I used to be a Top Rated freelancer on Upwork taking my pick of fixed-price jobs. Last year I was lured into an hourly contract by an enticing offer. I ignored the (obvious in hindsight) red flags and ended up regretting it.
The client treated me like his employee, monopolized my time, ignored my advice, and altered the scope of our arrangement one too many times. I refused to bend over backwards any father and ended the contract. He left me a scathing review and my Job Success Score dropped significantly. Meanwhile, he's now in the process of hiring a 4th person to take on the tasks I was handling alone and has made essentially no progress in 2x the time.
Before that debacle I was at the top of my field, now over half of my proposals go unread and the rest get ignored. I should have forged ahead on my original path... I spent years building a stellar reputation and all of that was obliterated by one unreasonable client. I should not have let the temptation of steady income override my intuition. Taking on the role of Tech Lead for a startup has always ended up being a bad experience for me. If you're not a founding member of the company, you'll just be a tool for them to exploit as they see it.
I'm a coder who has worn a lot of hats, from individual contributor to lead engineer to "CTO" (yes, in quotes, make of that what you will!). I've a lot to learn and hopefully some to share as well.
Well they don't fully disclose their algorithm but essentially extra weight is given to larger and more recent contracts. Since I generally do smaller fixed price jobs, this longer term one trumps everything else.
I'm a coder who has worn a lot of hats, from individual contributor to lead engineer to "CTO" (yes, in quotes, make of that what you will!). I've a lot to learn and hopefully some to share as well.
FYI: "As a Top Rated or Top Rated Plus freelancer, your hard work has earned you the benefit of more control over your profile. This means that you can occasionally request the removal of client feedback." This passage if from Upwork support page titled 'Feedback Removal'
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I used to be a Top Rated freelancer on Upwork taking my pick of fixed-price jobs. Last year I was lured into an hourly contract by an enticing offer. I ignored the (obvious in hindsight) red flags and ended up regretting it.
The client treated me like his employee, monopolized my time, ignored my advice, and altered the scope of our arrangement one too many times. I refused to bend over backwards any father and ended the contract. He left me a scathing review and my Job Success Score dropped significantly. Meanwhile, he's now in the process of hiring a 4th person to take on the tasks I was handling alone and has made essentially no progress in 2x the time.
Before that debacle I was at the top of my field, now over half of my proposals go unread and the rest get ignored. I should have forged ahead on my original path... I spent years building a stellar reputation and all of that was obliterated by one unreasonable client. I should not have let the temptation of steady income override my intuition. Taking on the role of Tech Lead for a startup has always ended up being a bad experience for me. If you're not a founding member of the company, you'll just be a tool for them to exploit as they see it.
Don't worry, everything will be fine soon. Keep it up
Thanks for the encouragement. I know I'll bounce back eventually. Perseverance is definitely one of my more well-exercised traits.
(Have never used Upwork so am curious) Why did one bad review cause so much damage? Wouldn't a lot of good reviews outweigh the one bad one?
Well they don't fully disclose their algorithm but essentially extra weight is given to larger and more recent contracts. Since I generally do smaller fixed price jobs, this longer term one trumps everything else.
I see, that sucks, hope you can turn it around again!
FYI: "As a Top Rated or Top Rated Plus freelancer, your hard work has earned you the benefit of more control over your profile. This means that you can occasionally request the removal of client feedback." This passage if from Upwork support page titled 'Feedback Removal'