Are you guys finding Upwork to be good? I tried it a while ago (not for web dev tho) and was quickly discouraged. I found the experience to be so totally disheartening. The vase majority of clients seem to be bottom-feeders that are just looking for absurdly cheap labor and at the same time are demanding all kinds of skills that will probably take me another three years to get. Then the already low-paying offers are compounded by the fact that you have to spend so much time looking for jobs that are a good fit. Then you have to write out and send an application, and then of course, wait to be accepted for the job. By the time you calculate your hourly income, you’d be lucky to make $5/hr. Seriously, I think you end up spending a lot more time looking for work than actually working.
It’s possible that I just had no idea how to do it properly and did everything wrong, but I couldn’t figure out how to make a decent income from it. There are too many people out there willing to race to the bottom with their prices. So, in my experience anyway, it’s not a good place to find real work.
That said, it IS good for getting paid while you are still learning. Until you get that “good” job, you’ll need to practice and make stuff to put on your portfolio anyway, so you might as well get paid for it - even if it is just $5/hr. It’s better than nothing, right?