So you’ve created your profile on Upwork.
The next step is to finalize all the details and submit it for approval.
I’m going to walk you through that process now.
Let’s start from the top.
1) Expertise
I’m going to walk you through this as though I’m creating my own profile again from scratch. What you’ll see is exactly how I’d do it now.
The first section you’re going to fill out is your Expertise. This is where you’re going to list what skills you’ll be focusing on as a freelancer.
Here’s what I would do:
The more detailed you can be here, the better.
For example, when it says “Select up to 4 types of work” — go ahead and select four types of work. Not three. Not two. Not one. Select four of them.
Similarly, where it says “What skills do you offer clients?”… you’re allowed to choose 10 here. So do your best to choose all 10.
Filling out as much as you can will help your chances at getting approved.
And don’t worry, you’re not married to these skills forever. As you grow and evolve as a freelancer, you’ll be able to update your skills. But for the time being, let’s just get you approved, okay?
We can worry about tweaking things later.
Moving on.
2) Expertise Level
This next one is pretty straightforward.
Just go ahead and choose a level of expertise that fits best.
But a word of caution:
Unless you’ve just started learning your new skill and have absolutely zero experience doing it, don’t say you’re just “Entry Level.”
Chances are, if you’ve been playing around and dabbling with the skill for a while, you’re more of an Intermediate, perhaps even an Expert.
So don’t cut yourself short — you’d be surprised how much you actually know. When it doubt, aim higher, not lower.
We’ll continue chugging along in the next one.