UpWork: what is Top Rated and what does it eat

Relatively recently, on the UpWork exchange (formerly oDesk), freelancers have the opportunity to get Top Rated status and this is the badge on their profile:

According to UpWork, Top Rated status helps successful freelancers build a career and become even more successful.

Having this icon on your profile page is easier to get a job from a potential employer. He immediately sees that you are not just an ordinary freelancer, but a freelancer, whose skill is recognized by the UpWork exchange. The number of freelancers with Top Rated status does not exceed 10% of the total number of freelancers on the UpWork exchange.

How to get TopRated status

According to official information, a freelancer with TopRated status should meet the following characteristics:

• The value of Job Success should be more than 90%
• Earnings for the past 12 months should exceed $ 1,000
• 100% completed profile with a photo that meets the requirements
• Regularly updated accessibility status for a new job
• Account must not be frozen for some reason
• At least a 30-day work history at UpWork

In principle, all these requirements are understandable, with the exception of the first - Job Success, the success of the work.

What is Job Success?

According to UpWork, Job Success is the average measure of your reputation and success at UpWork. UpWork calculates this value from 24-month data and updates this value every two weeks. You can find out your current Job Success on the My Stats page. This is what it looks like:



When calculating Job Success, UpWork is guided by the following data:

• Public and private freelancer reviews
• Success of work
• Customer complaints
• Disputes
• Long term customers
• Reviews

In other words, for example, if you have work that is not completed to the end, you did not receive the money, or you returned the money to the client in full, they may be excluded from your profile, but these works will affect Job Success.

My Little Job Success Story

When I just introduced Top Rated and Job Success, I found that I have 100% Job Success and I have Top Rated status, and of course it made me happy. I wandered around my account and decided to delete 5 old contracts that I had completed, but not closed. I did the job, the employers, in principle, were in no hurry to close the contracts and leave feedback about me, because they got the main thing they wanted - work. I decided to close them myself. He left positive feedback for employers and closed contracts in connection with their successful completion. And a few days later I found that my Job Success became 88%, this is not enough for Top Rated. That is, a situation occurred when the work was completed successfully, everyone is happy, but since I closed the contract manually,

I wrote support for those then oDesk'a and described the situation. He asked a specific question - how does it affect the fact that I close old contracts myself, why my Job Success falls if the employer does not leave any feedback about me. And what to do if the employer has received what he wanted and does not want to leave a review, for example, he just forgets or does not have time. In response, I received instructions saying "you need to work better, more and everything will be fine." I asked again - there was no answer.

Having created another ticket in technical support with the same question, I again received general instructions that did not describe the details. Then I wrote messages to my customers asking them to leave feedback. Four out of five left excellent reviews, the fifth simply did not answer. And my Job Success became 97% and I became Top Rated. Now my Job Success has fallen slightly (93%) due to the closure of old contracts, but now it should increase, because I got good reviews.

Total

Having the status of Top Rated, high Job Success and a rating of 5 stars is much easier to look for work. I noticed that they began to send me invitations for interviews more often, more often they began to respond to my bids. Of course, their counting system is not perfect and needs to be improved, but in any case, if you are an intelligent specialist, or strive to be like that, you will be at the top. And, of course, you need to strive to look for good regular customers, because the rating is just a business card by which you are greeted.

Thank you for your attention and all success in your work!

UPD. May 31, 2015 my Job Success was updated and became equal to 100%. Apparently, UpWork gradually eliminates the problems of accounting for Job Success with open contracts.