Is Freelancing the Road to Success?

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According to the Upwork and Freelancers Union research in October 2017, it is predicted that the number of people working as a freelancer worldwide will rise exponentially from 57.3 million to approximately 86.5 million.

You might be familiar with the term “freelancing”. For those who are not aware of this, a freelancer is a person who is self-employed and long-term may potentially work for several different companies. This term first originated in the novels of Sir Walter Scott in the 1800s, referring to medieval mercenaries who would fight for whichever lord paid them the most.

Now, the sort of work freelancers do can vary significantly, from mere marketing and writing articles to advanced web designing or financial support.

Most web developers are freelance.

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What are the advantages of freelancing?

With an ever-growing demand for this market, there are numerous advantages to this sort of employment, especially for web design.

Easy to Set Up

Selecting a network for finding a client has never been simpler. LinkedIn is a good start just set up a small area for yourself to link with others. The most famous website for this freelancing is, curiously enough, Freelancer.co.uk where you can either hire people for your business or find a company to work for. For further websites, see this list of top 10 websites for kickstarting your own freelancing career. And, best of all, it can all be started up in the comfort and safety of your chair (or wherever it is you sit with your laptop or computer!).

Cheap

Of course, you’ll need to pay to make some websites (unless you use the free web hosting packages like on Weebly or Wix) but making a LinkedIn profile to advertise is free. The whole thing is relatively cheap to set up. No need even to travel to run the job!

Flexible Hours

Trying to juggle not only your social life but university, a part-time job and a business at once? No problem. You can choose to work where and when you want.

Developing Skills

Work may require people to use the same skill set each day, but for freelancing you may be writing a blog one day and the next compiling art to stick on a portfolio website or videos for an event (such as the yearly montages of MCM Comic Con).

All Profits Go To You

You are your own boss. The money your clients give you in exchange for your projects for them go to you, and only to you. Everyone wants money, everyone wants to pay their bills. The money can even go towards buying better website hosting deals, for example.

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And the disadvantages?

As with most things, there is a bad side to the advantages.

Workload may fluctuate

Unfortunately, being a freelancer means that on one extreme there may be phases where multiple clients are in demand for various websites, and on the other extreme there may be no requests at all. The amount of work can be most inconsistent! At a normal job, you will know your customers and enjoy a predictable amount of pay for each month whereas being a freelancer means you will not know either of these things.

May take a while to get recognition

Like any business, it will take a while to develop clients and therefore recognition. Knowing people who know other people is usually the way, so it is likely your clients will tell their friends about you and once the reviews build up, you will get more acknowledgement.

Payment

You might not be paid much when you are just starting out, and some people may promise payment and not pay you at all when you finish their project. Sometimes this is unavoidable unfortunately. In fact, a PayPal study in 2017 shows that 58% of freelancers in the main countries in Asia have experienced not getting paid. This is theft of Intellectual Property.

Working alone
It is more than likely you will be isolated from others when working as a freelancer - the only person you will mainly be in communication with will be the client. This not only means that you are the one who has to deal with any issues or complaints but this also means that there are no paid holidays, and breaks come only when the project has been completed.

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So, is freelancing really the road to success?

In conclusion, freelancing is so in demand because there are many advantages to it, but the disadvantages should also be taken into consideration. However, overall, I feel the negatives do not take away the positive aspects of the job and that though at first there may not be that many commissions, your business will eventually grow and become a success.

Does the Concept of Professionalism Apply to the Creative Industries?

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The word “professional” is everywhere. You are either a professional or you’re not.

Remember the days you would sit in class, and you would be expected to give a presentation every now and then on various topics? You would notice the usual classmates who were well-prepared, spoke fluently, had appropriate props and slideshows. And there would be the others who would be fumbling for their notes, hesitating as they had not rehearsed their talk, had no visual displays because they had not met the deadline.

The organised, skilled kids were the professionals, the others were amateurs. This fits with the etymology of “professional” from its Latin root meaning of “communicating”.

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Professionalism in the Collins English Dictionary is defined self-referentially as “the methods, character, status, etc., of a professional”. So, generally, the way in which a person conducts themselves in a workplace. This includes the way they act around fellow colleagues, how organised they are or even the way in which they dress.

This sounds more like the workplace in retail, or in an office.

So how does this apply to the creative industries?

When we talk about the creative industries, we mean things like art, design, music, film video, and photography.

You might be thinking to yourself, “Well, I do art or I do music. How would professionalism apply to that?” because it can be argued that art or music is brought about in such a way that it lacks all organisation but the end result would appear as if you knew what you were doing all along. (We’re all guilty of this one!).

For example, singer Astrid S very recently decided to make a song using quotes and lyrics sent in from over 5,000 of her fans as inspiration. She only had one day to make the song, and you can hear her in her behind-the-scenes video saying “I usually don't make the lyrics first I usually make some chords or a melody,” and giggles as she exclaims, “I have no idea how to get started!”.

Some may argue that in this, Astrid is not being professional as she apparently has no idea what she is doing. However, you may notice she says things like “I tend to do this” or “Now that's done I feel like I can move on to do this”. She is still applying her skills to making the song, and that is what has made the tune professional.

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When it comes to web design, the online world is just like the outside world: you still have to produce things on time, take the customers into consideration and, more importantly, you still carry yourself about with dignity and respect on the internet just as you would going to your job, in person. Cyberbullying is unfortunately something which happens every day, but this should not be the way in which people go about their work. Indeed, this is rule number 2 of the World Wide Web Consortium’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct that all web developers should know:

1. Treat each other with respect, professionalism, fairness, and sensitivity to our many differences and strengths, including in situations of high pressure and urgency.

2. Never harass or bully anyone verbally, physically or sexually.

3. Never discriminate on the basis of personal characteristics or group membership. 

4. Communicate constructively and avoid demeaning or insulting behavior or language.

5. Seek, accept, and offer objective work criticism, and acknowledge properly the contributions of others.

6. Be honest about your own qualifications, and about any circumstances that might lead to conflicts of interest.

7. Respect the privacy of others and the confidentiality of data you access.

8. With respect to cultural differences, be conservative in what you do and liberal in what you accept from others, but not to the point of accepting disrespectful, unprofessional or unfair or unwelcome behavior or advances.

9. Promote the rules of this Code and take action (especially if you are in a leadership position) to bring the discussion back to a more civil level whenever inappropriate behaviors are observed.

Along with these rules, the WHATWG (The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group, a group of people who are dedicated towards the development of HTML and various other technologies, include more policies on their website for those interested in the web industry.

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Therefore, it can be established that professionalism does apply to the creative industries. While you may not need to dress a certain way while sitting at home on your laptop (we have all seen “Surrogates”!), you still have to meet deadlines, and politely communicate with customers. And even if you are the most disorganised person in the world, that does not make your work any less professional provided that the end result is right! Keep the creativity coming!

What Makes A Good Portfolio?

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It is universally known that when applying for any position, a CV, a portfolio of work or a showreel is almost always required. Why? Because it helps to show who you are and what you’ve done that can make you stand out from the crowd.

For being a web developer, it’s all about having the necessary skills for the industry. That being said, it is all very good going up to people methodically saying “I’m a web developer and I’m very good at HTML and CSS and not too bad at JavaScript and jQuery” however, it is another thing to prove it. Otherwise, everyone would embellish their accomplishments!

You may claim, for example, that you love nothing better than to sit and use the Firebase Console to link your databases to your website when in fact you struggle with the concepts and detest coding greatly.

Lying about what you’re good at is not advisable, but people still do it. In fact, OfficeTeam, an administrative support service, issued a survey in 2017 to 1,314 workers. It was revealed just under half (46%) the number of staff asked knew someone who had lied in their resumé (of course, this presupposes that those responding were themselves telling the truth!). 

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That is not the ideal way to go.

The moment employers find out you are not who you say you are, whether you are in their job or not, you’ll be no longer considered for being employed and will be shown the door.

Now, what better way to show off your skills – the real skills you actually know – than to demonstrate what you know through your own website?

Indeed, many web developers take the chance silently to brag about their success by projecting their unique personalities and coding styles on their websites created especially for this purpose. As Nick Babich, Editor-in-chief of UX Planet and software developer, stated in one of his blogs on building a web developer portfolio:

“For web developers, your website is more than just a description of your work—it is your work. It’s a place where you can demonstrate what you’re capable of.”

How do they do this? Time and patience, really.

But what makes their portfolio so good?

1. Keeping it straightforward

The most common mistake of portfolios is that people put in too much information that it either looks hectic or there are too many words on the page to process. It only takes 50 milliseconds for someone to form an opinion of you, so you’d best make them count. 

Having a simple consistent website is an absolute must as it not only looks professional but it also means people can get the gist of you without needing to read paragraphs about yourself! This does not limit you to what you can do: you can still have an attractive page without things needing to look overdone.

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2. Interaction

Everyone likes to feel included, everyone loves to be involved. That’s what makes things fun! JavaScript is the backbone of websites, it’s what makes them so interactive so you might as well fire things in, even if it’s just a quick animation.

Front-end development engineer Matthew Williams chose a simple home page which, when you run the mouse over the shooting star-like tails, turns the line from a dull grey into a white.

Robby Leonardi, a multidisciplinary designer, has made his portfolio website as though you were playing a video game. At each level, the visitor can learn more about him. This quirky design immediately exhibits what he is capable of coding and consequently is very impressive.

3. Including relevant skills and experience

There is no point in including information about your education or work experience that does not apply to what you are doing. For example, working part-time as a sales assistant does not have anything to do with web developing. It only makes sense to discuss the relatable points about yourself, such as which programming language is your forté or if you did a work placement involving web development.

4. Ensuring people can contact you easily

This might sound like an obvious one, but it really helps to have an obvious place for people who are interested in your work or potential business partners to contact you. Having a contacts page tucked away among other pages is no good for anyone! You could incorporate not only the standard form, but also a mobile or email address so they can get immediate priority.

In a post for HubSpot, Lindsay Kolowich emphasises:

“If your visitor or customer needs help, they want it now. They don't want to fill out a form and wait to see when, if ever, they get a response.” 

5. Other projects

Showcasing what projects you are working on at the moment or have already made is what makes it a portfolio. It gives people a chance to look at your work and style before they have even got the chance to speak to you. Displaying your work on your website can help companies narrow down their search for who they want to hire if you have enough examples to match the requirements they want.

It lets people know what your attitude to work is, what sort of style you have, and if it’s projects you have been working on for prestigious companies, it adds to the value of the work and may help you come forward and be recommended more!

It can be concluded that portfolios are important in any industry. For web development, it is all about reflecting your skills and personality into the website itself – that is the driving force! Keep everything clear and concise, from the content to the contacts. Show off your work, relative achievements and, above all, make a good first impression to your viewers. Good luck!

YOU CAN VIEW MY OWN PORTFOLIO WEBSITE HERE.