Freelancing can be a fantastic career decision, especially when you have a passion for working and want to be paid for that. Being a freelancer, it allows you to shape your daily work and meet with terrific clients for some fantastic projects. It is often an enriching career, and with this, you can maintain your freedom of working at a slow pace and as per your work schedule. You can independently drive your working ways and bring up new ideas for your goal accomplishment.
The best part of freelancing is that you can continue your work along with your full-time job. Freelance work is helpful during any economic uncertainty, and you can balance the workload by working overtime as well. Just try to keep a balance and don’t get exhausted. Freelancing is just a side job and sometimes a full-time job for a person. Whatever the reasons may be, getting a second job and extra money is something everyone wants. You can support yourself financially, and through this, you can grow in your career, learn new things, and meet new people.
Here, in this blog, we will share some focus points on why you should take freelancing as your second or first job and how you can modify your approach to succeed.
Starting the Search
Any job can be exhausting, and when you are coming back or starting your work as a freelancer, the most uncertain process is pitching your services to potential clients. To do it flawlessly, you must have a solid idea of the type of work you want to do. Find industries and even environments that suit your personality and working standards. There can be a lot of opportunities waiting for you, so don’t settle for something ordinary.
The most common reason for a second job is to be financially strong, so don’t overlook its value because it can provide a lot for you and fuel your ambitions. You just need to prepare some questions that you can ask yourself and your client. Those questions can be like, are there opportunities for more creativity? Can you work from home and the office according to your will? What other benefits are you getting from the Freelance work apart from the money- something like a certificate or a recommendation. The more you understand what you want and what your client wants, the better you’ll be able to give direction to your search.
The next thing that you must focus on is the way you search for a job. Today, employers narrow down candidates to get the best possible employee. Skills are essential, but the significant difference is the introduction of recruitment software during the process of hiring. This software uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to study and interpret the data according to industry standards. It focuses on the company’s requirements and even career mobility to develop algorithms that help companies find perfect candidates. Thus, it is imperative that when you set up your profile for job search on platforms like LinkedIn, you must include keywords that are prevalent in the industry and business you are applying for. You are actually working on getting the attention of the software so that it can select you for the next round of the interview.
Representing Your Skills
Jobs are never served to you. You have to hone your skills and represent them well in front of your employer. Gaining a second job depends on how smartly you market yourself and impress the interviewer. Yes, it’s challenging but not impossible. Being a freelancer, when you put forward your skills on your resume, it might seem like your skills haven’t changed or improved for a long time. But the fact is, your freelancing career has given you enough time to work on your skills by letting you try a variety of projects and become multi-talented, which your employer can utilize. You just need to make sure that your employer knows that.
Now the question is, where to start? The answer is your resume. You may have a lot of offers, but you should select smartly. You must keep checking how the other person has contacted you, whether through your Linkedin profile or someone recommended you or through your work. By understanding this, you would negotiate better and easily showcase your past responsibilities and experiences.
In your resume, you should chronologically mention the work you have done earlier. But if you have worked as a freelancer for some time, you can create a separate column of projects that you have been involved in earlier. However, please remember that your resume will just get your position in an interview; it will not surely give you the job. This is the crucial moment when you have to go in-depth and hone your skills, not just technical skills but also your soft skills. You must excel in communication, leadership, project management, logic, and empathy.
Take your time to perfect these skills being a freelancer and talk about these qualities during your interview. Don’t forget to explain how those skills can help in the betterment of their business. Talk to yourself in front of the mirror or take help from your family or friends. By doing this, you can find out what you have to improve and what else you can add to your answers.
Finding Support
It is crucial to understand that a job search is not something that gets completed in a few hours. Between finding the most suitable second job as a freelancer, to do alongside your full-time work, there are a lot of things that you might need to handle. From submitting applications and undertaking interviews to preparing yourself, everything requires time and a lot of energy and patience. This is obviously not ideal if your full-time job is hampered and your income is stretched. In fact, it can be clever to look for some alternative sources that can help you financially in the meantime.
Take the time to review your profit and loss. Additional work can help you smoothly pass through any rough periods, and it can often be sufficient to collect savings for future jobs. However, it’s also essential to understand that earned income from your current freelancing work might drive you over the threshold. So it’s best to stay informed of how much you’re able to gain before you exhaust yourself mentally and financially.
Conclusion
Many times, there are possibilities that with a freelancing career, you might need to take up a second job, even for a temporary time period. It might be fulfilling career-wise, but not financially. But if you take enough time to hone your skills, work on your resume and presentation skills, and have excellent communication skills, you can easily fulfill your future endeavors.
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