Programmers all over the globe, at some point during their careers, find themselves questioning whether they should become full-time programmers committed to one organization only or they should become freelance programmers, which allows them to work on diverse, exciting projects during the careers.
While one promises stability in their life, the other provides creative freedom and help elevate their craft. One allows you to have a routine and yearly vacation, while the other gives you a choice to determine when you want to take time off.
Overall, both a full-time programming job and freelance programming work have pros and con,like everything. If, however, you choose to become a freelance programmer, you must be particular about how to find freelance programming work, as the process can turn out very tiresome and lengthy.
Here are a few tips on finding work if you are a freelance programmer.
You do not have a company’s name attached to you as a freelancer. All you have is your qualifications and experience, and you have to make yourself look appealing from that.
Therefore, you must learn programming-related skills to have the edge over all others. Skills such as UI/UX design knowledge and data engineering enhance your resume. Furthermore, we also recommend not adding any non-relevant activities or extra-curricular to your portfolio as a recruiter may get distracted by them.
It is best to keep your portfolio concise and to the point. Also, specify your expertise or the type of programming-related work you love the most.
There are plenty of freelancing platforms out there. But only a few, such as Upwork and Toptal, have a large community of recruiters and employers. Hence, create a profile on one of such websites for the chances of getting a programming job on these are much higher than any other. Furthermore, websites with a large community of programmers and recruiters often have a simple screening test allowing you to create a profile even if you have less or no relevant experience.
Most programmers lean towards freelancing for one of the two reasons. Either they want to have unconventional working hours, or they want to experience. However, getting a job that pays you worth your expertise is very difficult in the initial stages. Therefore, work for experience and not money, and then ask your employers to rate and review you on freelance websites.
Good ratings and reviews help freelance programmers because recruiters consider reviews a form of reference and choose programmers based on their reviews. However, you will have to search for relevant jobs on freelance websites and email or message your portfolio to organizations looking for freelance programmers. But with time, it is most likely that the recruiter will contact you themselves.
Most importantly, know it takes time and effort to build up a strong enough portfolio to attract recruiters, but it does happen, so do not lose hope.
