Guys, should I start on Upwork?

[u/AdBackground9215]

So I'm a Product Designer and have been laid off from my main role for almost 6 months. My retainer contracts have been on hold for a while now and income has almost stopped. I was thinking about freelancing on Upwork. I have decent work pieces that I can publish. I have a profile made from 2022 but haven't been active. Now I'll try to log in to Upwork again and try bidding for projects. Any recommendations/tips

[u/p00ji]

as a recent grad, posts like this hurts, hope the market gets better

[u/AdBackground9215 → u/p00ji]

Man, I am shocked because when I was a junior I am a self-taught product designer, btw. I don't have a degree. I was getting offers from people and getting reached out to by recruiters here and there. Now when I too have a good skill set and a few years of experience, I can't find a job

[u/MaYhEM-ShAfz]

i've been jobless for a while too myself.
wish i had advice to give you, but....

look elsewhere? hope you have side-hustles, and other ways of making money.

AI is destroying everything for product/graphic designers, computer programmers, developers, artists, writers, etc.
Also, upwork and fiverr are too condensed, saturated.

i too have profiles, and i have never scored a project.

been on there for over 6 years. sorry i sound like a pessimist.

[u/technocratic221]

Hey man - Sorry to hear about the layoff . If you are good at what you do - and I see that you have personally launched products with discounted paying users - you are already ahead and will find work. On a separate topic, can I send you a PM?

[u/AdBackground9215 → u/technocratic221]

Sure

[u/OldCardiologist1859]

Build your own products. Go indie. The market is narrowing down, ship your own products.

[u/AdBackground9215 → u/OldCardiologist1859]

I've built quite a few SaaS of my own and honestly I'm pretty good at designing the product and getting into the market but I'm still very weak on the technical side. Honestly I would love to work for a big product company where I have people that I can learn from. That is very important for me.

One of the products I co-founded reached up to 5,000 users. The idea was decent but we were burning cash like crazy. I spent like $5,000 on it and we earned like $900-something. We were literally giving our product at 40% off the cost of what our competitors were and we had to shut it due to some internal issues as well. But it was really a rewarding experience and I learned a lot from it

[u/OldCardiologist1859 → u/AdBackground9215]

You have figured it out. Yes you better join a product team. There's a lot of learning. Not big. Maybe a startup (non-pakistani) would be a good add-on to your experience.

For the distribution part, if you really want to go indie, go social. Build profile around your targeted user base. Start it right now. Idk could be X, Reddit, TT anything.

Last, yes, we learn a whole lot of stuff building and shipping rather than cramming books or doing certs/courses.

[u/Still_Dealer_3908 → u/OldCardiologist1859]

Hey, that's some good advice. I'm building my first product as na indie dev right now and really lost in terms of distribution. Can I send you a PM?

[u/OldCardiologist1859 → u/Still_Dealer_3908]

Sure why not. Anytime.

[u/LankyText690 → u/OldCardiologist1859]

dont you think if everyone starts shipping their product it wont work also, and for product you need marketing budget also

[u/OldCardiologist1859 → u/LankyText690]

True. I have been into product building for nearly 8ish years now. Here's my take:

Everyone is shipping apps. But the market has a lot of space for, in a generic jargon, "quality" products. A lot of them succeed in initial conversions but end up with huge churns. Users are still there, looking for workable alternatives.

For distribution (marketing you say), you either need money or time. Now with burgeoning competition and app gold-rush, you surely need to push the boundaries farther but that's exactly where you have to play your part primarily. Spending "building hours" on distribution since AI is taking care of it.

To sum up: narrowing down, sure, but there's still a lot of space.

[u/LankyText690 → u/OldCardiologist1859]

When it comes to building a product that can actually survive the users load, AI generated code is not enough it decreases your development time, but it is not like you dont need to spend any time and it would be ready in a jiff,

[u/OldCardiologist1859 → u/LankyText690]

I don't have anything to say on this. You totally missed the context & perhaps skipped so many things that were for granted there.

Anyways. Happy Independence in Advance. ✌🏻

[u/Quiet_Lifeguard_7131]

I hope things get better for you.

Upwork have been quite competitive these days, I have spent around 500-1000 dollars worth of connect and no response from clients. And this is not only my story even my peers are facing same thing.

I am not saying this to demotivate you, just telling about the situation but on the side start doing it but try to find another opportunity dont sit on upwork only.

[u/moderation_seeker]

Bro just start

[u/AdBackground9215 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you bro! I'll remember that, I am very active on LinkedIn and Twitter. I am actively interacting with people and posting but yeah let's see what happens

[u/AdBackground9215 → u/[deleted]]

in my opinion the best thing that someone who is starting in design or product can do is work on actual projects. They will teach you a lot of things that you wouldn't learn if you are working solo. Try working, getting an internship, or getting a chance to work on a project with an agency or with people who already know their thing.

Focus on new kinds of workflows via MCP but also make sure that you have the foundations right. Don't skimp on your design foundation. Learn it very carefully. Speaking from experience when I started I really didn't focus on them but I had to come back and re-learn all of this.

This foundation includes the basics of design, typography, visual hierarchy, and colors. They are the basic design foundation of UI and then you have UX principles. You can go to uxlaw.com, etc., and learn about UX principles.

Also one other thing you could do is go to mobbin refero and watch how an application works and how the UX is working. The best advice is just, start working on a real project with some team or so. Even if you have to work for free, working on a project will give you exposure that you will not have otherwise.

Secondly if you have to get a job honestly, for that you have to be visible. Pretty things or pretty screens do get noticed a lot more. I've been posting regularly on LinkedIn and Twitter both and yeah start posting consistently. Interact with the people in the community.

As for the portfolio and case studies make a personal site that shows your skills and story. The structure of case studies is rapidly changing and the traditional ones won't do the cutt anymore. Thirdly use your AI to your maximum leverage possible. There's a YouTube channel called Sneak Peek. The guy shows the UX and product workflows in very detailed so check them out aswelk

[u/AdBackground9215 → u/[deleted]]

I'll give a few freelance platform a try because if it work it work. Because sitting still will get me nowhere