Although I decided to become independent as a freelancer, I think there are many engineers who have had trouble finding a job. It is also a reality to remember that becoming a freelance engineer means that if you do not have a job, your income will be zero and you will have to do business to get a job yourself.
In this article, we’ll show you how to find a basic job for a freelance engineer, as well as the skills you need to win deals to keep earning money. If you are a freelancer or an engineer looking for a job, please refer to it.
table of contents
- 1. How to find a freelance job
- 2. Recommended project acquisition method for freelance engineers
- 3. The income of a freelance engineer depends on how you look for a job!
- 4. Characteristics of freelance engineers who have continuous work
- 5. How to find a freelance engineer’s job that should not be done
- 6. What you need to know before looking for a job as a freelance engineer
- 7. Summary
1. How to find a freelance job
We investigated the main methods of winning freelance projects.
Where do freelancers find work, according to a survey of the Freelance White Paper 2019? In response to the question, there are many people who have acquired jobs due to so-called relationships such as “personal connections” and “past / current business partners” , followed by sales activities such as “own advertising activities” , and recently attention People who have a track record of connecting to work with the outsourcing matching service that collects are increasingly being used by “agent services” and “crowdsourcing .”
2. Recommended project acquisition method for freelance engineers
Unlike when I was a salaried worker who got paid if I went to work and worked, when I became a freelance engineer, I had to do it myself because I got a job (sales).
Here are some tips on how to find a recommended job for a freelance engineer.
2.1 Receive a referral from an acquaintance
Most of the ways freelance engineers look for a job are to get a job introduced by the boss, customer, acquaintance, etc. of the company they have been enrolled in. It can be said that it is the easiest case to request because you can understand the achievements of your work and you can feel reassured that you can understand each other’s personality.
As long as you continue to work in the IT industry, even if you’re retired, your customers and colleagues with whom you’re connected at work don’t know when and how you’ll be working with them again. It is safe to have a job introduced by the company you belonged to before you became independent or a customer at that time. When you leave the company, be sure to leave the company in good condition.
2.2 Search for a matter using an agent
This is a method of using a job information site that provides job information for engineers who want to work freelance. If you cannot receive referrals from pre-independence companies or acquaintances, referrals from job information sites using agents will be the main contractors.
The merits of using an agent as a way to
find a job are: -Helping with the sales part such as “getting a job by yourself”
-“All procedures including contract-related procedures and unit price negotiations are on your behalf “They are doing it for me”
, “You can objectively get not only skills but also your work style and personal appeal”
, “There is a possibility that you can get more detailed information on the company side”
.
You can expect to avoid troubles by asking the agent to negotiate various conditions such as remuneration with the company. In addition to finding the most suitable project for your current skills, it is also attractive that you can actively teach the skills that will be required for freelance engineers in the future.
This service is recommended for people who are not good at sales and negotiations, or who want to know and utilize their own skills.
Find the latest freelance engineer deals via agents
2.3 Search for deals on crowdsourcing sites
Sites such as Lancers and CrowdWorks are famous, but you can apply for the projects that are open to the public. The difficulty of the project varies from simple to full-scale, and most of the projects are relatively home-based, but there are also resident projects for engineers.
If you complete the work of a connected customer on a crowdsourcing site and build trust, you may be given priority to the next project, so freelancers will continue to win projects. It can be said that it is an effective means for this.
2.4 Participate in study sessions (seminars) for freelance engineers to expand personal connections
Being a freelance engineer requires more skill than when I was an office worker. The flow of the IT industry is very fast, so by attending seminars held regularly in various places, I can ask what kind of technology is currently being talked about and what skills I should acquire in the future. It will be an opportunity to increase the market value. By deepening exchanges between engineers who met there, such as by exchanging business cards, it will not only improve learning skills, but will also lead to expanding personal connections.
The wider your network, the more you will be able to win projects, so I would like to actively participate in study sessions.
3. The income of a freelance engineer depends on how you look for a job!
Looking at this data, we can see that there is a large variation in income differences depending on how freelance engineers look for jobs.
Full-time F Considering that most of her relance is over 4 million yen, looking at the job acquisition routes that can earn over 4 million yen as the main source of income, in descending order of the number of respondents
- “Agent service” (71.2% with annual income of 4 million yen or more)
- “Past / current business partners” (58.0%)
- “Personal connections” (45.8), “My own advertising activities” (36.7%)
It has become.
“Use of agent service” is also recommended as a way to search for a large percentage of projects that are expected to have high unit prices and high income .
In addition, “having multiple ordering channels”, “increasing the unit price”, “shortening working hours”, etc. may be effective as a way to increase income even if there are differences in the way of taking work.
4. Characteristics of freelance engineers who have continuous work
It is important for freelance engineers to take many “continuation projects” in order to earn stable income, as well as to develop new customers. Freelance engineers who have continuous work have these characteristics.
4.1 Being trusted by clients
Clients will be satisfied if they can provide more value than the unit price. Its value is not limited to skills and skills. With the confidence that “this person can do it” , the client will want to continue to ask you for work.
Specifically, the non-technical points for gaining a relationship of trust through work are as follows.
- Response is quick
- Keep the delivery date
- Work is polite
- Sharp mind
- Will make new proposals … etc.
Is it actually possible to do something that seems obvious? First of all, it is important to always keep in mind the actions to be aware of these. A trusted freelance engineer will have the added benefit of being able to have a fixed number of customers and connecting to multiple ordering channels, such as increasing connections from them.
4.2 Have learning ability and action ability
Being a freelance engineer who is always active and does not stop thinking about “what I am lacking now” in addition to actions such as conducting sales activities will lead to continuous acquisition of projects.
New technologies are advancing rapidly in the IT industry. In that process, always having the opportunity to study and preparing for the future are the necessary things to do in order to do the next job. The aforementioned ” 2.4 Participating in freelance seminars (study sessions) to expand personal connections ” is also one of the concrete actions, so I would like you to practice it.
4.3 Have the power to convey
The title of a famous book is that “the way of communicating is 90%”, but no matter how good you are as an engineer, if you do not have the power to appeal it, nothing will be conveyed.
We make achievements and appeal it. If you continue to make such calls, your excellent value will be conveyed and work requests will be automatically received. It is also effective to start by creating a portfolio that can prove your skills and achievements, and prepare to send it on the web (SNS or blog) or by e-mail.
Reference book) eBook: Freelance work style that does not fail Mr. Akitsugu Domoto
5. How to find a freelance engineer’s job that should not be done
We have summarized the “don’t do” points that freelance engineers should not look for and take when looking for a job, and that such freelance engineers cannot win projects.
5.1 Do not accept projects beyond your ability
It tends to be seen by people who are too easy or indecisive. I think that there are many people who have long office workers who work at their own expense, but in the case of freelancers, it is possible that the spirit of self-sacrifice will eventually fail. It’s best to avoid
looking for projects that exceed your skills, or working or burdening yourself beyond the price . For example, it is dangerous because it is different from the original story but you have a contract. To prevent this, you need the ability to identify and judge your own skills and achievements. Please refer to the next chapter ” 6. What you need to know before looking for a job as a freelance engineer “.
5.2 Do not act in a way that loses the trust of the client
Specifically, the words and actions that lose the trust of the client are like this.
- Don’t keep time
- Bad socializing
- Contact lazy
- No appeal
- I can’t move from myself … etc
Even if a company employee can request a change in charge, a freelance engineer may cancel the transaction if he / she thinks that he / she does not want to work with this person anymore. Also, recently, it is a point to be careful because it often loses trust even when using SNS etc. that are used on a daily basis.
5.3 Don’t count on undecided work
If you take on a job that you haven’t imagined, or if you take on a job without a clear mission, you will have trouble later. To prevent this from happening, it is important to avoid accepting work with ambiguous information, and to clarify how much you will do at the beginning before accepting the work.
Reference book) Publisher: Edo bookmarks, eight unfortunate features of people who fail in mangabito freelance
Reference book) Sale: Amazon active freelancer talks “Please quit freelance” ch4cO
6. What you need to know before looking for a job as a freelance engineer
Before aiming for freelance as an engineer, I have listed the minimum things I want to do. Please refer to it.
6.1 Know the skills needed for a freelance engineer
Most of the images I imagine from freelancers are relatively “free”, such as not having to commute to work and being able to do whatever work you want, wherever you want, at any time. But being free means that you are entirely responsible, in other words.
To go freelance
- High IT skills
- Self-management ability to control oneself
- Sales force to get a deal
- Public procedures such as final tax return and social insurance (health insurance / national pension)
It requires abilities and tasks that are different from those of the office worker era. Also, if you check once again why you want to be a free engineer,
such as wanting to increase your income or master programming, you will not be shaken even if there are difficult or unexpected things in the future. You can only have a solid axis.
6.2 Organize what are the strengths of your experience and skills
As mentioned above, freelance is a work style that makes use of your specialized skills, so by organizing your experience and skills that are your strengths, it will be easier to proceed smoothly when searching for a job. ..
At that time, if you have the plus α skills that you will only have, it will be easier to differentiate yourself from other human resources.
For example, in the case of programmers, I think that many engineers will be targeted if only “human resources who can code using the Java language” are targeted, but when it comes to “I can code in Java and I can speak English”, the former is better than the former. The target audience is narrowed down.
Having a lot of strength skills will increase the chances of winning more deals.
7. Summary
If you try to find a job as a freelance engineer, even if you are not good at sales or you do not have an acquaintance who can introduce you to the project at the moment, if you find a reliable agent in the future, that will be a good network of contacts. Will go.
By accumulating experience and achievements, if we can build a relationship of mutual trust that “I want to entrust the work because I am this person” and “I want to receive an order”, I think that the way to find a job for a freelance engineer will naturally open up.
In order to play an active role as a freelance engineer, in parallel with improving your skills, let’s look at how to find a job and do your best to win a project that balances stability and growth!
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