New to upwork

[shahyash84]

Hi, I have registered with upwork for about a month. I have read on some of the community replies that Upwork is a buyers' market and sellers are Upwork's partners for serving them. I see following as a drawback for sellers like us: 1. Inspite of 15 years of experience, there is no regard given for that. People put conditions like minimum 100$ earnings on Upwork. How it is practically possible when there are almost more than 20 bids for each proposal and there are no replies on most of the bids 2) Many of the buyers don't even close the proposals and keep it open for ever. Why Upwork does not close the proposals in a prescribed timeline say 10 days, why should only sellers suffer losses 3) One of the buyer changed content of the requirement post making a bid, why upwork is allowing such changes 4) Why can't upwork restrict number of bids per requirement so that atleast there is reasonable chance. Request you to please guide on these aspects

[9b660019 · Accepted solution]

To answer your specific points:

1) It's the same sort of issue you likely dealt with when you were new to your career - you have no experience, and many employers insist on candidates with years of experience even for low-level jobs. Here, it's about earnings rather than time.

(And if you think a $100 earnings requirement is unreasonable, just wait until you see a client who has spent less than $2000 asking for freelancers with at least $10K in earnings.)

2) Job postings do eventually expire, but it seems to take at least 30 days.

3) You are similarly allowed to change the terms on your proposal after submission. It is also worth pointing out that you are not prevented from applying if you don't meet all of the client's requirements - the client will still see your proposal and is free to consider it.

4) That's one of the intended goals of the connects system. Additionally, the site shows you an approximate range of exisiting proposals for a job so you can skip over jobs that are already flooded with proposals.

It is, unfortunately, a particularly difficult time to be new on Upwork due to the economic fallout of COVID-19. My own success in landing jobs (which wasn't great to begin with) definitely plunged after mid-March, when the economic shutdowns ramped up in many regions. In the short-term all you can do is apply smartly and be persistent.

[robin_hyman]

If it's too hard to start on Upwork, feel free to join other freelancer platforms. Maybe you'll have better luck there. 

[rumpelsteiltskin]

Like which other??