It started all with ‘a big name band’ that wanted their Lisbon concert reviews translated from Portuguese to English. A bit fed-up with writing cover letters that not even seemed to deserve a response, I simply said “Bring it on!”
Well, the ‘big name band’ turned out to be **Edited for Community Guidelines**and I received a straight-A review for my translations. In fact they came knocking on my door again when their tour hit Hamburg (German to English) and Amsterdam (Dutch to English).
The other day my maternal language, Frisian, appeared on My Job Feed. It would earn me next to nothing, but… what were the chances of it happening again? I got in touch with Global Project manager **Edited for Community Guidelines**and that was the beginning of a short-lived but very nice working relationship.
In short, four straight-A reviews on my first four jobs I felt were a great start on the Upwork platform.
And then… then Upwork took my Rising Talent badge away.
Hey, what happened, I asked the Upwork Help Centre. The Help Centre came up with some **bleep**-and-bull story that a client had given me ‘a less-than-good review publicly or privately’, implying that it was **Edited for Community Guidelines**(as after my first three jobs I still had my RT status).
Anyway, when Upwork asked me if I was satisfied with the handling of my request I said I was not, as I could not see a client who gave me a straight-A review publicly, turn around and give me a ‘less-than-good review’ privately – it just did not add up.
I did not receive a reply.
Therefore I decided to rephrase my request (‘What happened to my RT badge?’) and sent it in once more, hoping it would not land on the desk of the same agent. It did not. Nevertheless, I received exactly the same reply yesterday.
Can you believe that for a very brief instant I smelt a rat?
It did not occur to me that the second agent might have copied the reply of the first agent, which must be on my file. Instead, I asked **Edited for Community Guidelines** in what way I had let him down that made him give me a less-than-good review privately(!), as I very much like to learn from my mistakes. He immediately answered:
“Hi Jaap,
**Edited for Community Guidelines**
Now, that settled, what would be my next step?
My worry is that prospective clients’ search queries contain either ‘Rising Talent’ or ‘JSS’. Am I wrong to believe that?
And as I understand it, a freelancer is only liable to deserve a JSS after having concluded five jobs. Now, my fear is that I will never land that fifth job as I have neither a Rising Talent status nor a JSS.
In other words, I feel I am stuck – stuck in the middle between RT and JSS.
Could anyone tell me if I am making too much of a fuss about this – much ado about nothing?
And, if not, does anyone know on whose door I should knock, as the Help Centre does not help me any further?
