Freelance Independent Study

I wish I could tell you there was a clear path to becoming a freelancer: Start at point A, go to point B, then C, then point D. (D is for “done,” obviously.) Unfortunately this is not the case--or maybe it's fortunate. There’s no "right" way to become a freelancer. All the freelancers I talked to followed completely different paths, but there are a number of common threads. My goal is to share those common threads with you and hopefully make it a bit easier for you to figure out your own path. Check out the resources below, and see my reflection on the overall project below that.

Freelance Independent Study Reflection

During Summer 2018, I embarked on a self-guided independent study. My goal? To find out more about freelancing from freelancers themselves, and discover if freelancing would be a feasible option for my future as a technical communicator. In this reflection, I’ll explain what I did to fulfill the terms of the independent study, including the resources I created and what I might have done differently.

Rhetorical Situation

The job market in the United States is becoming a contract economy. By 2028, 50% of the U.S. workforce could be employed in some form of a freelance or contract position, according to NPR. How does a technical communicator fit? For my independent study I hearkened back to my journalism roots to find out everything I could about freelancing with a communications-related skillset. 

For the Independent Study, I interviewed eight past or current freelancers about their experiences, read and reviewed six books about business and freelancing, sought and completed freelance work myself, and then used all of that information to create resources on contracts, negotiating and other resources for fellow technical communications students.

Strengths/Weaknesses

The biggest strength of my independent study was the breadth of research. I spent a lot of time gathering information from people who make (or have made) a living off of freelancing. My interviews were with people who fulfill (or have fulfilled) a broad range of freelance roles, from illustration to editing, and I felt that their collective perspective gave a thorough and illustrative window into the “how” and “why” of freelancing. The book reviews covered a range of topics, from those developing a general business mindset to freelancing specifically. I was also glad to have included some of my own experience in the resources, as many of the technical communication students who might use the resources would be just starting out like I was, so my own perspective seemed valuable.

On the other hand, I would have liked to include more personal experience in my finished materials. My original intent was to create a resource that had a lot of my own perspective, which I thought would be useful to share with fellow technical communications students. However, as the project went on, I found that I simply didn’t have the time to complete more of my own freelance work. Ultimately, less of my perspective was probably okay because getting advice and insight from experts was more important and likely a more valuable use of my limited time.

What I Would Change

There are a few changes I would make to my project given the chance. As I mentioned in the weaknesses above, I would have liked to have done more freelance work of my own and included information on that in the resources. Specifically, if I could do the project over again (with more time), I would have tried to get work on UpWork and reported back on that experience. I actually ended up doing a one-credit internship with one of the freelancers I interviewed during summer 2019, in which she basically mentored me as I sought work on UpWork. That undertaking was fairly time consuming, and I don’t think I could have done it as part of the Independent Study. More on that below.

Another change I would make, again given more time, is that I would have liked to interview even more freelancers, especially one or two specifically in the technical communicator space. Interviewing more technical communicators might have made the information more specifically relevant to fellow technical communications students. 

I would also update the infographic to make it more visual...somehow. My challenge with the infographic is that the topics I covered weren’t terribly visual, and rather than including a bunch of visuals, it seemed more important to distill the freelancer interviews to be included in the infographic. Realistically, most people will not read the freelancer interviews from beginning to end, and I wanted to make sure that at least some of their more salient points were pulled out and placed in a format people might read. I also don’t love the colors I chose for the infographic, but I think I at the time I was so tired of creating everything in bold Boise State blue and orange for my day job that subtle colors were more appealing to me.

What I Learned

I learned so much! I learned enormously from the freelancers who were gracious enough to share their experiences with me, I tested my own mettle by seeking and landing freelance work, and I was able to leverage my research and connections from the independent study for a one-credit internship seeking work on Upwork during summer 2019. I also learned that freelancing is a lot of work.

Ultimately, I was quite pleased with the schedule and list of tasks I created for myself. The information I collected and what I experienced gave me a well-rounded view of what to consider when considering freelancing, and gave me the resources to research further as needed. The most valuable aspect of the project to me was communicating with the eight freelancers. The freelancers all focused on different parts of their own experiences, and it was incredibly interesting to see what they emphasized in their responses to my questions. 

My self-imposed schedule also optimistically included seeking and completing my own freelance projects. At the time I wrote the schedule, completing my own projects seemed like a great idea, but later on I was not so pleased with that decision. I was incredibly intimidated to put myself out there and try to find projects, but in the end I’m very glad that I forced myself to do it. Connecting with a local organization to write stories was confidence-building, a great networking opportunity, and I even made a little money. Often the lessons that are hardest to learn are most rewarding.

Finally, Marsha, one of the freelancers I interviewed, was willing to be my mentor for an internship I completed during summer 2019. Marsha met with me on several occasions to help me set up an Upwork profile and offered valuable guidance for seeking and completing jobs on the platform. My initial connection with Marsha would not have happened without the independent study, and she has helped to open a whole new realm of possibility for my freelancing future.