Upwork
Upwork Employee Reviews
Found 494 reviews matching the search See all 804 reviews
Sort by: Helpfulness | Rating | Date
Upwork is a friendly and collaborative place to work. They're accomplishing a lot in the world of online work and helping millions of freelancers.
VP and Deputy General Counsel (Former Employee) – Mountain View, CA – September 17, 2018
Management is quite transparent and there are regular company meetings. There are regular company events for team building. The most enjoyable thing about the job is that Wednesday is always a company-wide work from home day - when employees are supposed to use the Upwork.com online work platform for their own work, remotely.
Good freelance platform to get your feet wet
Freelance Writer (Current Employee) – Virtual – September 14, 2018
I didn't work at Upwork. I used their freelance platform to source clients, bid on jobs that matched my skills, and etc. So, all of my work was via the platform, but was also virtual. I had a chance to grow existing skills and increase my experience, learn new skills, and work with clients across the globe.
Competitive and Challenging, yet Creative Work Environment
Freelance Writer/Blogger (Former Employee) – Chappaqua, NY – September 13, 2018
This hub of freelance opportunities, not just for writers like me, but for positions across the board in the world of freelance.
A typical day working for Upwork, especially if you're doing it somewhat full-time, or at least as your primary source of income, can vary. Some days, especially if you're just starting out, it looks a lot more like submitting proposal after proposal, waiting to hear back from clients, and maybe getting some new jobs, but mainly getting rejected and/or ignored. However, once you have landed a job, or multiple jobs, especially longer term ones that have a more steady schedule and means of payment, you get into a sort of rhythm and a day can look a lot more like working on the third assignment of the week for one person while realizing you hadn't yet finished transcribing something for another client, and gaining a new client in the same day which triples your work load, leading you to either stop sleeping, or drop one of the jobs that you've been at forever but pays significantly less. And it's only Tuesday.
So mind you, this is the type of place where, like anything else, with a little luck and a boatload of hard work, dedication, and passion, you can really make it an exciting and yet still challenging opportunity with the potential to grow in an ever-growing world of careers and subject areas in writing careers, specifically.
To tell you the best and worst parts of this job is no easy task. Fortunately, the first things that come to mind when writing that is that the majority of what I'm thinking are all positive things.
But let's more... start with the bad. Or as I prefer, the things that could use a bit of tweaking, in my opinion. I have been using this and working with countless clients for years now, and I still don't quite understand the whole use of the credits. For every proposal you submit to a potential client (like applying for a job) you "pay" 2 credits, the currency on Upwork. Now, you are given some to start out with, and I think you can earn them just by either getting jobs or something like that. All I know is I've never ran out and had to real-world-buy any of them, but that being said, it makes me wonder why it even exists to begin with.
I'd say that is tied as being the worst thing with the challenge of building up your Upwork resume/portfolio and trying to find jobs in general (especially when first starting out. Like in the rest of the working world, the ironic fact is that you're more likely to get noticed and, therefore, hired when you have more experience. The irony is that in order to gain that experience, you must first be hired. And so, inversely, if you don't have much experience, it's less likely to get hired.
That being said, I believe for me, all it took was one lucky chance meeting of my first ever boss/client on Upwork who I ended up working with for over a year and still talk to today, three years later. But that job, I truly believe led me to most if not maybe all of the jobs I got following it.
It is an absolutely wonderful site, especially if you're someone who wants to work from home or has a very busy schedule already and needs to make some extra money. At least in my experience, it will take some time of diligently searching and submitting propsals (appllying) until you actually start making any kind of decent money, but once you do hit that sort of stepping stone and begin a steady flow of working job or jobs, you can make some seriously great money, create a fantastic portfolio for yourself, and the best part of all, like me, surprise yourself immensely with just how creative and smart and caring and passionate you are. less
A typical day working for Upwork, especially if you're doing it somewhat full-time, or at least as your primary source of income, can vary. Some days, especially if you're just starting out, it looks a lot more like submitting proposal after proposal, waiting to hear back from clients, and maybe getting some new jobs, but mainly getting rejected and/or ignored. However, once you have landed a job, or multiple jobs, especially longer term ones that have a more steady schedule and means of payment, you get into a sort of rhythm and a day can look a lot more like working on the third assignment of the week for one person while realizing you hadn't yet finished transcribing something for another client, and gaining a new client in the same day which triples your work load, leading you to either stop sleeping, or drop one of the jobs that you've been at forever but pays significantly less. And it's only Tuesday.
So mind you, this is the type of place where, like anything else, with a little luck and a boatload of hard work, dedication, and passion, you can really make it an exciting and yet still challenging opportunity with the potential to grow in an ever-growing world of careers and subject areas in writing careers, specifically.
To tell you the best and worst parts of this job is no easy task. Fortunately, the first things that come to mind when writing that is that the majority of what I'm thinking are all positive things.
But let's more... start with the bad. Or as I prefer, the things that could use a bit of tweaking, in my opinion. I have been using this and working with countless clients for years now, and I still don't quite understand the whole use of the credits. For every proposal you submit to a potential client (like applying for a job) you "pay" 2 credits, the currency on Upwork. Now, you are given some to start out with, and I think you can earn them just by either getting jobs or something like that. All I know is I've never ran out and had to real-world-buy any of them, but that being said, it makes me wonder why it even exists to begin with.
I'd say that is tied as being the worst thing with the challenge of building up your Upwork resume/portfolio and trying to find jobs in general (especially when first starting out. Like in the rest of the working world, the ironic fact is that you're more likely to get noticed and, therefore, hired when you have more experience. The irony is that in order to gain that experience, you must first be hired. And so, inversely, if you don't have much experience, it's less likely to get hired.
That being said, I believe for me, all it took was one lucky chance meeting of my first ever boss/client on Upwork who I ended up working with for over a year and still talk to today, three years later. But that job, I truly believe led me to most if not maybe all of the jobs I got following it.
It is an absolutely wonderful site, especially if you're someone who wants to work from home or has a very busy schedule already and needs to make some extra money. At least in my experience, it will take some time of diligently searching and submitting propsals (appllying) until you actually start making any kind of decent money, but once you do hit that sort of stepping stone and begin a steady flow of working job or jobs, you can make some seriously great money, create a fantastic portfolio for yourself, and the best part of all, like me, surprise yourself immensely with just how creative and smart and caring and passionate you are. less
Pros
Make your own hours, Work from Home, Free
Cons
Low Pay, Hard to find High-Paying Jobs
Good Place to Earn a Livelihood
Data Entry Operator (Current Employee) – California – September 13, 2018
Great place to work and earn a decent Money. It is more organized than any online platform. It give opportunity to interact with different people of different regions and gives a vast work experience.
Challenging and Exhausting
Free Lance Web Developer (Former Employee) – 441 Logue Avenue Mountain View, CA 94043 – September 13, 2018
My work in upwork as a freelance programmer is a great one but very exhausting since you must meet the deadline and if you didn't you will not get paid and then more options of work
Pros
more opportunity, different work environment
Cons
The chances of beignhired
Good place
Transcriptionist Manager/ Hiring Manager (Current Employee) – Secaucus, NJ – September 12, 2018
I found my main contract provider through upwork, now I only go through them. If I had to rate it, it was the best. Nowadays, I prefer to continue through my previous
Alright for freelancers
Freelancer (Former Employee) – Software developer – September 8, 2018
Workload and terms of payment totally depend on the client's demands and requirements. Some clients are fair while others demand too much from you compared to what would be acceptable in real life situations.
UpWork Provides Freelancers Opportunity
Business Quality Consultant (Current Employee) – Mountain View, CA – September 7, 2018
UpWork provides excellent opportunities for freelancers to apply their skills to continue their career as an independent consultant or supplement their income with additional opportunities. They provide educational support to help add to your skill sets.
Pros
Work Remotely
Cons
Admin fees
It was a nice journey here.
White Hat SEO and Word Press expert. (Current Employee) – Denver, NC – September 5, 2018
I was a nice journey here. I enjoy the work but it was not enough.Now I wanted to get myself as a indeed member. I love the market place very much I truly believe I must prove my self here.
Pros
free work
Cons
mid break
Upwork Review
Transcriptionist / Subtitler (Current Employee) – Mountain View, CA – September 3, 2018
Upwork is a good place to launch a career as an editor, however, the competition is heavy and the percentage to Upwork is rather high. Upwork does pay on time and has decent software reports.
Pros
Return customers for work well accomplished.
Cons
Sometimes deadlines are stressful, but if you can manage the stress it is well worth it.
Awesome Platform
Freelancer (Full-Stack Web Developer) (Current Employee) – Online – September 2, 2018
I'm on this platform since 2009 and found it very helpful in finding dream projects and then turning them in to reality with 100% earnings security. I've had many hurdles during projects but I learnt eventually.
Excellent opportunity to expand you horizons.
QA Analyst (Current Employee) – Elbasan – September 2, 2018
Love working on upwork as it gives you the opportunity to work on so many different projects and expand you horizon. For example if you learn a new skill you can almost find instantly job regarding that skill that you just learned.
So you can expand in almost any field that you like or have interest in. You just need to have a little bit of patience and determination.
So you can expand in almost any field that you like or have interest in. You just need to have a little bit of patience and determination.
Pros
endless opportunities available
Fast paced workplace
Freelancer (Current Employee) – New York, NY – August 31, 2018
It's depends with which client you will work, some client will hurry up you, some not, but mostly you will be asked estimate. If you will get involved with existing projects, you will not given a time to get familiar with project, you have to get integrated very quickly.
Working from home is a controversial thing.
Freelance Programmer (Current Employee) – Los Angeles, CA – August 29, 2018
I really don't like the options when it comes to freelancing market. I think that there needs to be a new platform for freelancers. It is hard to start and every client can change the spec midway.
Its comfortable working with upwork but there's to much competition.
Graphic Web desogner (Current Employee) – Naperville, IL – August 18, 2018
Is you're working as a freelancer so you have a lot of time to spend with your family and of course its a home based job so you can relax and do your job in a professional manner and you can earn a lot.
Overall rating
Based on 806 reviews
394
211
119
35
47
Ratings by category
Work/Life Balance
Compensation/Benefits
Job Security/Advancement
Management
Culture
Women's ratings
3.0
Fairygodboss Score
67%say women are treated fairly and equally to men
50%would recommend to other women
Fairygodboss provides free job reviews for women, by women.
Powered by 