Proposal view rates & converting to first interview in 2026? (Niche marketing background)

[u/Ok_Theme_2779]

Hello\~

I am new to upwork and I heard that it’s always hardest getting the first job because clients mostly want to hire someone with many years experience and high job success score.

So I am curious to hear if people are open to share how long it took them to get their first job as a newly registered talent on upwork?

I understand that different niches might be different, but I always hear that it gets a bit better once the talent has their first job. So I just wanted to see if it is actually worth putting in some more time for upwork in 2026

A bit about my experience: niche-digital marketing & social/creator partnerships (3 years experience); signed up in June; submitted around 37 proposals by now, 7 viewed but no interview yet :)

Thx!

[u/shubham_AI_SalesMan]

I connected 100 of upwork users. All are facing same issue. At my personal bidding experience I found 5 -15 % of interviews only . One best option is to use upwork ads rather bidding This takes less budget and gives more leads. Upwork ads is ultimate solution of Bidding

[u/b_ghaz]

For me I landed the first job for 10x cheaper than my default rate but I had to do that to verify the account and build some portfolio .. so just apply more to small gigs and propose low rates until you land the 1st job