The setup path has four parts: create an account, complete the profile to the review threshold, pass admin review, and use the 30-day Ace trial to test paid features. This article walks through each part, what happens automatically, and what the expert is expected to do.
Creating an account
Signup is a single screen at /onboarding. The form asks for first name, last name, email, password, an optional acquisition source, and a single consent checkbox confirming the expert is 18 or older and agrees to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. A Cloudflare Turnstile challenge confirms the signup is not automated.
A faster alternative is available: continue with Google. Doing so confirms the same 18+/Terms/Privacy acceptance (shown as a notice beside the button), so legal acceptance is recorded the same way regardless of method.
After submission, a verification email is sent. The expert clicks the link in that email to activate the session and land on /profile. The full name, email, and signup metadata are the only fields populated at this point. Everything else is filled in afterwards.
What happens after signing up
The new account starts on the 30-day Ace trial. The trial gives full Ace-tier access (12 credits, the Ace allowance, and every Ace-tier feature) for 30 days from signup. No card is required to start it.
The account status begins as onboarding_incomplete. This means the profile is not yet visible to clients in the directory and the expert cannot apply to jobs until the required fields are filled in. The two-step Profile Completeness gauge on /profile guides the rest of the process.
Completing the profile
The two-step gauge on /profile shows what is needed to become review-eligible and, separately, what is recommended for a strong profile.
Step 1, Get review-eligible. These are the minimum fields required to enter admin review:
- Full name
- Bio of at least 100 characters
- Country
- At least one expertise category
- At least one service
- At least one language
- Work experience (at least one entry)
- Education (at least one entry)
When the last required field is saved, the status auto-flips from onboarding_incomplete to pending. This happens once. After the first flip, future returns from admin require an explicit Resubmit action.
Step 2, Build a stand-out profile. Optional fields (past projects, certifications, headline, advisory packages if the tier supports them, and so on) appear only after Step 1 reaches 100 percent. They do not affect review eligibility but improve how the profile reads to clients.
The category and service caps depend on tier:
| Tier | Categories | Services |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 | 1 |
| Ace | 3 | 3 |
| Veteran | 6 | 5 |
| Enterprise | 10 | 20 |
Using the CV parser
The profile editor includes a CV upload that uses an AI parser to extract structured data from a CV file. Bio, work experience, education, languages, and proposed services and categories are pre-filled from the parsed output.
The parsed values are a draft. The expert is expected to review every field before saving, since the parser occasionally mis-classifies dates, role titles, or industries. The platform never publishes parsed data automatically; nothing leaves the editor until the expert saves.
The CV file is sent to Google's Gemini API to be parsed and is not stored by ConsultEarth in its own storage or database. The expert's name is intentionally not extracted from the CV, since identity is set at signup and the CV is only used to fill profile content. See /help/ai-features for what the AI features do with submitted data.
Admin review
Once status flips to pending, the profile enters the admin review queue. Admins check that the profile is real, the work history is consistent, the chosen categories and services match the bio, and that no obvious red flags are present.
While in review, the required fields are locked in the editor. The lock is enforced both in the UI and at the database level. This is deliberate: it prevents the profile from changing under the admin's review and keeps the review record consistent with what the admin saw.
The trial clock pauses while status is pending. If the admin queue takes three days, the trial gets three extra days. The expert does not lose trial time to admin response time.
Three outcomes are possible at the end of a review cycle:
- Approved. Status flips to
approvedand the profile becomes visible in the client directory. The trial resumes from where it paused. - Returned for edits. Status flips to
returned. The required fields unlock. The admin leaves a note explaining what needs to change. The expert edits and clicks Resubmit to re-enter the queue. - Rejected. A terminal state for this cycle. Rejection is rare and typically reserved for clear policy violations or unverifiable claims. An expert who believes a rejection was a mistake can contact support to appeal.
Typical turnaround for the first review is 24 to 48 hours, though this can exceed in some cases.
The 30-day Ace trial
The trial is what most new experts use to test paid features before deciding whether to subscribe.
During the trial, the account has every Ace-tier feature: 12 credits, the ability to send messages, save firms, apply to a Practice Bench, and so on. Credit rollover follows the Ace rule (two months). See /help/credits-explained for what credits cover.
The trial does not auto-bill. No card is required to start it, and no charge is made at the end. When the trial expires, the account drops to Free automatically: subscription_tier becomes free, the monthly allowance becomes 1 credit, message sending is locked, and Practice Bench seats are vacated. Existing message threads remain readable. Pending job applications stay live.
To stay on a paid tier past the trial, the expert subscribes from /pricing/expert before the trial expires. Subscribing mid-trial does not shorten the trial; the paid period begins at the natural trial end.
The trial clock is paused during admin review, as described above.
If invited by the platform or a client
Invited experts have a slightly different path:
- Bulk-invited experts (those migrated from the existing expert network) skip the admin queue. Status is set to
approvedat signup so the profile becomes visible as soon as the required fields are filled in. Complimentary Ace access starts at signup; for the launch cohort that access runs to a fixed end date rather than a rolling 30-day clock. - Per-opportunity invites (where a client invites a specific expert to apply to a job) start the trial only when the expert actually applies to the invited job, not at signup. This avoids burning trial days on accounts created for a job the expert may not pursue.
In both cases, the rest of the setup process is identical to organic signup: profile completion is the same, the gauge is the same, the field caps are the same.
Related
- Credits and what they're spent on: /help/credits-explained
- What our AI features do with your data: /help/ai-features
- Login and signup troubleshooting: /help/login-and-signup