How to Get Your FIRST JOB on Upwork in 2021!

hey how's it going my name is josh burns and welcome to josh prince tech getting your first job on network can definitely be a struggle personally it took me about three to four months before i got my first job on network back in 2016 i didn't know how to attract clients and i certainly didn't know how to stand out among experienced freelancers who had tons of great reviews if you're struggling to get your first job on upwork but you know deep down that you have what it takes to be a successful freelancer then this video is definitely for you just take a little fraction of your 24 hour day to watch this entire video i promise it's going to be worth it why because i've been there and i know exactly what you're going through i've pushed through tons of failures and learned so much on upwork since i started in 2016 and now i'm one of the most successful freelancers on all of upwork i've earned over 650 000 worked over 8 000 hours worked on over a hundred jobs and i have numerous five-star reviews just like most things in life you will get out of freelancing what you're willing to put into it so if you're willing to put in the work to change your life and take control of it then i'm going to help you get there if you enjoy my freelance content and you want to see more of it then take a second to hit the like button on this video before we get started and make sure that you're subscribed to my channel with notifications enabled as well so you don't miss out on my future freelance content i have tons of great content planned out and i'm excited to share it with you there's numerous skills on upwork when someone asks me what jobs are available in upwork i basically tell them whatever can be done online is probably on upwork however every skill has different demand and different earning potential as well for example i currently make 125 an hour on sql dba and sql development projects on upwork not only have i positioned myself as one of the top sql freelancers on upwork but sql as a skill set generally pays well you can easily make six figures a year with a solid sql skill set if your skill set is in data entry for example then no matter how good you are no matter how you position yourself then you're always going to be held back a little bit and pay because in general data entry positions don't pay as well you can definitely still make pretty decent money with data entry as a skill set but if you compare data entry to something like sql dba sql development it does not pay as well so how do you identify demand and earning potential for your skill set or maybe a skill set that you're in the process of learning or just interested in the first thing that i see new freelancers doing consistently is searching for open jobs on upwork related to their skill set while this is definitely a great way to view open jobs related to a skill set on upwork i personally recommend a different approach to identify earning potential and demand for a skill set which is something that i recommend to all my patreons by the way if you're interested in joining the private discord server and meeting with me every month then check out my patreon at forward slash patreon.com stack which is also going to be linked in the description of this video when identifying a freelance skill to either learn or pursue i personally recommend searching for the top earning freelancers on upwork with that skill this can be such a great source of not only inspiration but motivation for you as well freelancers with the highest earnings job success scores and great reviews are the ones that you should be drawing your inspiration from they're obviously doing something right or they wouldn't be getting clients this is something that i personally did when i first started on upwork i searched for the highest earnings sql freelancers on upwork and i studied their profiles intensely and guess what now i'm the highest earning sql server freelancer on upwork i personally haven't found any other profile with over six hundred thousand dollars in earnings with the sql server skill set let that be an example of how powerful that this can be and now i'm gonna show you exactly how to do this you don't even need a network account in order to search for freelancers on upwork anyone can go to upwork.com and do exactly what i'm about to show you right now again this is something that's very easy to do you can see here i'm not logged in you don't need a network account in order to do this anyone can do it right now okay so at the top of the screen you can see the search bar and drop down make sure you have talent selected okay let's go ahead and find the top earning sql server dba freelancers so i'm going to type in sql server dba hit enter and now this is where i'm going to show you how to find the top earning freelancers this is where you need to get your inspiration and motivation from okay so on the left hand side this is where we can apply filters let's go ahead and throw some on that account right there looks pretty familiar i think i've seen that guy around somewhere okay let's take a look at just freelancers hourly rate let's expand it let's go ahead and go 60 and up job success score 90 and up earned amount definitely 10 000 and up again we're focusing on the top earning freelancers i don't know about you but when i first started that's what i wanted i wanted to be at the top at the very top of sql server dbas at the very top of sql developers that's what i focused on and you know what i got there we'll throw on hours build as well this one isn't as important because there's a lot of fixed price jobs on upwork but i know for sql server dbas definitely sql skill sets most of those are done hourly so we're going to throw this on i feel really good about these filters so let's go to the top and take a look you can apply this for any skill set all you have to do is change the skill right here change it to whatever your skill is whatever you're interested in learning this is easy to do and now we can start taking a look at the top earning freelancers here's mine second unfortunately you can't order this by earnings or anything like that i really wish upwork would add that feature in because it would be so nice to be able to see the top earning freelancers at the very top you can still see you know really high earning freelancers obviously two hundred thousand six hundred thousand one hundred thousand right here but it would be nice if you could order it from ascending order descending order by earnings a little off topic but something else that i just noticed recently you can see here it shows me as top rated i'm actually top rated plus but it doesn't show that when you're looking at the public view and searching for my profile this way i don't i don't really know why but that's just something i noticed recently so some of these other freelancers could also be top rated plus it just doesn't show up on the public view for some reason so if we look at earnings two hundred thousand six hundred thousand one hundred thousand two hundred thousand two hundred thousand and you can see a lot of these freelancers also have really high hourly rates so how do you get inspiration from these let's go to the top and click on mine something else that's very important that i want to mention you see these two sentences right here these are the first two sentences in my upwork profile overview keep that in mind as you're creating your profile you can see them right here definitely keep this in mind when you create your profile whatever you put here in the first two sentences first couple sentences of your overview is what's going to show up in the long list of freelancers when clients are browsing so when a client is going through and looking at the top earning sql server dbas that's what they're going to see so these two sentences need to be good you need to make sure whatever you're putting in your first two sentences of your overview is what you want the client to see so keep that in mind as you're trying to attract clients and from here you can get so much inspiration you can go through and look at the profile overview look at how the freelancer constructed it you can go through and look at some of the jobs they've completed you can see what the job title was if you're logged into an upwork account you do have more functionality here because you can order by top projects ones that have the most earnings you can click on some of these jobs and be able to see for the ones that aren't private you can actually see the job details so when you have an upwork account there's definitely a lot more functionality when you're diving into jobs again you can take a look at the entire profile and get ideas and inspiration for yours if you haven't searched for top earning freelancers in your skill set yet i mean i don't know what you're doing you don't need a network account to do it go do it now you're gonna get inspiration from it listen close for one second this is really important when choosing a freelance skill to learn find a great combination of demand earning potential and skill enjoyment if you can find a great combination of all those things your freelance earning potential it's going to be insane identify your skill and then put in consistent focused effort on a daily basis to learn it not every other day not once a week every single day putting consistent focused effort the more time that you put into it the better you're going to get at it the more money that it's gonna make you tons of freelancers earn well over six figures a year every year freelancing on upwork if that's your goal if that's your ambition then you can definitely get there with consistency and hard work everyone wants to see examples of people who are reaching the highest levels it's something that i personally enjoy because i'm able to pull so much inspiration and motivation from it and my goal is to be that example for you with my upwork profile to show you that a kid from a rural area small area in central kentucky can become one of the top earning freelancers on upwork your potential is far greater than you know if you need to learn a new skill or enhance your existing skill set before getting your first job on upwork then you're gonna love the sponsor for today's video there's so many great ways to learn skills online like skillshare who is not only the sponsor for this video but also one of my personal favorites as well skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people examples of topics include freelancing and entrepreneurship productivity marketing graphic design web development and many others skillshare is great for lifelong learners which is something that i personally believe every freelancer really needs to strive to be skillshare empowers you to accomplish real growth as well as offers creative classes that are designed for real life and all the circumstances that come with it it's also super affordable as well at less than ten dollars a month for an annual subscription skillshare is designed specifically for learning meaning that there are no ads and they're always adding new premium classes one of my personal favorite classes is tony staunton's python 3 a beginner's guide to python programming on skillshare this is easily the most popular python course on skillshare with over 18 thousand students and really great reviews and best of all it's designed for beginners this course doesn't require any previous programming experience because skillshare is sponsoring this video the first 1000 people who click my link in the description will get a free trial of skillshare premium so if you're one of the first 1000 people to join then the free trial will give you unlimited access to thousands of inspiring classes like tony stanton's python 3 a beginner's guide to python programming thank you so much skillshare for supporting the channel and sponsoring this video upwork clients ultimately want to know that you can deliver what they need the entire reason they went to upwork and posted a job was to find a freelancer who could deliver on a specific task or project when an upward client views your profile or clicks on one of your job proposals they're looking for reasons why they should hire you why will you be a good investment for them you need to show the client that you can actually do what you claim and be a great return on investment for them the main areas on upwork that you need to provide examples of your work to showcase it are in your profile overview your portfolio section and also give a direct example of a project that you've completed something along those lines in your cover letter for your cover letter don't go too in depth but give them one example one specific very specific example of a project you've completed some type of task that directly aligns with the client's project for myself specifically i usually include this towards the very top of my cover letter i get right to the point they want to know that i can deliver what they need that's the entire reason that they even have any interest in me at all so i get right to the point and prove that i can do it if you're a brand new freelancer you don't have any previous experience you don't really know what to use as an example of your work you have to be creative and find a way to get that experience i know i personally wouldn't hire a freelancer who couldn't provide examples of their work so i could see you know the type of results that i could expect to get out of them if they couldn't provide that i wouldn't hire them and trust me other clients aren't going to either in your upwork profile portfolio and cover letters focus on being client-centric this means rather than focusing on yourself focus on what you can actually do for clients profiles showcasing accomplishments years of experience and educational backgrounds are a dime a dozen the majority of freelancers structure their profiles and their proposals in that fashion because it's what they know why is that the case because that's the way the majority of people learn to write resumes but your upwork profile is so much more than a resume it's a mechanism to connect with clients before you even speak to them be client-centric focus on showcasing what you can do for clients and how you can help them okay so i want to show you something that i've added to my profile that i think would be really great for new freelancers who are trying to get their first job on upwork let's take a look at my profile overview okay so this section right here is something pretty unique that added to my profile i listed out some reasons why i think clients should want to work with me and as you can see none of these are sql or skill set related these are all soft skills and personality traits about myself which i believe makes me a good person to work with and please don't copy my profile or any other freelancer's profile my goal is to help you get inspiration from my profile and other top rating freelancers but you shouldn't copy and paste you know trying to cut corners typically doesn't work out well i customized all these for myself you need to make yours about yourself as well and here's something that i definitely recommend that you add to your profile if you're a new freelancer and you're trying to get your first job on upwork so as a new freelancer on upwork what's the one thing that you don't have client reviews client reviews are so powerful because it helps clients gain confidence in you there's a couple things you can do which i definitely recommend first off you need some reviews or testimonials from people that you've worked with i would recommend trying to get a few really good ones you can add one of them to your profile overview you can see here that i highlighted one of my best client reviews as a new freelancer you could definitely change this part up and say something along the lines of here's one of my best reviews that gives you a great example of my quality of work and now for your other reviews or testimonials from non-upwork sources let's go ahead and scroll down i want to show you one more thing upwork recently added this i believe within the last six months or so if you're really serious about getting your first job on upwork you definitely need to take time to make this part happen this is huge because again as a new freelancer you don't have reviews you can't gain client confidence through reviews because you don't have any yet however this can be solved through non-upwork client testimonials and then for your non-upwork client you can list out all their details the client's title project type and then type a message to the client and then after clicking request testimonial it'll send the request to that non-upwork client and then after they approve it everything goes through that review will be on your upwork profile so again if you're a new freelancer on upwork this is something that can give you an advantage so definitely take advantage of it reach out to someone a previous client someone you worked with and ask them if they'll leave you a testimonial so what's the best way to become a client-focused freelancer i personally recommend thinking of something that you need help with and it could be a very simple task then go to upwork create a client account and post your job then hire a freelancer to complete your task this will be an eye-opening experience for you because it will put you directly in the client's perspective i can tell you from experience that it makes a massive difference understanding what the client sees when they post a job and they interact with freelancers i actually went really in depth covering this in my complete upward tutorial video which i'm going to put on the end screen of this video so be sure to watch the whole video so you can click on that at the end the more time that you put into something the more that you're gonna get out of it when you're starting out as a new freelancer you're not gonna get a bunch of job invites unless you have a secret that i don't know about if you do let me know and because you're not getting job invites you have to be very active in your job search process new jobs are posted on upwork constantly and a lot of those are filled pretty quick the more time that you put in to finding jobs that fit immensely well with your skill set the better chance you have of getting your first job when you choose not to search for jobs because it's too time consuming or you're not getting any responses you're letting tons of opportunities go right by you onto other freelancers who are really active in their job search process and they're persistent my first job on upwork paid around twenty five dollars an hour which is actually a hundred dollars an hour less than what i make right now take a look at this which is featured in an upwork article on their website by regularly submitting proposals and being active on the site you increase your chances of being included in upwork search results this means you can increase your chances of showing up in search results simply by being active on upwork when you're procrastinating someone else is choosing to put in the work they know that putting in consistent hard work will help them win their first job on upwork you also need to be really comfortable using advanced search and writing eye-catching cover letters new freelancers waste so many kinects because they focus on the wrong jobs as a new freelancer on upwork what's the main thing you're missing if you said client reviews and feedback then you're right experienced freelancers have tons of great reviews and feedback that helps them gain client confidence since you don't have that yet you have to be creative i'm not going to dive into advanced search and writing cover letters in this video because i already went immensely in depth on both of those in a different video what i am going to do is link that video on the end screen of this video as well so after you finish watching this video click on my upward tutorial for beginners on the end screen of this video and go to the chapters here as important as it is to get a client to do an introduction or interview call with you what you say and what you do in the call is even more important introduction calls are everything it's your chance to lock in the client be professional get yourself ready dress appropriately and just have a positive attitude if you get on a call with a client and you look or sound disinterested then they're probably gonna be disinterested in you look i'm an introverted person so learning how to communicate effectively with clients was definitely you know a little bit of a learning curve for me luckily i had opportunities in college and other work experiences that helped me out in that area remember to be professional be positive smile and tell the client how you're going to solve their issues and make their lives better the most successful freelancers on upwork are also the most selective it may sound crazy to hear this but just because someone offers you your first job on upwork it doesn't mean that you should accept it right away as important as it is to get your first job on upwork the outcome of your first job is even more important your goal should be to set yourself up for long-term success and build your reputation starting off with a five-star review and great feedback is critical in building client confidence in you this tweet that i posted recently shows the top seven things that i always check before submitting a job proposal on upwork seven things to check before submitting an upwork job proposal number one client reviews number two job details number three skill level number four hourly rate or budget number five payment verified number six proposal submitted and number seven last viewed by client the key to getting five star reviews with amazing feedback is to be very selective and set yourself up for long-term success don't just take a contract because a client offered it to you be selective and make sure it's going to result in the best outcome possible coincidentally i post a lot of freelancing tips on my twitter and instagram as well be sure to follow both of those which are linked in the description of this video your skill set will only take you so far freelancing you could be the most talented person in your skill area but if you like discipline and a strong work ethic then you're always going to be held back by that there's so much more that goes into being a successful freelancer then you probably realize your work ethic your consistency your resilience your ability to learn from failures not letting them you but taking each one as a learning experience all those things are so critical and i can't stress enough how critical that patience is when you're trying to get your first job on upwork most new freelancers give up and they think you know what freelancing just isn't for me but if they just would have pushed through a little bit longer worked a little bit harder things could have been way different we're in the age of remote work and upwork is the largest freelance platform in the world if you're interested in freelancing taking control of your life your pay your job flexibility then this is an opportunity that you don't want to miss out on you have to be a positive force in your own life and take control of it success comes with a price so start paying it on time with your hard work drop a comment on this video and let me know what freelancing or upwork video that you want to see next for a limited time you can get a crypto bonus of up to two hundred and fifty dollars when you open a new account on block fi using my link below which is also in the description of this video you can get a return of up to eight point six percent apy on your crypto which is absolutely insane you can also get 25 dollars worth of bitcoin for free by signing up on voyager and using my code below after you deposit or trade 100 or more then voyageur will credit you the 25 worth of bitcoin and if you want to store your crypto in the most secure way possible then i definitely recommend either the trezor or ledger hardware wallet i've personally been using the trezor for about four years now and it just works great if you got any value from this video at all please hit the like button and consider subscribing to the channel i have a lot of really great content planned out and i'm excited to share with you thank you so much for watching i'll catch you in the next one on this end screen i recommend checking out these videos and be sure to hit that round subscribe button for weekly tech videos and hit that notification bell so you don't miss anything thank you for watching and until next time

Channel: Josh Burns Tech

Views: 21,788

Keywords: upwork, upwork tutorial for beginners, upwork tutorial, upwork tips, upwork profile, upwork 2021, upwork how to get first job, how to get first job on upwork, upwork proposal, how to get jobs on upwork, upwork job, upwork first job, upwork jobs, how to use upwork, up work, josh burns tech, first job on upwork, how to bid on upwork, how to get order on upwork, how to land first job on upwork, first upwork job, get your first job on upwork, how to get work on upwork, upworks

Id: jvHvuRWOmlQ

Length: 23min 42sec (1422 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021