How to get an AI gig from Upwork

This blog is designed to provide strategic insights and tips on how to make money on upwork and set you up on a career track in AI, be it in your hometown, in USA or anywhere in the world.

I will teach you how to: 1) find paying AI jobs on Upwork 2) Win good AI jobs on Upwork 3) Exit Upwork with better career opportunities

What is Upwork

With in the number of AI startups year over year, startups co-founders are finding it increasingly difficult to find and hire workers with qualified technical skills. To compound this issue, companies want to hire people who can help on short to medium term projects which may take less than 2 months, not 2 years.

Enter Upwork (previously known as Elance). Upwork is a platform that connects freelancers with clients. Upwork is hugely valuable for freelancers who want to gain international work experience and even get paid higher than they would in their home country.

Benefits of Upwork

As a foreign freelancer on Upwork, gaining international (US, European) work experience while working from anywhere is hugely beneficial. In my honest opinion, there are two major benefits: To Gain USA Work Experience and to Work From Anywhere.

To Gain USA Work Experience

Getting USA work experience and getting paid in USA dollars, outside of USA territories, are virtually impossible.

Amplified by the Trump administration, getting work status for any non-US citizen or non-work visa holders is not easy peasy. Upwork offers a legal way of working with legitimate USA clients. If you do well and if the clients are reasonable, you would then put your work experience on your resume and get a direct referral from a US contact. As over 80% of the job opportunities are found through networking in the USA, Upwork is an invaluable platform to get your feet wet and gain that critical first working experience from an American recruiter. If you do a good job, having recruiters to shell out H1BN or other working visa sponsorship fees would be exponentially easier. Sometimes getting that foot in the door would open up a huge career opportunity and perhaps change your life forever.

Work from Anywhere

For those in search of a more liberal lifestyle choice, being a Upwork freelancer means you can work anywhere, as long as there is a stable internet connection. There are many skilled workers whose goals include traveling and life adventure…working on Upwork fits that bill.

With that being said, let’s go ahead and sign up for Upwork.

Making your Upwork Profile

Although you may be inclined to apply to as many jobs as possible, start your Upwork Profile with a niche skill like “High Authority Backlink SEO Expert”. For a newcomer to Upwork, this is especially important.

There are a couple of sections that you need to pay attention to as a freelancer: Headline, Overview, Profile Photo, Experience and Portfolio.

Headline

Headline is the first thing the client sees on your profile. This is effectively an attention grabber for people. Headlines should focus on one or two skills and preferably in a niche industry.

Let’s stay that you are a copywriter with a knack for blogging, don’t just put copywriter in the headline but put something like copywriter and blogger for the Oil and Gas Industry.

Overview

Overview is a summary of your skills and describes how you stand out against other freelancers. Example is shown below.

“Looking for AI developer in Health? Look no further: +10 years of Health experience at Siemens Health.

I have built AI image recognition for small and medium sized health clinics like DaZhi Clinic, video chat platforms for physicians from hospitals like Duke Hospital, and on-demand applications for mental health therapists.

My skills include Pytorch, Tensorflow, OpenCV, Python, AWS, Pandas, Keras, Azure, SQL, Jupyter.

I am also the co-founder of a VC funded KJ Online, Taiwan’s first video mental health platform. Regularly invited to keynote conferences to speak in experiences in technology startups at CES and Tech In Asia. We were Featured on TechNode, All Tech Asia, Digital News.

I am committed, responsive and I deliver on time.”

Profile Photo

While you certainly do not need to look like Brad Pitt, your clients would still want to see your photo to boost trust and credibility. A natural headshot with a good background image or color would be considered a great photo. There have been cases where fake profile photos like an attraction woman or a person of European origin are used instead of freelancers’ real face. Don’t be those freelancers, fake photos will only worsen your chance of getting a job.

Experience

This is where you would list your relevant work experiences. Your description should include who you worked with, what you did, and the results. Below is an example for an application to a business plan project:

“I have personally developed and pitched over 5 scenario models including cash flow analysis and financial forecast models for various social enterprises and my work resulted in over $500K of funding from Bill Gates Foundation”

Portfolio

This section of the profile is arguably the most important as a client can see if you have an relevant past working samples for the job. This shows that you did walk the walk and have evidence to prove it. For example, if you’re a web designer, then you should add links in your portfolio to the sites you had built. That being said, be sure it doesn’t violate any privacy or non-disclosure agreements you had signed before.

For your Upwork account setup, you will be asked to choose your skill level: Beginner, Intermediate and Expert. Based on my personal experience and research, most of the posted jobs are looking for freelancers with intermediate skills level. So, if you want your application to be seen by most clients, then it would be beneficial to have intermediate skills.

How to find your first Upwork Job

Getting your first job on Upwork can be an uphill battle if you do not already have a proven track record. For so many applications, your Upwork review/rating can make or break a potential deal.

One trick to overcome this catch 22 is to work for free on the condition that the client gives you a perfect job review and rating. The client may be your friends or family member as they are more inclined to give you a good review.

How to find the right Upwork Job

Every single day, there are hundreds if not thousands of job applications on Upwork. Most of whom are skilled or not so skilled workers from third world nations vying for short term gigs. As such, you are competing with candidates who would be willing to take on jobs that pay less than $5 USD per hour.

Get the right plan

As a profit making enterprise, Upwork offers a FREE plan and a PAID plan called Freelancer Plus for freelancers. For someone starting out on Upwork, I recommend paying 14.99 USD per month and choose their PAID plan. With a paid plan, you get the following:

1. 70 connects per month, with the ability to buy additional connects for $1 each

2. unused connects can be carried over to the next month

3. availability to see competitors’ high, average, and low bids for a job post.

4. discoverable Upwork profile, even if you are inactive

5. Upwork Earnings confidentiality

6. Differentiate with a customize profile URL

Jobs to avoid

Just like there are many questionable freelancers on Upwork, there are questionable jobs. Here is a list of red flags for jobs to avoid:

1. Low budget amount
2. Unreasonable expectations
3. Unprofessional and vague job description
4. Dated and old projects
5. Low average hourly rate paid
6. Low hire rate
7. Payment unverified
8. Too many applicants
9. Bad client review
10. Not in the same time zone

Low budget amount

When you see a job that has a budget of $5 to $10, it’s a good idea to skip or ignore them. No third world country, no matter how low the minimum wage is, would be willing to take on such skilled jobs.

Below is an example of a job you should skip as a PHP Code should cost no more than just $5. Negotiating with the client for an upsell service would most likely be next to impossible.

Unreasonable expectations

Unreasonable expectations usually involve unreasonable deadline. Quite a number of clients are developers or agencies themselves and are looking for cheaper outsourcing solutions with a quicker turnaround time. If a client asks you to finish a project in a few days that should normally take a few months, walk away.

Unprofessional and Vague Job Description

A lot of clients just simply do not know who to write a proper job description. This is usually a good indicator of how well they know about the skills required for the job and how you would be more than likely to encounter difficulties communicating in the future.

Below is a job posting titled “Website”. It asks freelancers to work on a 3-page website. Without much description, it’s incredibly hard to ask what of website they would like to build: a static one or a dynamic one. What would the UI/UX design look like and what would be its industry and market?

Dated and old projects

One thing I’ve learned is to apply for projects that is pretty recent. Coming from years of full-time job experience, normal 9–5 job postings usually get listed on job boards for an average of 2 months. In contrast, job postings on Upwork may only stay up for one week. The chances of getting a reply from a client increases greatly when you apply within 1 or 2 days after the jobs were posted.

Below was my personal example of losing a client due to slower than usual response rate.

Low average hourly rate paid

A good rule of thumb to avoid competing with freelancers from lower wage countries is to only apply for jobs that charge at least $25 USD per hour. Clients who have a low average hire rate tend to haggle and negotiate down to the pennies.

Low hire rate

Low hire rate means the client is either incredibly picky or there may even be a competitor pretending to be a client, trying to gather intelligence. Further, freelancers should look for hire rates of 50% or higher.

One example of a client with a low average hourly rate and low hire rate is shown below:

Payment Unverified

I would say that over half of the jobs listed on Upwork are payment unverified. Payment unverified means clients have posted jobs but their forms of payment have not been verified.

Either their credit cards, ACH, or other payment methods haven’t been processed in time or the worst case scenario is, they simply can’t pay you. While payment unverified clients may need a bit of time to get their payments setup, I would recommend avoiding these clients altogether, such as the sample below:

Too Many Applicants

Some common jobs like website design or SEO optimizations get over 100 job applicants. Many freelancers have high job scores (over 90%), good reviews, and low rates. Also, jobs that are “Featured” are also difficult to get a response, even if you have a good profile. It’s good to identify these jobs and understand that it can be very competitive.

Bad Client Review

On Upwork, both clients and freelancers can leave a review about each other. If a client has mixed or mostly negative job reviews, then I would be wary about working with them. It’s good to avoid these clients as they are more likely to leave bad reviews without any proper reason:

Not the same timezone

Unless you are a night owl, staying well into the wee nights for a client on the other side of the world may be hard to manage. For long term consistent work, it’s best to work with someone in the same geographic region.

Making a solid Upwork Portfolio

Cover Letter

Hiring a freelancer from a platform is different from hiring a full-time/part-time employee. Freelancer recruiters would be less inclined to read about your background, academic and cultural fit as you are not expected to report to the office everyday. They want to know instead, if you can get the job done. Thus, cover letters on Upwork should be short and to the point. A Freelancer Cover Letter should be broken down as follows:

Introduction

In one or two sentences, explain your current position and expertise and include how many years you have been working.

Body

This is where you would provide any relevant case studies, past working samples or successful projects to showcase your expertise. Also, in one or two sentences, you should explain why you can complete the task and how you will go about doing it.

End

Wrap up the cover letter with a call to action. Write something like “Contact me and I will send you a free diagram or template to kick off this project”. A Call to Action encourages the client to take action on your application.

Below is an example of a cover letter for a business plan gig in the energy industry:

Looking for someone to write your business plan? Look no further: I have +10 years of business consulting experience at Deloitte, Unilever, Siemens.

Please find relevant work samples

• Made business plan for over five social start-ups in Ethiopia and Kenya, as a result, successfully launched honey-processing and maize processing projects with over $250K in annual funding by international VC funds.
• Performed roll-out financial projections of solar power projects with developers, subcontractors and local stakeholders-Outperformed delivery times and ensured cash inflows for Abacus Renewables.

With my direct experiences at Abacus Renewables, I am confident that I can help write a professional business plan by doing market research and building out financial models to get your company funded right away.

Please feel free to leave a message and I can send you a demo of my past work samples.

Best Regards

Wilson Kao

+15556411442

Skills

Skills are basically keywords so when a client types in the skills they are looking for in the search bar and if you have those skills listed, then you might appear on their search results. Make sure you pick the skills you are really good at. For example, if you are a marketing professional, include skills such as:

· Display Advertising

· Facebook Ads

· Google Ads

· Marketing Automation

· Google Analytics

· Leads Generation

· Keyword Research

· Influencer Research

Niche Up

For Upwork, you would want to focus on a specialty that is applicable across different industries rather than focusing on one industry only. For example, if your specialty is SEO, then you would say you do backlinks and links acquisition rather than just SEO.

Competitor Research

One trick to understanding who you are up against is to create a client account and post a job that you can do pretty well. Quite quickly, you will see a number of freelancers applying to your job post. You get to see their application, cover letter, work experiences, samples and how they message you. These are amazing intelligence or information you can use to gain the upper hand.

Be wary of exaggerated budgets

Occasionally, you would start seeing Upwork jobs with astronomical budgets like over $100,000 dollars. These are most likely real job posts but with fake budgets from third world countries. They are seeking talented developers to outsource their own projects. In other words, they are also developers or agencies. To attract the best developers, they often overly inflate budgets to lure people into applying for their jobs.

20 dollars to 30 dollars per hour rate is the sweet spot

Forget about competing with other freelancers who charge less than 5 bucks per hour. These guys usually know they are underbidding their services and their performance and quality of output shows. Many times, in the middle of a project, these freelancers would ask higher hourly rates for no reason and when their clients refuse, the projects would then be stalled.

If clients complain how high your rate is, bring to the table your value and justify your rates. You might remind them of your experiences, your cost of living, your professionalism and your diligence. If you meet clients who are impossible to talk to, it’s a good sign to pass their project.

The Client takes interest in your application, what’s next?

Inbound vs Outbound Clients

There are two ways of acquiring clients through Upwork: Inbound vs Outbound. Inbound means getting invited to a project and outbound means freelancers finds the project through searching and applying for jobs.

Inbound clients are almost always easier to close the deal and negotiate for a higher pay.

The chance of getting invited to a job depends on a variety of factors, most notably:

1. good job score
2. good job review
3. getting consistent payment from your ongoing jobs
4. no idling or open contract that has no activity
5. Upwork’s own search result algorithms

Below is a sample of a Upwork notification for a job invitation:

Please note that for freelancers just starting out, it may be difficult to get inbound clients. Getting your foot in the door meanings applying to a lot of jobs opening. We are going to talk more about tips and tricks to getting an job offer for both inbound and outbound clients.

Read the damn Job Description, Please!

One thing that clients on Upwork universally hate is receiving job applications from freelancers who didn’t spend a second reading the job description.

Below is a sample of a freelancer that clearly shows he did little to read the job description.

Due to a great number of low quality applications, some clients would include an instruction in the job description. For example, a client would ask applicants to type in “Saturday” in their applications. Those who failed to do so would not be considered for the job.

How to close the deal after your first contact with a client.

For most freelancers, they won’t get any response from clients after greeting each other. Getting a job is not easy and landing one would require good sales skills. With excellent communication and persuasion, you could easily beat out your competition.

Below is an example of a freelancer asking for a job offer. Obviously, the freelancer did not get the job.

Follow up, Follow up, Follow up

Having a consistent response rate and follow up strategy works wonders. Here is a list of some sample follow up messages if you feel the prospective client has gone AWOL:

Having a consistent response rate and follow up strategy works wonders. Here is a list of some sample follow up messages if you feel the prospective client has gone AWOL:

Hey {Client’s Name}! Can I reach out to you occasionally to keep you posted on the new features and updates we roll out?

Just wanted to know if it is bad timing, or just not a good fit for your business?

It seems like this is not a priority for you now. Can I reach back out to you in 2 months?

I understand you might be talking with other freelancers. Is there anything I could do to make you reconsider? Is X (pricing, lead time etc.) a concern?

Have you given up on this? Should I reach out after a few weeks?

Below is an example of how I personally received a job offer by giving an attention grabbing message that helped strengthen my application:

Eventually, I was offered the job for which I accepted. The project was completed without a hitch and I was given a bonus due to going above and beyond for my work.

Video or Audio Call with Client

Most freelancers are passive on Upwork, meaning that freelancers expect clients to provide all the detailed list of requirements, flowcharts, diagrams and what not. One strategy to distinguish you from others is to take initiative and provide a free consultation over a call. Having a call is so much better than any communications platforms because it not only clears miscommunication, but creates a bond between you two. Also, a lot of clients who would shell out money would also be those people who have little or no idea in the area of your expertise. Being able to guide your clients and potentially upsell your services can help you stand out.

It might take a couple of days between getting invited to a job and receiving an offer. Most likely, clients would be talking to multiple freelancers before hiring one and/or are busy with other priorities. For that matter, it is recommended to follow up with them on a daily basis. Dropping them a “Hello, how are you doing?”, can help client remember you against other candidates.

Hourly or Fixed/Milestone based Project

As a freelancer, I am a big fan of hourly projects as it tends to be projects that are bigger, more challenging and more long term. For hourly projects, you would need to use a Desktop version of Upwork. The Desktop version has a time tracker that records time when you are working and periodically takes screenshots of your screens. This ensures that you are not watching Netflix or working and watching Netflix at the same time while on your client’s dime.

As for milestone projects, Upwork has an escrow account to release payment once a certain milestone is reached.

The main reason why I prefer hourly projects is because unless a client rejects, you can get paid automatically on a weekly basis, without clients doing any action on their part. Where for fixed/milestone projects, the client has to manually approve the payment and fund the next milestone. Many clients ghost in the middle of a project, leaving you empty handed if you completed a milestone.

Best Practices While Working on Upwork

Differences between Upwork Desktop version Vs. Mobile version

In my personal opinion, the desktop version has less bugs and loads faster than the Mobile version. Plus, you can open up multiple browser tabs and apply to many jobs at once. Multi-tasking is something you can’t really do when you are using your phone. Also, the Mobile version tends to crash more often for some unknown reason.

Tips on how to successfully work with your client

The hardest part is over, you’ve received a job offer after doing research on both the project and the client. Now you have to start and complete the project. Here are some tips to consider while you work:

· Be available

· Be honest

· Document everything

· Tools are your friend

· Draw diagrams, design flows, and mock frames

Be Available

While easier said than done, being available means responding to client messages or queries in a timely manner. If your client lives on the other side of the world, then that could get a bit tricky; however, most clients would understand the time zone differences and are understanding if you replied a half a day later.

Clients typically message freelancers about the status of the job or have new ideas or feedback about the job. As a freelancer, you might get annoyed by the frequent requests or unreasonable expectations.

My advice is to never ignore or ghost the client. Clients major pain point when dealing with remote freelancers is the possibility of getting ghosted by freelancers.

If you are facing issues with your client, having an audio or video call can really clear things up and soften the mood. If your client is still unreasonable or unreachable, you can take it up with Upwork and they do a pretty good job being the mediator.

Be honest

If you are having a blocker with your project, don’t keep it from the client. Being open and honest about the job progress is always better than trying to hide your problems. In my experience, if I hit a roadblock with my work, I would explain it to my client. If you need additional team members to work on the project, tell it to your client. Chances are, he or she would have no qualms about hiring additional headcounts to complete the project. You, as a freelancer, may also tell your client that you are able to find help by yourself.

Document Everything

Let’s say you’ve done everything you could to vet the project and the client. However, somehow for some reason, the project went off the rails. For example, you’re assigned to do a fixed project with multiple milestones. The client is refusing to release the last milestone because he/she thinks you haven’t refactored a Python snippet. You and the client then go into a heated argument due to different expectations. Had you documented all your work and recorded all the communications, the risk of disputes would be less.

Tools are your friend

There’s no way to do your job without some sort of tools. My must-have tools are the following:

· Trello

· Google Docs

· Docusign

· Calendly

· Skype

· Draw.io

· Codementor

Trello

Trello is a collaboration tool that allows you to organize your projects into a. online whiteboard. Incredibly simple to use and navigate, it allows you to write down what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and what’s the work in the process. Trello is useful only when your client participates in it. For documentation, be sure to recommend Trello or other collaboration tools to your client.

Google Docs

Got huge files that you want to share and store? You can’t go wrong with Google Docs. While Github is also great as a repository, its mostly used for developers and programmers. Get your client on Google Docs from the outset to get the most out of it.

Docusign

Projects are typically kicked off with a signed NDA. When you are a nomad freelancer, getting access to a fax machine while living on a beach can be a challenge. Docusign allows electronic signature for legally enforceable contracts between you and your client.

Calendly

Schedule a call with calendly. All the client has to do is to click on the link, choose a time slot. Calendly can be integrated to your Google Calendar or Calender on your smartphone/computer to send both parties reminders.

Skype

Skype, Zoom or any other voice/video calling application are getting all the hype nowadays due to COVID-19. Despite having its own voice/video call, Upwork’s communications tools are hard to use. Having open and clear communications from the start are important, so getting on a call can save you a lot of hassle and time.

Draw.Io

Talk is good but the next step should be laying out the blueprint. Draw.Io, which is compatible with Google Doc, is a free online diagram software for making flowcharts, process diagrams, charts, etc. If your client has collaborated with you on the diagram stage, then there is a low likelihood of miscommunication in the future.

Codementor

If you are stuck on something, be it an error message in your terminal or a bug in your Python script that you can’t resolve, don’t fret. Community boards, discussion forums or on-demand coding mentor platforms like Codementor can help you do pair coding.

It’s important to note that I get no sponsorship or affiliate money from these companies. I simply recommend them because I use them on a daily basis.

What to do after the job is completed

So the project is nearing to its end and everything is peaches and gravy. Many clients and freelancers leave on good positive terms and because leaving a good review on Upwork might take more than 5 minutes, you might feel shy or apprehensive about asking for a good job score and review. Do always ask for a good review and follow through with this. If your client feels put off by this request, just mention how you would also leave a good review for him/her. Below is my personal public with a couple of good reviews:

Taking the next step off of Upwork

As of year 2020, Upwork takes 20% off from any deals between the freelancer and the client. That’s a lot of money.

Upwork is never the end game but an important step to your career. If you are good at what you do and you and your client trust each other, you might ask to sign a long term contact outside of Upwork. Cutting out the middleman can really make a difference and if your vying for a full time corporate job in a developed country, your clients might very well be the only people who can open doors for you.

For those who are interested in working for a promising AI B2B SI, send a message to Growthbotics.