Boost your work history with freelancing

Experience is really important if you want to get a job. This proves that someone else hired you and that they appreciated what you did for them, meaning that you will be good for their company too.

Many ads are looking for applicants to already carry some sort of practical experience on the job, so it can be a bit difficult to get a job if you don’t have the experience and are just out of school.

Candidates often volunteer and work in odd places to give their CVs some meat. Whilst these are great and valid options, you could and should try freelancing which is an overlooked option.

It’s a great way to gain experience, without working for free, whilst getting paid a decent income. You can also make good contacts and enjoy your home. It gives you a chance to travel the globe as well. You might even like it so much, freelancing will become your career for life.

But for now, you should focus on giving your CV more flair with freelancing. Here are some tips on how to do just that:

Find a good freelancing site

Once you start building your CV with freelancing jobs, you should start looking at freelancing platforms. You have several options here and your niche will largely determine which one will work for you. Designers have a good chance with Behance, People per hour, 99Designs and so on. If you are a writer, you can try Upwork, Freelancer or Flexjobs. These websites are also amazing for other professionals.

However, you can also try building your own freelancing business by cold emailing clients. These jobs are usually paid better, and you can get better credits.

“Expats in the Netherlands could be especially great in freelance translating jobs and working on freelance projects in the Netherlands,” says Randy Garden, a recruiter at Writemyx and Australia2write.

Do deep research on which websites would suit you best and provide you with enough work.

Build your profile

A good profile can go a long way when it comes to finding a job and a client on one of the freelancing platforms. This will give you a face online and a good description of what you can do. You should also list your education and something of your personal, soft skills that can help you differentiate yourself.

You need a good profile picture - something clear that makes you look professional. Don’t post blurry pictures or pictures with friends. It needs to be clear that it’s you and that you are good for the job. You should also provide a decent amount of information in your description where you share more about your soft and hard skills, services you provide, the languages you speak and so on.

Make sure you also provide a portfolio of your work or of your previous work, something you did for practice or in school. Pay attention to this and make it look good!

Find the first job

“If you want to win a job, you should send proposals for jobs that you are interested and skilled in. Business owners will post them and other people will apply as well, but you can stand out if you create a good enough of a proposal,” says Lisa Dunham, a career advisor at 1 Day 2 Write and Brit student.

A strong proposal includes a good introduction - depending on the platform, it can be conversational or professional. This proposal should include a summary of your skills and what you can do for the employer, your deadline, your rates and so on. You can work for a discounted price for a while, to attract new clients as a newbie. But make sure you increase them when you gain more credibility.

Deliver quality work

When you get a job, you should ensure that you really work hard and deliver favourable results. Invest time and effort into completing the task on time. Stay in contact with the client to provide updates and avoid missing the deadline. Check your work for quality and then send it to a client. Be ready to make changes if your client doesn’t like a part of your work.

Once you gain some feedback, you can ask your client whether they like your work and whether they are ready to allow you to use this work on your CV and portfolio, as well as give you a recommendation or provide some results that your work gave them. Do this enough times and you’ll have a CV full of great experiences!

If you decide to apply for a traditional job, make sure to add these experiences to your CV as you would a regular job.