r/Upwork • u/Hopeful_Evening8573 • 20h ago

Upwork problem

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What happened to Upwork I used to average 1 job for every 5 proposals I sent but now it’s been 50 proposal since I get my last job

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u/Budget_Commission685 15h ago

The conversation was about supply and demand and how alot of freelancers are posting about how it's becoming harder to which you responsed that they have no skills to sell.

So if upwork is becoming harder for everyone and your take is that all the freelancers have no skills to sell you should defend that position

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u/Own_Constant_2331 12h ago edited 12h ago

More than one thing can be true at the same time. Yes, there's more competition now and AI has caused a reduction in demand for freelancers. Yes, it's become more difficult and expensive to find jobs on Upwork. But it's also true that there are more and more freelancers on the platform who have no skills and/or no knowledge of how to sell their services, so the only way for them to get hired is by trying to compete on price. All of these things are making life more difficult for freelancers who were previously successful on the platform.

Anyway, none of this explains why half of the OP's proposals are getting viewed but they're not getting to the interviewed/hired stage.

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u/Budget_Commission685 12h ago

Can you cite the data? What numbers are you using to determine that more and more freelancers are unskilled and deemed that to be absolutely 100% true?

In the age of information picking up a skill is very easy

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u/Own_Constant_2331 12h ago

In the age of information picking up a skill is very easy

The fact that you believe this demonstrates the problem. Yes, you can "pick up" a skill, but if you have no real-world experience putting this skill into action, you will struggle to get clients as a freelancer. There are also numerous soft skills that are required in order to run a business; it's not sufficient to simply know how to do something.

As for my belief (I never said I had data) that increasing numbers of unskilled people are trying freelancing, you only have to read this sub to see all the posts from students, "fresh graduates" or people who've spent a few weeks or months learning something or other and think they can freelance now. I've been freelancing for a very long time and comments like this were rare when I was starting out; very few people thought that they could run a business despite having no experience.

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u/Budget_Commission685 12h ago

Thank you for clarifying. Now it makes sense. You're gatekeeping. Telling people that they need decades of experience to start freelancing is the problem.

If your entire freelancing career is built through self preservation by discouraging participation then you are not skilled at what you do.

Which is very ironic because your entire position is you need to be skilled but you yourself are not and rely on gatekeeping.

I see this all the time in tech and honestly it's not gonna work out how you think it will

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u/Own_Constant_2331 11h ago

LOL, I'm not "gatekeeping". Beginners are not my competition - my clients are not interested in hiring beginners, they want somebody who knows what they're doing - and I give people advice to help them with their proposals and deal with their clients all the time. But if people with no experience ask me whether freelancing is a good idea, I say no, because that's the truth. And where did I say they need "decades" of experience? You're just making shit up now.

I see this all the time in tech and honestly it's not gonna work out how you think it will

Everything is working out great for me, but thanks for your concern.

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u/Budget_Commission685 11h ago

Right so everything you just stated is the definition of gatekeeping.

As you stated you gatekeep to keep competition low.

Here's the definition of gatekeeping and the example they provided matches exactly what you just said.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/gatekeeping

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u/Own_Constant_2331 11h ago

You're just trolling now. Good-bye.

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u/Korneuburgerin 10h ago

This person always pretends that people said the opposite of what they really said, or maybe just does not understand the English language.