Job Postings that have been filled

[tmspats]

How do you know when a job posting has been filled? Many of the postings on Upwork seem to be old postings -- a month ago or weeks ago. Surely with all of the people on Upwork, the positions  are filled pretty quickly, right? With that said, why would positions from more than a few weeks ago still be displayed in the search results?

When the positions are filled, are they removed from the search results? I really don't want to be submitting proposals on positions that aren't available.

Please advise,

Thank you.

Mary P

[paulmessing]

I don't have an answer, but it's a question I too have asked Upwork.
I did not get a response.  

[prestonhunter]

re: "When the positions are filled, are they removed from the search results?"

When a client hires a freelancer for a job posting, the client is given the option to cause the job posting to be closed.

A client may intentionally leave a job posting open because he may be planning to hire other people for the job. A job posting (including postings which state that the client intends to hire only one person) may be used to hire multiple freelancers.

A client may unintentionally leave a job posting open because the client does not pay attention to the on-screen notification and choice to close the job posting.

A client may post a job on Upwork and then never log back into Upwork again, leaving the job posting public until it times out after a month.

[tmspats]

Thank you for your response.  

It seems to me that if there were some kind of a button that the lister could simply click  to show that they have either filled the position or are not taking any more proposals, it would be helpful to those of us who are applying for these positions. That way, we wouldn't be wasting connects on positions that were not really open. Then, if the lister wanted to hire additional people or relist the position, they could click another button to reopen/relist.

Is there a suggestion box or a place to suggest  enhancements? 

Thank you.

[mtngigi]

---

Mary P wrote:

Thank you for your response.  

It seems to me that if there were some kind of a button that the lister could simply click  to show that they have either filled the position or are not taking any more proposals, it would be helpful to those of us who are applying for these positions. That way, we wouldn't be wasting connects on positions that were not really open. Then, if the lister wanted to hire additional people or relist the position, they could click another button to reopen/relist.

Is there a suggestion box or a place to suggest  enhancements? 

Thank you.

---

Upwork will not do anything that might/could/would cause more work/steps on the client side. You can suggest, but it would be *pointless. Many clients post the same job to multiple websites and hire elsewhere, many clients like to leave jobs open (as Preston suggested), for various reasons. If the post is from an established client, there are many clues to look at to help decide if you want to bid, i.e. hiring rate, feedback, number of bids already left, etc.

It's best to think of connects as the cost of doing business (because that is what they are), rather than a "waste". 

*We are told suggestions are "shared with the team". This usually means they end up in the circular file.

[tmspats]

Good to know that suggestions are pointless. 

Thank you all for your input.  I really do appreciate the comments and explanation.  

I find it interesting that  "the team" would not be interested in suggestions. Although I  do think the Upwork platform is really well done, nothing is perfect and other points of view and/or suggestions might make it even better. Anyway....

Again, thank you all.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Mary,

What you are suggesting is already available to clients. When posting a job, the client can specify how many freelancers they are looking to hire. When they hire freelancers, as Preston noted in his response, the client is presented with a screen asking them if they'd like to close the job. They also have an option to keep the job open but make it private so freelancers don't see it in search and don't submit proposals to it. 

Additionally, if there is no activity on a job for more than 30 days, it expires automatically.

[8addbb0e]

All well and good, however, people could still be bidding on jobs and wasting their connects not knowing the job has been filled. Should we not get our connects returned if this happens?

[759e32fa]

Hi Jules,

You don't get the Connects you spent when the client hires another freelancer. The clients have the option to keep the job listing active as they may need to still hire freelancers for the same role or they may just not close the job post right away after hiring. That's why we recommend checking first if the client has already hired someone before submitting a proposal.

[annette-design]

To add to the replies. I have noticed that some clients take a long time with hiring as I'm still in touch and been told I will know soon or asked for meeting even though application was done 6 weeks ago, so not all are old, just in progress. But I do hope people do close them when hiring as it is stopping me applying too. 

[antoniak-mike · Accepted solution]

I've tried to propose against a job only to be told that has closed and is no longer available. I've also checked on proposals and found that the job has been filled, so jobs definitely do close. I've noticed that the employer activity reported on each job ad can be a useful clue or warning; if they job has been posted for three weeks and the employer last checked it 19 days ago, it seems to me they have moved on and it's not worth spending "connect" points to try to contact them. Especially if they have no history of previous hires.