Sep 27, 2015 03:19:22 PM Edited Feb 5, 2016 07:16:56 AM by Valeria K
Hey guys,
this is my first time posting here.
I am on UpWork for a few month now, and it starts to get a little bit momentum.
This week I will breach the 1000 Dollar total earnings.
However, I am still pretty unsatisfied, how few of my proposals come back with an interview invitation.
Could you guys give me a short review of my profile?
What do you like?
What dont you like?
What would you change?
I would appreciate any Feedback!
Solved! Go to Solution.
Feb 21, 2016 03:35:07 AM by Vesna M
@Tariqul I wrote:Thanks fo your response.
What can i do sucecss in my future job proposal?
Please help me.
**Edited for Community Guidelines**
Improve English. Seriously.
Feb 21, 2016 04:34:11 PM by Daniel L
Hi there!
I found it so interesting and amusing to be part of the Upwork community for the first time. By reading almost every tab on the website and having my first experiences with its smooth interface and easy step to step guide, I do see Upwork as an excellent choice of making a living.
I'm overwhelmed, though, by a couple of things and I think it's time for me to be open for the community's feedback. I registered on Upwork a week ago and have been submitting proposals ever since. As a matter of fact, I've been given the RISING TALENT for keeping some nice work on my profile (taking exams, uploading a complete portfolio, proposals...), the thing is I HAVE NOT YET RECEIVED MY FIRST JOB OFFER. I've read threads talking about how does one can write very compelling and wise summaries. So given that information, I think what I need is natural feedback from freelancers.
I have to say I am from Bogotá, Colombia. I am a fluent English speaker but I am aware that I have occasional misnomers for ideas and concepts I want to communicate. So that might be a reason.
Thank you very much for your time, and I expect to become more engaged with the community by doing great work and friendly professional relationships, and relevant community discussions.
Feb 21, 2016 09:49:48 PM by Mahesh A
Hi,
Daniel
welcome to the community. Your profile looks great its allways hard to get the first job
I got my first job after 2 months. so keep tryng. hopefully you will get one soon
Good luck
Feb 22, 2016 02:55:02 AM Edited Feb 22, 2016 02:55:33 AM by Vesna M
@Daniel L wrote:Hi there!
Hi, you have an awesome portfolio. Real art. Maybe I would increase hourly rate here, like double. But it's also ok to hold up with that until first job. Good luck.
Feb 22, 2016 10:52:04 AM by Jennefer E
Hi Ms. Valeria!
I hope this message finds you well.
Would you please review my profile as i need to correct some necessary details into it.
Appreciate if you could help with my concern as I want to start submitting my proposals but it seems that profile is very important in this kind of field.
Thank you very much for your help!
Feb 22, 2016 01:19:01 PM by Bogdan-Mihai R
@Jennefer: first things first - have you read https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Want-to-get-that-first-job-Then-check-this-out/m-p/21457...
Second, read below:
- first impression - are you real, is this a real profile? because you have some conflicting info on your profile.
- "Graphics Designer/Data Entry/Photographer" - Data Entry just doesn't add up here. how do you explain this? a client would go - "data entry and photographer, ah, a fake profile, neeeeext !"
- educated in the Philippines but location is in Dubai? on itself is not much, but with the other things going on, it's a bit iffy
- you never once mentioned the photographer in your overview. either describe your skills as a photographer, or remove it from your profile
- employment history - it should be up to the present.
you also need to beef up the other sections of your profile, use the link at the top for more info.
Feb 22, 2016 01:34:35 PM by Jody D
Hi,
I am reasonably new to Upwork and would appreciate a review of my profile. Thanks!
Jody
Feb 23, 2016 03:48:22 AM by Bhavik P
I don't have any job now.
what i do???
tests,profile,bid,cover letters are don. but i dont get job now.
plz tell me whats the problem??????
Feb 23, 2016 04:37:56 AM by Rene K
@Bhavik P wrote:I don't have any job now.
what i do???
tests,profile,bid,cover letters are don. but i dont get job now.
plz tell me whats the problem??????
What to do? Nothing. Probably cancelling your profile. You don't seem to have much to offer. Upwork is already full of people without any marketable skills, bidding for all the jobs you are bidding for.
I don't see anything in your profile that would indicate any valuable skill. And since you can't really write in English, your proposals are either boilerplate texts that you copied somewhere, or full of grammar and spelling mistakes.
Honestly, don't waste your time here. Upwork is not the place where one can easily earn few bucks. Whoever told you that was either lying or confused.
Feb 23, 2016 04:51:09 AM by Preston H
We can ignore mistakes borne from less-than-perfect familiarity with the English language, but when a person posts a request for help which barely rises above the level of gibberish, it is hard to take them seriously.
Any new contractor who is starting out and wants to make a good impression needs to communicate in a professional manner here in the Comminity Forum. We assume that the level of discourse they demonstrate here is the same that they use in communicating with clients.
If we see somebody whose communications are guaranteed to simply be an embarrassment to the platform, then we know that person will impact the platform negatively. I don't think I will benefit by having competitors on this platform who look ridiculous in comparison to me. I think I will benefit more if Upwork is highly regarded as a place where clients can meet quality contractors, and if the platform's resulting reputation attracts more high quality jobs.
Feb 24, 2016 07:38:15 AM by Bhavik P
I dont have a job now.
plz tell me whats the problem???
profile,cover letter,test...etc done. and my all 60 connects are finished.
Feb 24, 2016 07:41:55 AM by Jennifer M
Yeah, I don't think this place is gonna work out for you, buddy.
Feb 24, 2016 07:50:00 AM by Preston H
Bhavik:
People in the forum have tried to be polite to you.
You need to focus on non-online jobs that can be found in your local community. Logging into the Upwork website is not an economically advantageous use of your time.
Feb 24, 2016 08:32:44 AM by Rene K
You're waisting your time Preston, he probably can't even find his way back here to read the answers to his posts.
Feb 24, 2016 08:04:00 AM by Valeria K
Hi Bhavik,
Please, expand your profile overview and clearly describe your skills and experience. Make sure your overview, title, name, certifications, employment and education history sections do not have spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors.
In addition to other posts on this thread, please read the Getting Started as a Freelancer section of the Hep Center and complete your profile. I also advise watching our educational videos and reading the best practice advice shared by other users:
Want to get that first job? Then check this out...
Feb 24, 2016 08:33:42 AM Edited Feb 24, 2016 08:38:05 AM by Preston H
For all newbies who want to succeed on Upwork:
If English is not your native language (or even if it is)... Then READ what other people have written in English.
READ some news articles. READ some books. READ threads in the Upwork Community Forum. READ the articles Upwork posts in its Help section.
And then when you write something using the English language... whether you are writing your overview text or writing a job proposal or writing a post for the Community Forum, make sure that what you write LOOKS LIKE the English language writing you generally see in these other sources.
If your writing looks different than standard English writing, then you are wrong.
For example, if in standard written English people capitalize the first letter in a sentence, and you do not, then you are wrong.
You may be a brilliant person. You may be a great contractor. But when we see you use non-standard spelling, capitalization, language usage, punctuation, etc... not just a little bit, but excessively... then people think you are dumb. Or lazy. Or that you just don't care.
Is this fair? Maybe. Maybe not. I don't know. Will everybody judge you based on your writing? No. But how many people will? 20%? 50%? 75%? You don't know. Why risk it?
Perhaps you use the English language in a casual way among friends, or on certain social media websites. You find there is a relaxed attitude there toward how you spell words. You may abbreviate or disregard various norms. That's fine for those websites and situations.
It's not fine on Upwork. It will mean you won't be taken seriously. It may mean that you won't get jobs. You may be more skilled than your competitors, but potential clients may pick competitors who write properly.
It doesn't bother me if non-native English speakers make some mistakes when they write. It doesn't bother me when native English speakers do, either. A few mistakes are fine. Awkward use of the English language is understandable.
But when you make excessive mistakes that should easily be caught even by somebody with only a passing knowledge of the language... When your writing doesn't even look like standard English because you use punctuation patterns or capitalization styles that never appear anywhere in standard English... then I think you're just being lazy.
Feb 25, 2016 02:35:11 AM Edited Feb 25, 2016 02:39:57 AM by Eleonora R
Can you imagine a brand's advertisement saying "Give us your money! We want money!" instead of "You'll be happy if you purchase our product because it carries the following benefits..."?
That's exactly how "$$$$$$$$$$ My Goals $$$$$$$$$$" and "$$$$$$$$$$ My area of Expertise $$$$$$$$$$" sound like.
Side inquiry: Does anyone know how I can get the "verified" tag for English and Spanish fluency so it displays on my profile?
Feb 25, 2016 01:34:17 PM by Vanja N
Hi,
I'm new here on Upwork. I am aware of that it requires a lot of time and effort to make yourself competitive. I will do my best to achieve that. In order to improve my profile I would like you to give me your opinion on that. Every suggestion or criticism are welcomed. Thanks in advance!
Feb 26, 2016 02:23:35 AM by Bogdan-Mihai R
I see you have no replies since yesterday, so I'll provide my 2 cents.
Overall your profile looks... miscalibrated.
You say you are a Virtual Assistant, have keywords as Black Box Testing, then you mention SQL in your overview, THEN your Virtual Assistant Test (which maybe it's rubbishly created by the 3rd party, really how do you measure Virtual Assistant skills in a typical test?....) shows a below average score. And then, your job history shows marketing experience, nothing regarding SQL.
Here's what I think you should do, so like any advice take it with a bit of salt:
- decide who you are or how you want to start here. are you a virtual assistant or a programmer (your portfolio shows a database). I'd suggest going with the title of "Virtual Assistant with Technical Skills" or "Technical Virtual Assistant", and then mention if those skills are gained through your hobby or if you have an actual working experience...
- tweak your overview. "I must say that" - it's just too formal and too cold. "I would like to say that I am a analytical thinker" - also too cold and you have a grammar mistake, it should be "I am an analytical.."
- overall your profile overview should be a bit more friendly; it's not what you are presenting, it's how you are presenting your skills and qualities that should be tweaked. Also, don't over do it and end up with a profile that is too bubbly...Err on the side of caution when going too far
- portfolio - I'd suggest losing the Serbian language document, maybe other contractors would disagree;
- tests - ah, too many oranges and too few blueberries. I'd suggest hiding the orange tests and keeping only the blue ones; you can re-take the tests once 30 days have passed since the last try
- languages 1 - your post and your profile looks like you would be fluent in "Upwork English"; I'd suggest upgrading your English level to fluent; if *hm* a fellow contractor that writes "I work. Be ready article in 3 hours, pay $5" can self-asses his English skills to fluent, then so can you :).
- languages 2 - do you have knowledge of any other language? Surely you must, if you write in Serbian and live in Serbia, maybe you know one or more too. So I'd add the Serbian language to your profile, maybe you know a bit of Russian too? Or at least you can decipher Cyrillic (Google helped me here with the spelling, even spelling Cyrillic is hard, reading it must be a titanic task)? If there is anything regarding your skillset that differentiates you from the other contractors, then by Thor, post it in your profile.
- read the Upwork articles. when I first started, I read almost every article and became this living product knowledge database (which still fails sometimes); it has helped me overcome some of the pitfalls inherent to working online.
- you will be scammed. don't take it personal, take it as a learning lesson and move forward.
- don't lose your principles, sticking to your convictions and to your principles is what keeps some of your clients with you, and also what keeps you happy with freelancing. you don't want to hate yourself 2 years later, you're in it for the long run and so a wrong start can ruin everything.
As a last advice, I think it would be better for you to have some kind of variance of speech. Having the same length phrases over and over does not entail the reader to continue.
Start with a light note. Move the conversation forward. Go back a little and address any questions. And you when you think the reader is ready, you can have a longer phrase where you deliver the punchline and the call to action.
(this advise is not mine, but I couldn't find the exact quote, so I re-created it from my mind)
Have fun, you'll love it here :).
Feb 26, 2016 03:29:33 AM Edited Feb 26, 2016 04:37:06 AM by Vanja N
Bogdan-Mihai,
Thank you so much for such a detailed review. I agree with all of your notes. I really like the idea of changing title to "Virtual Assistant with Technical Skills", since I had a lot of struggle on how to title it exactly. I work a lot on improving my skills that contractors are looking for (such as SEO, Lead Generation, Email Marketing tools etc.). I just don't want to say that I am an expert in something if I'm not.
This is maybe 4th or 5th time that I'm changing my profile, and I'll do that over and over again until it's the best it can be . I will look over your review while doing that. Thanks again.
Feb 28, 2016 08:05:29 AM by Saquib B
I wonder if you can please go through my profile and suggest where I am lacking and how to improve it? would really apprecaite.
thanks,
SB