I am also interested in this topic. All my clients from upwork are a start-up or small companies. Jobs are relatively simple in term of mechanical engineering (design). Clients mainly developing some sort of new products and want a 3d representation and technical drawing for production. Those are mainly jobs I got on upwork. Payment is decent, it is great as an additional income, but for a full time... It could work. I am not brave enough to move to full time. Also, there is still a lot of things to learn.
Freelancing is two way. Most online sites require that you bid for the jobs posted on the job boards. It is always an assumption that the more you bid, the higher your chances at landing a task, at times you have to underbid in order to beat several other freelancers interested in the same job. Freelancing is all about being competitive and delivering results. However, the process used by freelance sites can be hectic, plus they will have to sometimes deduct your earnings. Nonetheless, establishing yourself well in the freelance market can land you amazing projects. www.freelance.com is a good site, with plenty of freelancers and it can be hectic looking for a job. Another nice site will be www.upwork.com, be ready to place several bids before landing a simple task and also brace for some crazy service fees. You can also look at www.peopleperhour.com.
Yeah, I'm the same Dedeech. It's usually small companies, or individuals who have the first inklings of an idea for a new product but don't have the experience to actually physically make a 3D model or prototype. I was thrown into doing this full-time... which actually worked out great. But without that push I don't think that I'd have been brave enough to quit my day job either.
Does anyone have any tips on getting better jobs in the freelancing sector? The proposals I sent almost never get noticed and I barely get any replies for my proposals. I need to know what I am doing wrong. There were jobs that I am so good at and I would probably be able to do it with in hours, also I have done those jobs multiple times before. But I don’t understand why when I write these in the cover letter I don’t get noticed. I usually submit the least budget, the cheapest rates. Even then I am not getting any projects, not even the small ones. Is it because I am low-balling myself and people think I am probably incompetent ? Because if I am asked about my experience in the field I can provide examples and files for the client to see but I don’t want to show it to them until I am asked to. Is this a reason my proposals don’t get noticed? Also I am usually writing very informal coverletters because its just me. I am simple and I like talking simply, straightforward and to the point. I really need some help getting started with this freelance work. I just cant figure out what I am doing wrong!
Are you using a site like Upwork? Do you have any feedback on your profile? It's sort of counter-intuitive - I found that when I put my rates higher I got much better jobs... buuuut, I think you also need a base level of experience and feedback. It might be worth really underbidding just to get some jobs done and some feedback (and maybe mention this in the proposals). In terms of the cover letter - if I was hiring I wouldn't mind if it was a bit informal, as long as the freelancer seemed like they could actually do the job.
Yes exactly, upwork. I barely get jobs on it to get any feedback. And if I do get any feedback its just stars. So I am doing that right now, I am lowballing myself to get some work and get some feedback. But this isn’t working for me. I wish there was a secret code for proposal submission that would get me the jobs I actually would like to do So you think the certification and tests that upwork has, is a thing people would notice if they were to hire you? but remind you its for FEA or FEM jobs. Well I think the same way, if it was informal I would still hire. How would you determine if someone would be able to do the job or not ? I know by seeing the examples submitted. But no one ever asked for them. Other than that the fees of freelancing and the taxes are also deadly. Its like you are getting almost nothing at the end.
I think that the tests aren't really that relevant. I had only completed a few I think, and I don't remember looking at them when hiring people. I don't really even look at people's profiles much - it's mostly from the cover letter. What would make me want to hire someone is - * a fairly fast response, within a day at least * some indication that they've understood what I want - this could be asking relevant questions or showing examples of previous work that is similar to the job * friendly attitude * (price) That's it mainly. The most important thing (I think) is just somehow showing that you've understood the job brief and that you're suited to it. Regarding the fees - yes, they are pretty crappy, but I just look at it like with the site like Upwork I'd have 0%, with them I have 80%! You can also put up your rate to compensate. But it is definitely a bummer to have that 20% (plus some EU fees means it more like 22%). It's great when you drop down to 5% though - it's like an automatic payrise!
In my opinion, Upwork tests are extremely mediocre. Questions in tests for 90% are not essential for even an approximate assessment of a specialist. I passed a couple of engineering tests and the questions in them do not correspond to the professional qualities of the engineer. These tests are more similar to problems in physics of the 2nd university course. Many freelancers hire other people and agencies to pass tests, some of them are looking for help with placing work on Upwork =) Tests provide completely erroneous information for evaluating the engineer. Most of all I like the time limit of 40 minutes for 40 questions. In order to read a question, versions of answers and interpret it to a person with an average knowledge of English, it takes at least 40-50 seconds. I passed the test mashenical engineer of 40 questions, I did not receive a single question characterizing my engineering skills, approximately 50% of the questions were logically, it very similar to those asked by children in fourth grade in school. There were also questions from the school course of algebra and physics. I can not imagine how to determine the skills of a specialist by such a stupid test, this cannot be trusted. Only a cover letter, your portfolio and good communication will help you find customers. If you are rarely answered, you either do not write the cover letters well or you have a bad portfolio. I send 35 responses per month to about 10-12 I will get an answer. About 1/4 of them end up with a contract. I consider serious engineering work, where calculations and design of devices or optimization for production are needed, these are contracts from 500$ and higher. I respond to new positions of work that appeared not earlier than 12 hours ago and have no more than 20 responses. Sometimes I send my response to contracts where there are more than 20 responses. I do this when I already had a very similar job and can send an example along with a response. You do not have to respond to work with which you have little knowledge, even if you can understand it, you probably will not be able to interest the client with your answer without such work against the background of a professional with an example of similar work. You can also attract the attention of the client. To do this, specify the price for the work is insignificant or insanely high, this will draw attention to your response, then you will change the price. This can provoke a client to answer you simply out of curiosity and this will allow you to enter into a dialogue with him. Good luck! =)
Yeah, I found this with the test too. I think I got placed in the top 1%, or joint top, of one of the tests and it wasn't even that relevant to my actual experience, it was just logical answers. Great advice in the rest of your post and definitely worth following for anyone trying to get into this area of work.
That is a very good idea. If I have a job which I am sure I can complete in no time and have previous experience in that area, I will do the insanely high price trick to make sure I get the job. About the portfolio, I don’t have one. I only send out attachments of my work whenever needed. But since you are focusing on portfolio so much, I would like to know how to make one. What are the things I am supposed to put in there? About cover letters, I write them well but it depends on whether I am writing from my phone or my laptop. I have landed job both ways. I get replied about 10% of the time. Not more than that. I guess portfolio is the limiting factor here. Also, I live in the EU and the tax is 5% so basically I get paid 75% of the price. When do you drop down to 5%? I wish this day comes really fast to me. I still haven’t earned my first 500$ in upwork so I still pay 20% fees for Upwork services. Also usually clients ask for very specific software to be used for their projects and I don’t send out a proposal because I don’t have it. Do you guys think I should send out a proposal for these type of jobs and explain to the client in the coverletter that I can do the job in some other software? Do you think its worth the connect ?
