I. Initially, please slender down as a lot as you’ll be able to.
Don’t name your self only a Machine Studying Engineer, however Monetary Knowledge Scientist/Knowledge Annotator/Medical Pc Imaginative and prescient Skilled/LLM Architect, or Geo Knowledge Scientist like in my case. You’ll be capable to get a normal knowledge science venture, however you’ll additionally a have a set area of interest.
Nearly all of the initiatives I had have been within the geospatial subject, however one among them was centered on the synthesis of the NLP datasets from scientific literature. I undoubtedly had the competence to gather, construction, and describe this sort of knowledge, regardless of formally being a geo individual. By the best way, the consumer gave 5/5 stars! So the area of interest won’t restrict you, don’t fear.
II. The decrease the competitors the higher.
Sounds controversial, however please consider me. I noticed a whole bunch of initiatives with greater than 50 proposals from different freelancers. You don’t need this competitors not since you’re not price it, however as a result of the consumer simply gained’t be capable to adequately estimate the talents of all of the professionals. They simply need the work to be carried out.
So apply solely when there are not more than 10 functions submitted, or apply, however keep away from any false expectations about you engaged on this contract.
III. Don’t neglect what you write contained in the proposals you submit.
Usually UpWork hides the identify of the consumer, however if you happen to examine their testimonials, you would possibly discover that different freelancers talked about the identify of this individual of their opinions, so please tackle shoppers by their names!
Add an exterior portfolio like GitHub/private web site or another platform which may turn out to be an indicator of your expertise. UpWork permits you to connect as much as 3 initiatives out of your UpWork portfolio, which regularly isn’t sufficient. So undoubtedly share some hyperlinks with the consumer to get conversant in different initiatives of yours extra deeply. In my case, many consumers referred to my weblog on Medium as one of many key causes to rent me. It’s an easy method to see my technical and communications expertise.
Lastly, don’t middle the proposal round your character. I do know you need to show you’re the most effective for this venture. However nobody cares, sorry. The one factor the consumer cares about is the issue being solved. So concentrate on it. Present your care and fervour to assist. Deal with the consumer like a physician prepared to heal a wound, not a businessman chasing one other payday.
IV. Avoid “re-sellers”.
That is the sort of shoppers who act like brokers or brokers. They hunt for candy initiatives on many various platforms, get the contract, after which go to UpWork to rent another person for the cheaper price.
Why is it unhealthy? As a result of they barely talk with you and the consumer on the opposite facet. They aren’t within the context of the venture in any respect.
I used to be unlucky sufficient to get this sort of a consumer for my first venture. He ended up creating a gaggle chat with me and the preliminary consumer asking me to not inform this person who I’m the one doing the job.
The answer is easy: examine their earlier initiatives. Usually, the brokers have tons of opinions (not essentially unhealthy). However the titles of the initiatives aren’t linked in any respect. If this individual is hiring individuals to do knowledge evaluation, satellite tv for pc imagery processing, enhancing a video, fixing math olympiad, and 3D design, it does look suspicious!
V. Use GPT to make your pet venture shine. Something you place in your portfolio on UpWork ought to have some story behind it. Within the very starting the one factor you may have is a pet venture or some task from a category. Leverage ChatGPT to create a compelling description of your work. Make it seem like an actual job with some influence and business software.
Together with your first shoppers you’ll be capable to add an increasing number of, however from my expertise, 4–5 examples of your work is sufficient.