My name is Iliyan Iliev and I just joined the forum. I’ve been working as freelancer in UpWork for 3 years and recently my account got suspended (because In my bio I mentoined that I’ve been working in other freelance sites in the past…)
Long Story short: Now I don’t have access to jobs related to my specification.
Since they blocked me from UpWork I’ve been submiting my CV to different companies (around 90 companies) and got only one email in return then did the test task then they told me that they will continue with someone else. That was the only email back I received.
Now due to the situation with COVID It becomes harder and harder with the income.
So I am experienced designer with no place to release my creativity…
Can someone suggest me a place where I can apply for job because I checked almost every corner and got nothing.
Not sure why UpWork cares what you do with your time. Unless they see your resume as a plug for other companies. Remove the other site names, and possibly the art from them, and appeal your ban.
As for work, good luck with that. Everyone is hurting now. Diversification. That’s where it’s at.
Can’t you just re-register under a different name and email address, then build your UpWork portfolio using screen shots of all the projects you’ve done in the past without mentioning that they were from UpWork?
They’re awfully fussy about their designers mentioning things like this or pointing to off-site portfolios or mentioning ways people might potentially contact their designers outside their system. A simple Google search would turn up information on most any designer, but UpWork ignores this and expects their designers to, in essence, be anonymous.
Then perhaps you should have customized your resume to the site rules? Just like when applying for a job you may not want to let on that you do side gigs. Sometimes employers don’t like the competition either.
You can still contact them and appeal. Email and phones still work.
Might be tough now if they have your IP flagged.
But didn’t you save copies of the final work from which you can rebuild your portfolio? That would be a better way to go anyway since the screen captures, photos or PDFs you create will be different from what they have on record so their image matching algorithms (if that’s what they use) would be unlikely to pick up on it.
Their algorithms might also have picked up on your IP address being the same as that of a recently suspended member. I really don’t know their procedures, but I’ve got to think they’ve automated most everything instead of having people look up this kind of thing on every account. If you head to UpWork through a remote proxy server (which is a fairly inexpensive thing to sign up for), your IP address won’t be traceable and might solve the problem. Then again, they might very well block proxy servers. If you go this route, I’d also use a proxy server in your own country, so they won’t peg your physical address as in a different country from your Internet access. Then there’s also your street address and financial information, which would need to be slightly different too in order to keep them from matching things up. I don’t know, maybe it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
I’m not normally one to suggest ways of getting around these kinds of rules, but I’m not suggesting anything illegal — just possible ways to get around the silly, overly restrictive rules of a company that shortchanges both their designers and their clients at every step of the way.
For what it’s worth, you’re not alone, of course, in looking for work. Lots of designers have been laid off or furloughed due to Covid-19, and the jobs are very scarce right now. That not encouraging, but on the bright side, you’ll have some time off for awhile, which you can try to enjoy as you look for more work.
That’s what I was thinking! Start a new profile. Yeah, I went outside of Upwork to find a copywriter that I found on Upwork… lol, funny you mentioned this!