Seeking your honest opinion about my embedded systems portfoilo ?

[YTusername]

Hi

I'm working in the field of electronics and embedded systems since 2014. Most of my jobs were full-time contracting and working remotely with startups or small companies. Recently (in Jun), and after 10 years of experiance and since I got used to working remotely, I decided to build a portfolio and start getting consulting/freelancing offers publicly.

After reading a lot of materials regarding embedded systems consulting, I found Upwork is a must to start with besides my public portfolio until I get enough number of consumers with recurring tasks.

I also tried to promote my service through a banner from my blog atadiat.com which I've been publishing through it ad-free and high-quality content since 2018. I have around 10k views a month. I also tried to keep myself active on linkedin with my 500 connections and followers.

I barely getting one small job from upwork per month. I understand this is due to high competence and different hourly rates across countries.

But I'm a little shocked that no one reached me from the public portfolio although I get relatively good visits each month.

Your honest thoughts about my public portfolio (here) will be highly appreciated.
 

[nctnico]

The best way to get work is to go hunt for it actively. Look in the 'work wanted' sections of forums like these and freelancer boards for jobs that match your skills. Very likely you'll be able to find jobs close to home so you can visit your customers; being able to come on-site is very valuable.

[SiliconWizard]

I'm going to try and give a few answers here.

First point is about Upwork. Upwork is nothing like it used to be and has undergone a stream of changes for the past few months that have made it much, much harder for freelancers to get jobs on the platform. So at the moment, if you have difficulties getting jobs on Upwork, it's probably not entirely due to your profile or portfolio. Just the way it is for even the most experienced, top-rated freelancers there. You can talk about it with other people using Upwork, or even have a look at Upwork's freelancers forum section just to get an idea of the situation.

There are multiple reasons for this (current economic situation, changes in Upwork's algorithms, etc). One big point is that Upwork has been losing money for years. It's absolutely not a profitable business, however it may look. This is actually a more general problem with online businesses. Their business models are shaky and the reason they lose money is that, while they have a lot of users (which is, or at least used to be the big selling point of online businesses), their operating costs are just higher than their revenue. Simple as that. The operating costs for this kind of services are gigantic. Upwork is not the only platform with this problem. So the consequence is that they are now forced (by shareholders) to take action, and they have made changes on the platform to this end, to allegedly make it more profitable (which I doubt it will btw), and these changes have made it much, much worse for freelancers. Not going to get into any more details here, but just keep in mind that if you're not doing well on there, you're not alone. So please focus on finding other ways to get orders.

Regarding specifically your portfolio, while your website in general looks clean and makes it clear from your content that you know what you're talking about, I think your portfolio may be lacking in projects that would better reflect your experience in having developed products in commercial companies, something that clients are often looking for. Do no take this as gratuitous criticism at all, but most of the projects that can be currently seen in your portfolio, apart for the "FT4232H Multi-sensor USB board", while I have no doubt are well designed and functioning, look more like hobbyist projects. And the FT4232H may look a bit too much like a relatively niche, development board. My advice would be to add a few projects that you have developed in your former jobs, and ideally that have become a product. You will probably need to ask permission to add them to your portfolio from your previous employers, but that sure would add value to it.

Also, if your website gets a fair number of visits per month, that's a start. But these days, while I personally tend to still prefer written content to videos (in general), written blogs are unfortunately something a bit of the past. I do not suggest to stop adding content to it, but have you considered making videos as well? That would probably help getting more visibility.

[YTusername]

I'm going to try and give a few answers here.

Thank you so much for taking time to advise and review. I really appreciate that.

 
First point is about Upwork. Upwork is nothing like it used to be and has undergone a stream of changes for the past few months that have made it much, much harder for freelancers to get jobs on the platform. So at the moment, if you have difficulties getting jobs on Upwork, it's probably not entirely due to your profile or portfolio. Just the way it is for even the most experienced, top-rated freelancers there. You can talk about it with other people using Upwork, or even have a look at Upwork's freelancers forum section just to get an idea of the situation.

I've been 3 months with Upwork with daily visits and sending proposals. Although it is a small period, during the last 3 month I noticed how they added many new things that require bidding, like the freelancer's profile search prioritization. It is good to hear this feedback from you. It helps to understand the situation.
 

 
Regarding specifically your portfolio, while your website in general looks clean and makes it clear from your content that you know what you're talking about, I think your portfolio may be lacking in projects that would better reflect your experience in having developed products in commercial companies, something that clients are often looking for. Do no take this as gratuitous criticism at all, but most of the projects that can be currently seen in your portfolio, apart for the "FT4232H Multi-sensor USB board", while I have no doubt are well designed and functioning, look more like hobbyist projects. And the FT4232H may look a bit too much like a relatively niche, development board. My advice would be to add a few projects that you have developed in your former jobs, and ideally that have become a product. You will probably need to ask permission to add them to your portfolio from your previous employers, but that sure would add value to it.

Thanks a lot, that is exactly the kind of criticism I'm looking for. I'm going to add more profecinal and complete products.

 
Also, if your website gets a fair number of visits per month, that's a start. But these days, while I personally tend to still prefer written content to videos (in general), written blogs are unfortunately something a bit of the past. I do not suggest to stop adding content to it, but have you considered making videos as well? That would probably help get more visibility.

It is really a sad truth that written content is really from past. As a technical writer, I can notice that clearly. Yes I have a plan to record some video materials, but I can imagine the time it will take to prepare and record especially for a non native speaker.

[tooki]

Also, if your website gets a fair number of visits per month, that's a start. But these days, while I personally tend to still prefer written content to videos (in general), written blogs are unfortunately something a bit of the past. I do not suggest to stop adding content to it, but have you considered making videos as well? That would probably help getting more visibility.

While videos certainly help with visibility, I certainly would not say that "written blogs are... a bit of the past". Videos are incredibly time-consuming to produce, and are often very time-consuming to consume, relative to the information density. Just because YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are pushing those stupid short videos doesn't mean that long-form videos are bad, and just because long-form videos exist doesn't mean text is obsolete. They each have their purpose (though the short videos' purpose eludes me personally), and the best thing is to leverage each one at the right time.

[nctnico]

Agreed. If someone would send me a CV in the form of a video, the video would go straight into the bin. I don't have the time to watch that crap.

[dietert1]

In the past IT skills were needed in conjunction with experience in at least one branch of real world economy. I'd guess someone searching a freelancer would not select you for your talent and flexibility, but for your experience in his field, like medical, security, automation and control, automotive or logistics. If you want a living, don't acquire little arduino jobs.
As a freelancer i started with some projects of 1 or 2 years, then some with a duration of several years and the last one for 18 years. There were some meaningless mini projects, too. In hindsight  one would say i was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Being a game changer means you stay for some time. My personal opinion.

Regards, Dieter