. 

 

Finally, you have to get rid of that negative review. It's an eye-sore. There's a way to do that, which is to do X number of jobs within X amount of weeks (call Upwork support for the details) and you get to remove one review from your profile. 

Do a few quick jobs, underpaid if you have to, so you can have enough successes to ask for that review to be removed.  I had a similar blemish in the early going. After X number of jobs, I had it removed. You should do that, too.

Hello Anthony,

Am new here. Kindly review my profile and tell me what you think.

 

Kind regards.

Flourish,

Hi.

Go take a look at a few other digital marketing profiles and take a lot of notes. You could say so much more. Provide details of what you actually do.

I like the idea of imagining a camera filming you at work. What does the camera see? It sees you writing emails and SEO content. It films you doing Zoom conferences to talk to company representatives or company owners. It films you scanning the Internet to see what the competition is doing.

I'm not a digital marketing expert, so I'm only scratching around here, but think of writing a paragraph or two about what you do ... what the camera would see ... and connect that with your customers, as in "I write emails so you can pay attention to other parts of your business." Or: "I write call-to-action emails to encourage visitors to your website to click on the "purchase" button."

Again, I'm this isn't my field, so the details of what you say are up to you.

Good luck.

Hello Anthony, kindly suggest what I should improve on or remove from my upwork profile.

Thanks in anticipation.

Hey Anthony,

 

I'd really appreciate if you can have a look at my profile and share your thoughts!


Much appreciated,

Mohannad

Hello Anthony,

I joined Upwork a few days ago and created my profile according to my expertise. However, I am not getting any offers even after sendng multiple proposals.

 

Could you please take a look at my profile and share your valuable feedback? It would mean a lot!

 

Regards!

Hi Anthony,

 

If you can review my profile and give me feedbacks that would be great.

 

Thanks,

Rasel

Hi Upworker I am working as a freelance video editor since 2017 on Fiverr then I join Upwork I just need your suggestion is it good to mention your Fiverr experience on Upwork Both markets are different need your suggestions 

Also check my profile & suggest me how can I improve my profile

Upwork profile
https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~01cdcd4d919980cfa2

Your suggestion will be highly appreciated

Thanks
Saad 

I think, just starting with your photo, you come across as goofy and young. It's nice to be light-hearted, but people spending money want to hire someone who is serious about their work. Coming across as goofy might not be the best approach.

I'm here with [common-thought] very basic skills of data entry and copy typing. May I have your suggestions, please?

Along with the photo I've given away more than 20 jobs just as samples and free. but still got nothing. 

 

Thank you in advance.

Hi Maqbool,

 

Your profile is private, so I can't comment on that,  but why are you giving away work for free? OK, maybe that would encourage repeat business, but that seems like a tough way to go. 

You do say you are here with very basic skills. Some would say they are too basic. Data entry pays very little because so many people can do it. It will be difficult making a living that way.

I don't know what else to suggest except to look around for other basic skills type work, such as phone support services. Phone support companies do a lot of training and you could learn new skills on your own at the same time. 


Hi Anthony!

Can you review my profile and give me your feedback. 

Thanks 

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