I feel like leaving UpWork

sdeepj · ‎04-29-2022

Freelancing is a catch-22, to get work on this platform, you have to have previous work experience through the platform. However you can't get experience if nobody is giving you work, because you have no experience. I'm new to the platform, but that doesn't mean I'm inexperience. I have two master's degrees, I've applied my GIS and writing skills in both the professional and academic worlds for over a decade. Unfortunatley, too many professionals are ignorant about academia, not realizing academics are better suited for their job than they are. I send out countless bids, to only have scammers and flakes responding. I've gone on numerous blogs on how to put together a winning profile and bid, still to no avial. Lately, I've gotten anxiety attacks when submitting a bid, making sure I get every detail right, even putting together a quick sketch of what I can provide, virtually rewriting my resume, and for what? To be ignored.

There's something I'm missing, and I don't know what it is.

Thanks for reading my rant:)

renata101 · ‎04-30-2022

Sandeep J wrote:
Freelancing is a catch-22, to get work on this platform, you have to have previous work experience through the platform. However you can't get experience if nobody is giving you work, because you have no experience. I'm new to the platform, but that doesn't mean I'm inexperience. I have two master's degrees, I've applied my GIS and writing skills in both the professional and academic worlds for over a decade. Unfortunatley, too many professionals are ignorant about academia, not realizing academics are better suited for their job than they are. I send out countless bids, to only have scammers and flakes responding. I've gone on numerous blogs on how to put together a winning profile and bid, still to no avial. Lately, I've gotten anxiety attacks when submitting a bid, making sure I get every detail right, even putting together a quick sketch of what I can provide, virtually rewriting my resume, and for what? To be ignored.

There's something I'm missing, and I don't know what it is.

Thanks for reading my rant:)

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
— Duke Ellington

Sandeep,
You're packing some serious academic cred—and a bad attitude.

I'm sorry to hear about the anxiety attacks. My friend gets those, and they're serious business. The part of the attitude you need to work on is presenting your experience as experience and thinking about how to apply what you know to other people's projects. The differences between the business world and academia are there, but they're by no means a dealbreaker depending on the project. And guess what? A lot of professionals have been to university. So there's a part of this rant you might be making up. Also, there are academics here who are looking to hire other academics.

The part that you're not making up is that it's sometimes hard to get your first project. There's a lot of people on this platform. There's certainly a lot more than when I started.

Take a deep breath. Stay off the blogs and stop watching YouTube videos about profile building because they're bad for your brain. I've landed lots of contracts sending out really hokey covering letters, so sweating the details isn't a magic formula. I just look at what the client is asking for, I tell them what I've done that's similar, and I send a few links to previous things they can look at.

The other thing is don't apply to scam posts. Take a look at this search and don't apply to anything that looks similar. If they list contact information, don't apply.
This is what scam posts look like (note the contact information for Telegram and WhatsApp, the similarity in the copy, and the fact that none of them have hired):
https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=%28t.me%20OR%20Telegram%20OR%20wa.me%20OR%20whatsapp%20OR%2...

marc_compte · ‎04-30-2022

I didn't see your cover letters, but your profile now looks great, in my opinion.

Having anxiety attacks is something serious, though, and I think you should try to take care of that and look for help if you need it. This is important, not only for health reasons, but we are sometimes not aware of how much our state of mind is imprinted in our words, spoken or written, and I'm sure you'll have better chances if you can submit proposals without having them affect you this much.

As for being ignored, you should get used to it, because you will get ignored a lot. That's fine, don't think about it a second more and search for other jobs. If there aren't, do something else, learn some new skills, improve the ones you have or go for a run, you have read enough blogs and recommendations on how to write your proposals and you don't need to think about it any more. Write short proposals, like Renata suggests, and write them focusing only on the tasks required (the clients can see everything else in your profile, which shows up right below the cover letter, so they will certainly see it).

prestonhunter · ‎04-30-2022

Freelancing on Upwork is not for most people. It is only appropriate for a people with a certain disposition.

It is not the norm. If it's not for you, there's nothing wrong with that.