From decades of traditional work to freelancing? Share your experience

[#1]

Over the years, Community members have mentioned giving freelancing and Upwork a try after decades in the traditional workplace or as a way to ease into retirement. Some had already retired and decided to use freelancing for supplemental income.

When you have a career that spans multiple decades with vast experience in various roles and industries, how do you choose what to add to your Upwork profile, what to leave out, and what to save for specific proposals? 

We’d love to hear more about your experience and any tips you may have for others navigating similar situations.

[#2]

As a textbook GenXer, I bounced around making numerous career changes after graduating university straight into a recession. I was a journalist, tour guide, jewellery designer, theatrical stage manager, and a travel agent - to name a few - with lots of office temp jobs to tide me over when I was "between careers".

One of the temp jobs turned long-term after the company's lead graphic designer took me under his wing and taught me to assist in his department. From there, I took night school courses and studied in my own time until I was able to build up a portfolio and get a full-time job. But the hours were very long - this was on Bay Street in Toronto, Canada's answer to Wall Street - and everyone was expected to work until 9 or 10 at night and often come in on weekends as well. I had no work-life balance. 

My boyfriend at the time was a freelance IT guy. I envied the freedom that he had to set his own hours, and decided to try freelancing myself. I found my first few clients by printing up flyers and going door-to-door to businesses in my neighbourhood, as well as asking friends and family for referrals, until I had enough regular work to quit my job. 

After about two years of this, I met another design freelancer via a networking event, and she mentioned Elance. I signed up in August 2000, when it was still in beta. 

"...how do you choose what to add to your Upwork profile, what to leave out, and what to save for specific proposals?" Like many who first sign up, I didn't choose! I put everything in and signed up to multiple categories, including graphic design, writing, and admin. Elance was crazy at first; like a reverse eBay where there would be a count-down to a job closing and people would place their bids at the last minute, all trying to be the cheapest. It took quite awhile for me to find my feet and figure out what I needed to say instead of tryiing to compete on price. I think that my niche chose me rather than the other way around, because there were just certain types of projects that I could win relatively easily, so I was wasting my time bidding on anything and everything.

I think the hardest thing for me to grasp when I first started online bidding was that jobs weren't going to just to fall into my lap; I had expected that with my experience and skills, clients would flock to me, and it was a shock to realise how much competition I had and how difficult it was to land my first gig. Fortunately, marketing is one of the things that I'd studied at uni, and I did lots of additional research to get tips on how to promote my business. So I'd say that that's my number 1 piece of advice: don't assume that just because you're good at something, you'll be good at freelancing. You need to read, read, read, and learn all aspects of running a business - marketing, bookkeeping, customer service - and realise that building a freelancing business is a marathon, not a sprint.

[#3]

I never worked traditionally. Seriously never!

I don't know what it is like to work from the office, but I have seen people around me leaving at 7-8am to reach the office at 9am and then returning home around 6-7pm. Which seemed to be too much to me since ever. I think I will never be able to do something as such in future. 

My freelancing journey started on social media, where I was vocal among groups with helping people with data science coding practices and using statistical models appropriately, and from there, someone contacted me to hire me as a freelancer and then I found freelancing as a nice career to go ahead with. I don't need to attach myself to labels and continue to work on my academic research at my own pace. 

I found Upwork and created an account, for a month or two there was absolute silence but then I started getting invites to do small jobs. I accepted a few of them and from there my upworking started. I love it, and I feel clients I get from upwork has nice process than those who contact me directly from outside. I hate managing contract and invoicing, as any typical freelancer I do everything alone (yes yes there are many fancy software but they all require quite many efforts and accounting obligations and much time) and using Upwork is just simple, the platform does everything and I feel safe and totally optimistic when starting the work.  

I am planning to take some break from my academic stuff and commit 100% to freelance now and adopting a digital nomad lifestyle soon. It will come a hard way but freelancing is making it possible - pretty sure traditional work style can never make it possible.

[#4]

I wish you all the success Aru, and I am sure you can do it. But - however boring invoicing and all the other admin stuff is - make sure you put aside a little pot for those unexpected moments like accidents or illness - and yes - retirement eventually! 

[#5]

Thanks for the wishes Nichola. I hate invoicing and following up with clients and it is the hardest thing when clients are not through Upwork. Anyway, I am yet to start to save on my pace and plan for retirement. Saving comes is always important when one is freelancing, sure. 

[#6]

Its been 1.5 years since I started working on Upwork. I did $1000 worth of work in just $10 to get good reviews in the begining and attracts more client. It was tough but indeed worth it ❤️ I was consistent and worked very hard to get good long term clients. I still remember I found a client who changed my life and I am still working with him & he does not want me to leave him at any cost as we have build an amazing relationship with each other.

I recently quit my corporate job and started as a full time freelancer ❤️ Now, I have a freedom of many things which I cannot event thought of in a corporate job.

Thank you Upwork ❤️