The Lady Programmer

I know, this post is long overdue. The seminar happened a few months ago. Also, I did not my own camera – so I got the pictures here from the photographers who took shots of the seminar. The RA9292 PDF is located within this post.

Last April 24, 2010, I was able to attend one of IECEP’s seminars, which was held here in Baguio City. IECEP stands for Institute of Electronic Engineers in the Philippines, an institution where one of its main goals is to keep registered electronics engineers in the Philipines keep abreast with the latest technological advancements in the field.

What is a lady programmer like me doing with these group of engineers?

IECEP seminar: Can you spot me in the picture?

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Silence is golden.

It has been several months since I’ve published posts on any of my blogs. Although some of you might have noticed my brief updates through Plurk, Facebook or Twitter, I was not able to manage having time to create longer posts for any of my blogs.

March 2010: Dad got stroke

At the start of this month, just nearing the end of the Panagbenga festival, my father was suddenly down with stroke. This unfortunate incident definitely changed the way things are done at home. But that’s just the way life is: my parents are getting old and I suddenly realized that I have to assume the responsibility of being the sole breadwinner of the family.

Me and my dad

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Being a freelance web designer is not something that I expected to land on. But during my early years I really have that strange deep interest in almost anything that involved computers. I am not surprised that even after taking up engineering and passing the boards for that, I still find myself doing IT-related jobs: these past few years I had been offering my services as a freelance web designer.

Many of my friends and strangers ask me: what have you been up to lately? I answer them – I do web design (but I am mostly concentrated on doing WordPress blogs). I also earn from blogs. All these I do full-time right in my home.

image credits to SuziJane

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One of the growing home-based jobs in the freelance industry are virtual office assistant jobs. These kind of jobs are generally involve doing administrative work such as data entry, customer service, email marketing, research, taking calls, answering emails, arranging meeting schedules and even doing repetitive SEO jobs. Virtual assistant jobs are generally more of secretarial or clerical in nature.

I haven’t tried doing virtual assistant jobs since I started finding freelance jobs online but I remember applying to some of these jobs (and getting rejected for some reason).

image credit to mcmorgan08

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I believe students and new graduates are now given more options to pursue other means of income online, even if they haven’t gained work experience. This may not apply to all students, but at least online freelance sites as well as blogging makes it easier for them to gain extra money.

I did not have that kind of option to earn extra money when I was still a student. The only option visible for me to earn more income is to follow the traditional way of earning money: be a working student. However, a working student is required to lessen the number of units taken up each semester until the entire course is finished.

Things are now different: some students figured out that they can earn online and even earn as much (or even much more) as what salaried employees get. As a result, I keep on finding more students who are interested in getting jobs from freelance sites.

One of the most common questions I get from them is: how do I get freelance jobs if I have no work experience and portfolio to show to clients?

Obviously, to gain an edge in the competitive world of freelancing, they have to build their portfolio.

image credit to patti haskins

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