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candacewingfie89
Community Member

Getting work with no "professional" experience

Hello! I am new to Upwork, and I was wondering why people post jobs, and then never hire anyone. Also, as someone who is really skilled at what I do, how do I get jobs without "professional" experience? Do any of you create a piece that is exactly what a potential client wants, send it to him, maybe with a watermark, and then see if he likes it and wants to pay for it? I feel like if I want to prove I can do it, instead of waiting to be hired, I instead "bid" for the job. Kind of like how the site, **Edited for Community Guidelines** works. Anyone have advice for me? Thanks!

ACCEPTED SOLUTION
jenny-medeiros
Community Member

You should definitely give a sample of what the client is asking for, but not the full job. Watermark or not, you shouldn't put yourself at risk of delivering free work. The safest way is to give suggestions or outline how you would go about the job.  The key is to show the client you know what you're talking about and you know how to give them the result they want. 

 

For example, I'm a copywriter. When I apply to job postings asking for blog posts on a specific subject I pitch three potential headlines for blog posts I could write for them. Sometimes I write the opening paragraph of a post to give them a taste of my writing style (around 3 - 4 sentences). It's worked pretty well for me so far and I didn't have anything in my portfolio at that point! 

Try different angles and stick to the one that gets you the most responses. 

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5 REPLIES 5
g_vasilevski
Retired Team Member
Retired Team Member

Hi Candace,

 

For help getting started, check our Freelancer Guide. It covers everything from finding great projects that fit your skills to increasing your rate and getting stellar feedback.
Also be sure to check out our online course for information on how you can build a strong profile, win high-quality jobs, and start getting paid.

~ Goran
Upwork
jenny-medeiros
Community Member

You should definitely give a sample of what the client is asking for, but not the full job. Watermark or not, you shouldn't put yourself at risk of delivering free work. The safest way is to give suggestions or outline how you would go about the job.  The key is to show the client you know what you're talking about and you know how to give them the result they want. 

 

For example, I'm a copywriter. When I apply to job postings asking for blog posts on a specific subject I pitch three potential headlines for blog posts I could write for them. Sometimes I write the opening paragraph of a post to give them a taste of my writing style (around 3 - 4 sentences). It's worked pretty well for me so far and I didn't have anything in my portfolio at that point! 

Try different angles and stick to the one that gets you the most responses. 

Jenny - You should NOT definitely give a sample of the actual work. What the OP should do, is to either put some pieces of her work in her profile so a potential client can see the STYLE of her work, and based on that the client can decide if her style fits what they are looking for. OR, she can attach samples of her work to her proposal. so again, the client can see the style of her work. But she shouldn't do the actual work, watermarked or not. Besides, doing that, is taking up her time that she has no guarantee that she will be hired.

rehabsaad
Community Member

I think UpWork give a fair opportuinity by letting you add some of your work samples as attachment, then the client could decide if you are fitting his needs or not.. 

**Edited for Community Guidelines** extremly different platform provide a fair challenge if you need to try new skills , but honstely I don't like to work for hours then if I wouldn't won the contest I lose my  payments..

 

My recommendation for you starting your professinal career with **Edited for Community Guidelines**, creating strong portflio , apply on upwork and use your **Edited for Community Guidelines** as work samples 

Thank you so much everyone for your advice. I guess I will just be paitent and continue putting links to my portofolio instead of sending them samples of what they want. Better not to risk them stealing the work. I love the quick responses as well. Thanks, again!

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