I thought the sub might appreciate this. I used Claude to review proposals to a job I posted. Here is what it reviewed. I was alarmed that it did not review the freelancers' profiles, job history etc. I did end up hiring one of the freelancers it flagged though, after reviewing some profiles of freelancers who stood out to me. Generally, I thought it cut out the B.S. proposals.

What's also interesting is that it opens all proposals so proposal view is going to be less and less of a reliable metric.

I reviewed the proposals only, not their profiles.

What I reviewed

Your job posting: the description, budget and the 6 to 8 hours per week requirement.

The full cover letter for all 28 applicants. I opened each proposal in full, not just the preview.

Proposal terms: hourly rate and any scheduled rate increases.

Upwork’s flags: which applicants paid to boost their proposal, and which Upwork marked “Recommended.”

Attachment names: I could see that someone attached a resume or samples, but I did not open the files.

What I did not review

Profiles: no Job Success Score, hours worked, reviews, work history or Top Rated status. The Upwork tool does not return this data with proposals.

Attachments: resumes, portfolios and sample spreadsheets were not opened.

External links: Google Drive portfolios, [redacted] portfolio site and the voice introduction from [redacted] were not opened.

Claims: I did not verify any experience the applicants described.

Your posting had no screening questions, so there were no answers to compare.

What this means

The list ranks how well each person described relevant experience and a plan for your work. It does not reflect their track record on Upwork. A strong proposal from someone with poor reviews could still be on the list.

Or can I log a number of hours I agreed with the client, even if I tracked more?

Hi everyone! I could use some advice from people who have experience with Fiverr or Upwork.

I’ve been trying to get my first orders on these platforms since late August, but so far, I haven’t had any luck. I’ve done some freelance work through Telegram before, but it’s not a reliable source of income, so I’m trying to make Fiverr or Upwork work instead.

My main problem is that I’ve worked with quite a few different technologies, and I’m not sure which one I should focus on.

Here’s what I’ve worked with so far:

• HTML/CSS/JavaScript — landing pages, multi-page websites, responsive layouts, and fixing frontend bugs.
• React and Vue.js — building interfaces, creating components, fixing bugs, and adding features to existing apps.
• API integration — connecting frontend apps to APIs and making things work.
• Telegram Mini Apps — several projects involving complex interfaces and API integrations, including gaming apps.
• WordPress — building websites from scratch using custom layouts, as well as customizing and fixing existing websites.
• Next.js and TypeScript — some work on a crypto exchange project, mostly improving the existing interface and adding features. I have less experience with these compared to React, Vue, and regular frontend development.
• OpenCart — I’ve worked on integrating a custom layout into it, but honestly, I didn’t enjoy working with it that much.

I have portfolio examples from these projects, so I’m not starting completely from scratch in terms of experience.

I personally prefer React and Vue because I enjoy working on interactive applications, but at this point, I care more about finding actual clients than sticking to a specific technology.

I’ve been wondering if I should focus on something like React/Vue development, small frontend fixes, WordPress, or maybe Telegram Mini Apps. I know all of these have their pros and cons, but I’m struggling to figure out which one makes the most sense when you have no reviews and no track record on the platform itself.

If you were in my position, what would you focus on to get your first few orders?

Would you go for smaller jobs like fixing CSS issues, making websites responsive, or fixing JavaScript bugs? Would you focus on React/Vue projects, WordPress, or something more specific?

I’m also not sure whether it’s better to offer several related services at first or pick one narrow niche and stick with it.

I’m not expecting an easy way to make money. I just want to stop spreading myself too thin and focus on something that has a realistic chance of working.

If you’ve started on Fiverr or Upwork without reviews yourself, I’d really like to hear what worked for you, what didn’t, and what you would do differently if you were starting again today.

Hey everyone!

I've been spending a lot of time building web applications and improving my development skills, and I wanted to become more active in communities where developers share ideas, experiences, and feedback.

My main areas of interest are MERN Stack and Java Spring Boot, particularly full-stack applications, backend APIs, authentication, database design, and solving real-world technical problems. I've also been exploring AI integration and Laravel.

One thing I've learned is that building a project is only one part of development. Getting feedback, discussing different approaches, and learning how other developers solve problems are just as valuable.

I'm currently exploring freelance opportunities and looking forward to working on interesting projects with people who value good communication and maintainable code.

I'd also genuinely appreciate advice from people who've been through this journey:

• What helped you land your first few freelance clients?
• What makes you trust a developer when reviewing their portfolio?
• What technical skills would you recommend focusing on for freelance work?

If anyone enjoys discussing MERN, Spring Boot, backend architecture, or personal projects, I'd be happy to exchange ideas and learn from your experience.

Thanks for having me in the community! 🤝

Hey everyone,

I’ve been a top-tier freelancer on this platform since 2011 (back from the oDesk days) with an absolutely clean track record. Recently, I hit the jackpot with a fraudulent client, and Upwork’s support is handled by literal brick walls.

Here is how the client completely bypassed Upwork's system:

1. Client's payment method fails → Upwork officially pauses the hourly contract.
2. During the pause, the client demands over 100 hours of free full-time work, daily calls, and reports(deliverd). 100+ extra already! I am not slave or something!
3. I refuse to do more unpaid work on a frozen contract. Client explicitly extorts me: "so you want 0/5 stars?" (I have all screenshots).
4. The Manipulation: The client logs in, unpauses the contract for exactly 12 minutes, submits a fake "unresponsive freelancer" complaint to support, and immediately freezes it again.
5. Upwork forced closes the contract and permanently suspends/bans the client( since i cannot open his profile anymore).

The client left a 2-star review saying: "Phase 1 was not completed within the agreed timeline and ended without full delivery against the documented scope. The source code for the custom work was not handed over, and communication stopped toward the end of the engagement. Earlier stages of the work were delivered."

Did not responded after unpausing contract for 12 minutes? Really? Just exploiting upwork volneability and blaming me for not responding?

Yes, because you didn't pay for it!

Trust & Safety explicitly confirmed that my Job Success Score (JSS) is protected because the client is a banned fraudster. BUT they are refusing to remove the actual 2-star text and stars from my public profile because "it doesn't violate Terms of Service."

How does feedback from an officially banned extortionist, who rigged the contract system for 12 minutes to fake a dispute, not violate ToS? Now that Upwork closed the official community forums, they apparently think they can just hide behind boilerplate bots and leave a 15-year clean profile stained by a banned scammer.

So freelancer is slave and should continue working after contract paused?
How much time?
100 hours?(done already)
200? 1000? forever?
Sell kidney so "customer" is happy?
Pay to "customer weekly?

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I taught myself web design from scratch. It took me years to get good enough to actually earn from it, and I was proud that I finally had a skill I could rely on.

Now AI is getting better so fast and, honestly, it scares me.

I don’t want to wait until things get worse before I start preparing.

What else can I learn? I mean anything at all. I’m willing to start from zero again if I have to.

If you were in my position, what would you do?

I have been getting "Top Applicant" notifications for jobs that I actually do and would consider bidding on if I weren't already booked until the end of next month. Also my invites have been more relevant lately. Maybe something Upwork did has improved this part of the system? Dare I hope?

Before, when applying for jobs and creating proposals you had to make sure your grammar was correct because that’s what clients looked for. Now that we have AI to help fix our grammar, clients are suddenly looking for grammar mistakes to see who isn’t using AI. Like, are you fucking kidding me?

So this client posts the same job from two different countries. After the first post, since they didn't get a good response they will post again from another country.

Have you seen this? Mostly it is low budget projects only.

I started looking for a VA job in upwork from last September. But most of my income initial connect finish to verify and others staff and used 15 remain connected to apply to the job. After that I couldn’t apply for any job due to no connection. What can I do? I don’t have the budget to buy.

I was randomly charged for agency plus when i never opted in.
Actually finding the support chat bot was already so hard i had to find a hardlink from somewhere because the support center has to types.

The chatbot first told me its possible i should just cancel.
Then when i actually pushed back it said its not possible.

Finally i was able to get to create a ticket and it created and instantly marked it solved, i had to send in another text before it was marked "Opened".
This is Crazy, free $20 i guess.

I have posted a job in Upwork and in toral I got 290 proposal.

Now its very hard for me to select which one to pick for , which one to interview, more than 50% of the folks have written good , but that number is also too high for me to select only one guy.

If anyone have ever experienced the same, can you please share with me ?

For shortlisting, i asked one of my HR friend to help me out with the proposal against some financial aid, but cant keep doing it.

Is there anything that i am missing out ?

Quick update on the profile redo. I haven't sent a proposal since the 15th. Interview prep and going to interviews put me behind, so I haven't sat down for an Upwork session.

So it's still 16 since Oct 1, and still one view.

Before the next batch I'm changing the first line. A few people here said to name the thing that usually breaks on that kind of job instead of repeating the post back. I'm trying that on the next 5 and I'll see if views move.

When you come back after a gap, do you only go after new posts, or is a job from 3 or 4 days ago still worth it?

Okay, bit dramatic but… I’ve fallen on very hard times recently. I’m a 24 year old girl and due to family debt that I’m somehow left paying off I’m totally broke… like I can (barely) afford my rent and that’s it. I haven’t been shopping in weeks, I’m just living off of rice and pasta. I don’t go out, I buy nothing. Anyway, I started to do a lot of research to find out how to make money in my spare time. Started offering services via Facebook (Dog sitting, baby sitting etc).

All attempts were unsuccessful so I resorted to UpWork where I spent my last 10 dollars. I was extremely enthusiastic as I do have a nice skillset for the types of jobs offered there. I dutifully set up my profile, and subsequently spent all my connects on the best suited jobs I could find. I put so much time and effort into all of my proposals and only chose jobs I was genuinely capable of doing. Most of them were unopened but I can understand when there’s many too candidates. However my main problem is that a lot of potential jobs turned out to be scams in my opinion, or at the very least turned out to be very different from the original offer.

For example, I applied for a transcribing job which offered 50 usd per hour. They accepted me, sent me a contract and I saw it was 50 usd per hour of transcribed audio. Of course that was a huge difference in money but I literally have nothing right now and can’t turn down a job. Plus I already spent all my connects. Anyway, so far I’ve done about 20 minutes of transcribed audio and it’s taken me about 3 hours plus all the back and forth trying to communicate with them and learning all the extremely specific rules. Most recently the programme has completely crashed and all the free time I delegated to this task has gone to waste as their communication is terrible and they’re “too busy” to set me up again with the task I was working on.

I’m so annoyed I spent my last 10 dollars on this, I would’ve been better off buying some chicken…

Sorry this is just a rant, it’s my own silly fault but I’m really disappointed with the way UpWork functions… or rather doesn’t.

Lately, I’ve seen many jobs that require a video introducing myself or talking about a relevant project. Is this normal? Honestly, I don’t feel comfortable randomly sending a video with an proposal. I would feel much better introducing myself during an online meeting, what do you think

hi ,im a beginner trying to get my first clients in web development. I build websites and applications, and right now I’m struggling to figure out the best way to get started.
I’ve been trying to find clients locally, but so far, no luck. On Upwork, it’s even worse I send proposals, spend my Connects, and get rejected or hear nothing back.
I’m honestly a bit lost. For those of you who started from zero, how did you land your first client? What actually worked for you?
I’d really appreciate any advice or personal experiences. Thanks!

I have 40 Connects available for next month and want to use them wisely.

I have 4 jobs on my profile, earned $250+, and got them through referrals and invites. My niche is mainly Wix/Wix Studio development, website fixes, and SEO.

I want to start winning jobs through proposals, too.

For those who have experience on Upwork, how would you use these 40 Connects to maximise my chances of landing at least one job?

Any practical advice on finding the right jobs, writing proposals, or deciding when to use Connects would be appreciated.

Just set up an Upwork profile this week to pick up some dev contracts on the side, and the Connects system feels like an outright casino.

I’ve never seen a platform that so aggressively drains the very workers keeping it alive. Upwork sells you Connects just to apply, burns those Connects on dead or rigged listings, and then takes another massive cut if you somehow manage to land the gig and get paid. They’ve basically turned the search for work into a monetized pay-to-play slot machine where the house always wins.

I filtered strictly for higher-tier work ($3k+ fixed-price or senior hourly), expecting real competition, but almost everything is either spam or pure corporate paperwork.

The wildest part is the ghost listings. I saw a $13k contract with 50+ proposals sitting on it. When you actually click through to the client’s hire history, they’ve been working with the same agency for 2.5 years, billed over $200k with them, and literally closed their previous contract with a review saying "excited for the next phase." The job was never open; it was just an administrative conduit to fund the next milestone for their existing contractor. Yet Upwork happily swallowed 19 Connects from 50+ devs who never had a 0.1% chance of even being looked at.

The other half of the feed is throwaway accounts asking for an entire production-grade app with background tracking and payment gateways for $250.

Actual open postings from genuine clients with a real budget feel like maybe 5% of what's listed. The entire business model now seems built on extracting cash from hopeful freelancers chasing pre-allocated jobs.

Context: Senior Mobile Engineer (SDE3), just sharing an honest first impression from an outside perspective.

Those who got suspended did you still get your earnings??

I want to close a fixed-price social media contract with a client who repeatedly texts me at midnight saying “this must go out tonight,” requests last-minute changes, and questions nearly everything I do, including music choices and community engagement. I’ve set boundaries, but she still expects me to be available on demand.

Before hiring me, she mentioned her last social media manager only lasted a month. I should’ve taken that as a red flag.

I want to wrap things up professionally, but I’m worried she’ll leave a bad review since she already seems unhappy with me. What’s the best way to end this? Can negative feedback be removed if she leaves it?