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General Discussion

Alexandru Olteanu
Alexandru Olteanu
17,522 Points
Posted by Alexandru Olteanu
Alexandru Olteanu
17,522 Points

Freelancing vs job advice

Hi,

I currently am employed as an analyst (I do mostly Excels and stuff like this) and I'm considering starting freelancing. The courses on threehouse have been really helpful and I consider that I have enough knowledge to start building websites.

My questions is if freelancing is a good idea for a beginner. I am ready to dedicate all of my time to this but some say that it's ok, and most of the people I've talked with say it's a waste of time.

Also, I've given a couple of interviews to some webdesign/webdev but I have not been accepted anywhere (possibly because I have minimal experience and portfolio).

Any advice is welcome and sorry for my bad english.

Thanks!

2 Answers

Zoe Xiao
Zoe Xiao
7,195 Points
Zoe Xiao
Zoe Xiao
7,195 Points

Did you submit your works to the interviewer?

Alexandru Olteanu
Alexandru Olteanu
17,522 Points
Alexandru Olteanu
Alexandru Olteanu
17,522 Points

Of course I did. But that everything I did was a spinoff of the projects I've finished on treehouse.

Zoe Xiao
Zoe Xiao
7,195 Points
Zoe Xiao
Zoe Xiao
7,195 Points

I had been freelanced for a long time before. But it is not coding. Just translating and writing work. First, I think the experience of working as a full-time employee in a certain industry paves the way for better freelancing. You will get trust easily. Second, the money you make from freelancing is quite hard to say. I think it is difficult to make a fortune by freelancing when you are still a beginner. Third, maybe you can try to accumulate more excellent works. Possibilities are that they consider your works not so impressive?

Alexandru Olteanu
Alexandru Olteanu
17,522 Points
Alexandru Olteanu
Alexandru Olteanu
17,522 Points

Yes, that is possible. I am aware that I'm a complete beginner but I'm willing to work hard. I need to think of some personal projects to build up so people would take me seriously.

Jason Stanley
Jason Stanley
5,556 Points
Jason Stanley
Jason Stanley
5,556 Points

Freelancing is a good way to get started but money is very hit and miss.. Without a portfolio it will be difficult to land good clients. Life is hard with bad clients. Lots of scope creep, missed payments, questions about your billing amount etc.

However freelancing is a way to get started in the industry. It is what I did and don't regret it. I am employed full time now. I stopped because I didn't like risk involved. One month would bring in a lot of money, I would then have hardly anything to do for 3 weeks.

The alternative to freelancing is to work on a side project or work with others. The key thing either way is to ensure you are being pushed to get better, keep up your learning and write better code.

Alexandru Olteanu
Alexandru Olteanu
17,522 Points
Alexandru Olteanu
Alexandru Olteanu
17,522 Points

Yeah, money is the biggest problem when freelancing. Especially when you're a total beginner. I need means to provide at least for myself so freelancing might be quite risky.