So recently I’ve been doing a lot of freelancing. And it’s been great. Certainly there are the typical problems with freelancing- no guarantees about how long the work will last, crazy running around, the prospect of paying a ton of taxes, the inability to actually see any of the people I’ve been working with.
However, other than that it’s probably been the best thing I’ve ever done for my career and skill base. Even if I had gotten the most perfect beautiful entry-level qual research job (which I would still love perspective employers) there’s no way I could have gained all the skills I have in the six weeks I’ve spent freelancing. I’ve done quant in-store interviewing, I’ve done flow-counting, I’ve done shopalongs, I’ve done ethnographic documentation of shopper behavior, I’ve creating fielding documents, I’ve learned how to use NVivo, worked on qual analysis with a really talented researcher, and now I’m learning how to form a story for a client and create a deck while learning how to start the research process from the client call on.
In a word, it’s been awesome. I have gotten such awesome experience. Part of that is the great team I’m working with and their willingness to trust me and let me learn along the way while offering my good base skills as a trade off for that. For someone who has been trying to make a career change, from academic research to market research, it’s exactly the kind of experience I need to prove myself to future employers and beef up my resume along with really challenging my brain.
Freelancing has also been helping with the worst mental aspects of being unemployed. I don’t know about everyone else, but the constant rejection was really getting to me, and having people be so enthusiastic about my work has really helped my outlook. That alone has been so valuable, but there’s also the mental challenge. I feel like I’m really growing in a way that was impossible for me while simply being unemployed, even with all the classes, informational interviews, and literature reading that I was doing. There’s just something about working with a team, rushing to pick up skills.
I know freelancing isn’t for everyone. It’s certainly not even for me longterm, I crave the security of a day-to-day job and the ability to really build long-term skills. I also know I’m really lucky that I do have a little financial security, living with someone who can pay most of the bills and not rely on my inconsistent income. But if you can, even a little, especially if you want to make a career change or try to get into a field with a few solid skills under your belt, I definitely recommend it.
