Get Your first job on upwork

 - What's up everyone? Welcome to Josh Burns Tech. Are you new to freelancing onUpWork and are you struggling to get your first job on the platform? If so, then stick around'cause in this video I'm gonna give you fivetips that will help you get your first job onUpWork coming right up. (bright Christmas music) So listen, if this isyour first time here, my channel focuses on tech how-to videos, tech reviews, and freelanceconsulting tips and tricks so to stay up to date onall the future content coming to the channel, be sure to hit the subscribe button in the bottom right handcorner of your screen. And now let's go aheadand jump into the video. So before we jump into the five tips, to give you a littlebackground and history of my journey on UpWork as a freelancer, I started in May of 2016 and since then, I've made nearly $400,000across 70 different client jobs and also worked more than 5,300 hours. I recently flew out toUpWorks headquarters in San Francisco, I got tomeet some really great people and I'm a huge believer in the platform especially moving forward into the future giving you the flexibilityto make your own schedule, control your pay and take advantage of all the amazing opportunitiesthat exist on UpWork, and my goal is to be anexample of that for you, to show you what is possibleif you put the work in, what is possible pay-wise, being able to build your online brand, your online portfolio, theopportunities are endless if you're willing totake advantage of them and put the work in. So before we jump into the five tips to help you get your firstjob on UpWork as a freelancer, the first thing that youobviously need is a great profile. So if you don't have a great profile yet, you just started, you haven't put the time in to making it great, besure to watch my last video which focuses on UpWork top rated tips and one big section of that video, I focus on profile, I gothrough my entire profile, explain what I did to create it and you really need togo through that first before watching this video. So if you haven't watched that yet, go ahead and click on the cardat the top of screen here, it's gonna link you to my last video so you can go through that,get your profile looking great and attractive before youjump into these steps. So now let's go ahead anddive into tip number one which is find the rightjobs using advanced search. There are literallymillions of jobs on UpWork so it's vital that you'refinding the right jobs, applying for the right jobsthat fit your skillset, your knowledge and what you can provide value with to clients. So what we're gonna lookat now is advanced search which I highly recommend that you use when finding jobs on UpWork. So when you're on theFind Work tab of UpWork, click on the Advanced Search option which is right below theSearch For Jobs text box. This is gonna give you different options that you can fill in todo your advanced search. The one that I would recommend is where it says Any of These Words or it can be All These Wordsbut Any of These Words, I'm gonna enter in SQL which applies to specific jobs that I bidon and that I work on myself. So I'm gonna type in SQL, you would enter in something for yourself. If you're in graphic design, enter in graphic design for instance. Type that in and then hit Search. So as you can see, now we'rein the Advanced Search, we have SQL typed in as thekeyword that we're looking for and what we can do now is we can click on theFilters button right here and this is gonna giveus a lot of other options that we can include in our search. So these other options includejob type, hourly or fixed. I wouldn't really limit thatin your search initially when you're trying to get your first job, keep both of them in there 'cause you're gonna wannasee both types of jobs. Then you have experience level which includes entry level,intermediate, and expert. So the price, the hourly rate, the overall budget for the job usually correlates directlyto the experience level so you can see entrylevel has one dollar sign, intermediate has two dollar signs and expert has three dollar signs. We're not gonna limit that right now but I usually do currently because what I do is Ilimit all my searches to expert or intermediate,not usually mainly just expert because hourly rates for intermediate are gonna drop off below what I charge so usually expert level. But to get your first job, we're gonna leave all of them selected so we can take a look at them. On Client History, we're gonna leave it as Any Client History because personally I've had a lot of jobs where I was their firstfreelancer on UpWork and some of those haveturned into big clients so I'm not gonna limit that. Client Info, PaymentVerified is probably one that we want to selectespecially for your initial job because the new clients thataren't payment verified yet, if you're bidding on their jobs, one thing you would have to do is before they actually hired you, you have to tell them you know, go ahead and make youraccount payment verified to make sure that theycan actually pay you. So to prevent you from having to go through that process initially when you're trying to get your first job, we're gonna filter that out. Number of Proposals is definitely one that I would consider very important when you're trying to get your first job on UpWork as a freelancer. If you look at the 20to 50 proposal range, if you've been on that, it's probably gonna be a waste your time, it may not be but 99% of the time is probably gonna be a waste your time because clients are gonna look through the different proposals, they're gonna see allthese other freelancers that have a big history on UpWork built up and yours is probably gonnaget skipped all in that mix. So for this Advanced Search, we're gonna include the lessthan five proposal range. Five to 10 and then 10 to 15 as well. Next for budget we're gonnaleave it open at any budget. If you already had ahistory built up on UpWork, then you only want toapply to certain jobs that have a certain level of a budget, then you can include thathere in the Advanced Search. We're gonna leave it opensince this is your first job, you're trying to get on UpWork so we're gonna leave that as Any Budget. On Hours Per Week, youdon't wanna limit that, leave it as Any Hours Per Week and then Project Length as well, leave it as Any Project Length. So when you're going through and applying filters to your search, you don't have to hit searchagain or anything like that, it's dynamic and it's automatically going to update the listingof jobs that you're seeing. Before we dive in and lookat some of the job listings that popped up basedon our advanced search, what we can do now is wecan also save this search where we can quickly useit again in the future. So I'm just gonna click on Save Search which is this button right here and we'll type in firstjob and click Save. So be able to see this onour main five jobs screen so that we can quickly click on it next time we're lookingfor a job on UpWork. So now with all of our filters applied, we can take a look atjobs that met our filters. So what we'll do now is scroll down and take a look at a few of these jobs. So these jobs met all the filters, they have the SQL keywordincluded in them as well. This one right here is one I bid on, I was trying to get my firstjob on UpWork as a freelancer. It has an overall fixedbudget price of $50 which is low but you want to get some reviews under your belt,get some five-star reviews, this is one I have alot of experience with in high availability for SQL server. It's one that I know I candeliver five-star value on so this is one that Iwould bid on initially to get my first job on UpWork, get a great review under my belt and start building up client trust. So then again scrolling downlooking at all the other jobs, you can see that all of theseare meeting our filters, they're jobs that we wouldwant to bid on initially when trying to get our first job, they all have a low amount of proposals, I've been applying to them,they're really new jobs, and they're ones that meet allthe filters that we applied. We're now ready to diveinto tip number two which is apply quick. Applying to jobs quicklyis gonna get your proposal ranked higher in their list of proposals. They're gonna be able to see your proposal ranked towards the topbecause there are gonna be very little amount of proposalsthat have been sent in for that specific job. And most often, afterclients post their job, they're gonna look atthe initial proposals that are coming in from freelancers. I know this because I have afreelance employer account, I used it to hire myvideo editor for YouTube and after I submitted my job on UpWork, I found myself payingattention to the freelancers that were bidding quickly, I took a look at their work history, not even just their UpWorkhistory but the jobs they listed as their previous jobs of employment, I took a look at those, any type of samples ofwork they submitted as well and then I short-listed thefreelancers that I liked a lot. So I'm not recommending thatyou only focus on new jobs, I'm just recommending thatyou apply to those jobs first because that's gonnagive you the best chance to get a client to startinteracting with you and message you about their job. So to make sure those are appearing at the top of your advanced search, we've already done one thing to do that and that is to listthe number of proposals to limit it to less thanfive, five to 10, 10 to 15. Those are typically gonna be new jobs that are gonna fall within that filter. The second thing is to makesure the sort is on newest. So there's different typesof sorting that you can do, the main thing is tomake sure it's on newest, it's gonna place the newestjobs at the top of your list. Now with the number ofproposal filters set up and we have the sort on newest, we can scroll down and wecan start seeing the jobs that were just recently posted. So this one it's an interesting job flag, that's the reason it'shere, it's five days ago. The only reason it's appearingon the top of the list 'cause it's this interesting job flag that UpWork uses to place certain jobs at the top of your list so it is older but that's all the reasonit's appearing there. Now if we start looking at the other jobs, you can see this Azure expert one was only posted 16 minutes ago, 45 minutes ago, 50 minutes ago, look at this, less than five proposals, less than five proposals, five to 10 when you startgetting into an hour ago, less than five, that'swhy I'm recommending that you apply to jobs quickly. There's gonna be a low amount of proposals and your proposal has abetter chance of being seen by the client when there's avery small amount of proposals that have been submitted for their job. Now we're ready to jumpin to tip number three which is write proposalsto attract clients. In addition to bidding on jobs quickly, it's also vitally important that you're writing attractive proposals to convince the client to hire you even though you're a new freelancer without any reviews or any feedback, you need to convincethe client to hire you over freelancers that do havefeedback and previous history, so your proposal is something that's very important and doing that. So even though I personally think my proposals were absolutely horrible when I first started and yourswon't be that great either and you're gonna continuously improve your proposals over time, we're gonna take a lookat my first proposal that helped me obtain my first job on UpWork as a freelancer. So I got my first job onUpWork as a freelancer on May 31st of 2016. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at this specific job, see what I used my proposal that helped give me the job over other freelancers so let's dive into that now. For this first job thatI obtained on UpWork, I worked a little bit over 41 hours and made a little bit over $1,000 as well. And honestly that exceeded my expectations of my first job on UpWork. I was very happy tomake what I made on that and then work the amount of hours that I got on that job as well. So the first important thing that I did and something you definitely need to do is read the job description fully. So I read through the job description, I found out that it was a jobrelated to updating a database which is definitely in mywheelhouse of my skills that I do so I read the job description fully, made sure it was somethingthat I should be bidding on and then also checked out, made sure it was payment verified which is gonna happen from the filter that I showed you how to apply earlier and the client reviewswere also great as well so this client has reallygood reviews from freelancers giving them reviews andhonestly that type of review definitely fits this client, was one of my best clientsthat I've worked with and that's something todefinitely pay attention to. Make sure that you're gonnastart out with a client that's at least a fourto five star client. You don't want to start out with any less than that initially because you want yourfirst job to be a good one. You wanna get a great review,you wanna work with a client that's gonna communicate well and notice what they're doing on UpWork and it's going to be fair. So make sure that you're atleast working with a client that has four to five starreviews on your first job. After reading the job description fully, making sure it's somethingthat I should be applying to, it's something that's in my skillset, something that applies to my expertise, I would then submit mycover letter or proposal. So now we're going totear through my proposal on the first job thatI obtained on UpWork. We're gonna look atthings that I did poorly but also look at things that I did well that helped get me the job. I started out listing the SQLserver DBA role that I was in, the extensive experience that I have with the different versions of SQL server and then I went into somedaily duties and tasks that I performed routinely. I probably would have left all these out, they're definitely not in theproposals that I submit now, these are kind of fluff and they just aren't reallyneeded for this type of proposal so this whole section hereI would have excluded. This section up here is good,I would leave that in there, I have something similar to that now, it's definitely different because I have a few different roles, especially jobs that I apply to on UpWork, so this is a little bitdifferent but very similar. But from here to down to right here, that would completely be gone, this is not needed and shouldbe excluded from my proposal. As an alternative to this section that I just recommended that be removed, what I would have done isincluded something specific to their description. So their job description wasrelated to updating a database so I would have went through,figured out some type of job or task that I had previously where I did some databaseupdates and I would have included something specific tothat in this section. So now my mindset is to dive into their specific job description and give something from my experience that relates directly to it in that section that I justrecommended that we remove. And now if we scroll down a little bit, this last section is probablywhat helped me obtain my first job on UpWork. So in this last section,I started out by stating that I was just beginning myfreelancing career on UpWork, however, you can reviewmy five star ratings, outstanding reviews and100% completion rate on my Freelancer.com profile. So I initially startedout on Freelancer.com, I initially started there, did a few jobs, so I included that inmy proposal to show them that I had great reviews on Freelancer. I didn't have many, I only did like you knowlike five jobs or so but I had some good reviews on there so I included that in here. That's not exactly whatI think got me the job, it's the next section down. Let's read over this last section. I can assure you that ifyou work with me once, you will always work with meon these kinds of projects. I will do whatever it takes to completely 100% deliver on this project and earn a five starrating from you as well. This last section not onlydisplays my confidence and my ability to deliver on this project and do it successfullybut it also gives them a sense of my work ethic, the work that I'm willingto put into this job because I'm willing todo whatever it takes to get a five star review from them, I'm going to over-deliverand exceed any expectations they have for me as a freelancer. And that's vitallyimportant, on your first job, your mindset has to be thatyou're going to over-deliver, whatever's expected of you,you're gonna go beyond that no matter if you have to work more hours than you initially wanted to. If it's a fixed price, you'regonna be putting more hours in than you want to based onthe budget for the job. You have to be willing to over-deliver to exceed their expectations. So be sure to use everythingI gave you in this tip to help you write a proposal to get your first job onUpWork as a freelancer and also check out my previous video, I'm going to link another card above. Check out that video, it's geared more towardsmy current proposals but that will give you a sense of what I'm doing rightnow for my proposals so that once you're ableto get your first jobs, you can move on and gear your proposals towards different clients. And again, I'll keeprepeating it, over-deliver. Over-delivering is gonna getyou reviews like this one. A good five star review, great feedback that looksgreat on your profile and stands out when otherclients come to your profile and they start checking out your reviews that you have in your history. Now let's move into tip number four which is nail your interview. So after you've attracted aclient with your cover letter, you've got them to messageyou about their job, the next thing I recommend doing is jumping on a call with them, a quick call to further discusstheir job in more detail and identify how yourskillset can best fit them and their job and help them be successful. So if you look at mycurrent cover letters, this wasn't in the onethat we just looked at from my older cover letters but be sure to include this in yours because here's what I stated. Please let me know when you'd be available for an initial 15 to 30minute call free of charge so that we can discussyour project in more detail and identify how my skillsetwill work best for you. This is definitelysomething that I recommend that you include at thebottom of your cover letter, it's worked very well for me. For clients that areinterested in hiring me, when I use this at thebottom of my cover letter, they always reach out to me to ask me when I would be available for the initial 15 to 30 minute call, it makes them feel likeI'm really interested in their project and it gives me a chance to better portray my skills to them to give them another reason to hire me over other freelancers. So just word this last parthowever you want to word it, you can change it around, you know, I'm not telling you to copy and paste what I'm using obviously but word it the waythat you want to word it to attract them to get onan initial call with you that will help you secure their job. So for this specific jobproposal that I submitted, it's for one of my clients thatI've done a lot of work for, one of my best clients. If we scroll down to lookat their first message to me after I submitted my proposal, they wrote, hi Joshua, do you have timeto discuss tomorrow 10AM EST? So they initially sent me the message after they saw my proposal, saw the last line that Iincluded about the initial call, their first message to me was to ask me if I was gonna be available the next day to get on a call with them. Some other items of adviceto nail your first interview would be to do your homework, read over the job descriptionmore before the call, make sure you know whatyou're going to say, how you're going toportray yourself to them to provide value to themand completing their job or their project successfullyand be professional. Make sure even the way thatyou're typing on UpWork in the messaging feature, you're portraying yourselfin a professional manner and do the same for your interview. A lot of these clients may end up wanting to also get ona video call with you so make sure that you know I'm not saying dressprofessionally you know, it's UpWork, you're working from home, that's one of the best features of UpWork, but make sure that you look like you didn't just wakeout of bed five minutes ago, make sure that you at least are portraying yourselfin a professional manner and presenting yourself well. Don't just roll out of bed, get on a call, on a video call with the client, make sure that you're preparing yourself for that aspect of it as well. And now let's dive in to tip number five which is never give up mentality. So when you're working hard toget your first job on UpWork, you're putting in the time, you're working hard on yourproposals, your cover letters, submitting a lot of them and gearing themspecifically to client's jobs and you're still not hearingback from any clients, don't give up. I remember my first days onUpWork like it was yesterday. I was submitting a lotof proposals for jobs, my proposals weren't great obviously, they were a work in progress, I was submitting a lot of them, not hearing back from any clients. Trust me, I realize it gets discouraging to make you almost want to give up. I've been there, I knowexactly how you feel if you're in that situation at the moment but push through it. Be sure to look inward,look at what you're doing or what you can do differentlyto get your first job. I see too many freelancers complaining that they can't get jobs on UpWork because other freelancers bidlower than them price-wise, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I see too much of that, it's not true. I have the job history to back it up, I continuously get new jobs to back it up and they're just not putting in the work, they're not using the filters, they're not looking atthe right types of jobs or applying for the righttypes of jobs either. So again, the early dayson UpWork and freelancing, I've been there, I'vesubmitted tons of proposals and not heard back from any clients. However, don't give up because you're going tohear back from clients. The more proposals you submit, someone is going to selectyou, it's going to happen. So you just have to stay focused,keep submitting proposals, don't give up becausesomeone is going to like you and they're going to contact you. And you never know, youmay think it's gonna be some little job that you'regonna do, I've had those, I've had jobs that Isubmitted proposals for, I've got the job and I'm like okay, this is gonna be a smallerjob to complete quickly, something that'll be good for me to have. But then it's turnedinto something long-term, they've reached out to me to ask me if I could work with them more on different types of projects and some of those that I thought were gonna be very small jobs initially, turned out to be some of my biggest jobs that I've made some of themost money on on UpWork. I'm confident that if youfollow the tips from this video, you will get your first jobon UpWork as a freelancer and if you've already hadyour first job on UpWork, be sure in the comments section below to list the date that yourfirst job started on UpWork. Again, my channel focuseson tech how to videos, tech reviews and freelanceconsulting tips and tricks so on this end screen, be sureto hit that subscribe button for more videos just like this. Until next time. (lighthearted Christmas music)