The Lady Programmer

I have not been updating my blogs for a while. That was not laziness: like many bloggers my excuse is just I was so busy. I had been hopping into one freelance work after another. In between that I try to manage a few hours finding new jobs for my team members who are doing freelance jobs part time while learning all I can about WordPress blogs.

That freelance experience those past few weeks was a race against time. That had really put my time management skills to test. I had to make the best use of my time. I had finally reached the point where I have a constant stream of clients both old and new ones. When my long term projects  runs dry, new opportunities keep coming up. It’s a fact that full time freelancers don’t just work with one client – they have to very good masters of their time to be able to work and earn from different projects coming from different clients.

During that time I was semi-active in social networks, Plurk and Twitter. Since both networks allow only 140 characters, it was easy for me to get interactive without the need to write a full well-researched or well-thought out blog post.

For those very hectic days I just get down to do my freelance work. At the end of the day, I find myself mentally tired to compose a well-researched blog post on any of my blogs.
This next week is yet another busy week for me.

I will not say anymore that I am back to blogging, as other do. I am always here. If you don’t find me on blogs, you could always contact me through other social networks, or through my email. Some of you are even in my chat. If you don’t find my updates here, you can always interact with me in Plurk or Twitter.

Not many people who decide to start out a freelance career see a freelancing program as a business. Personally, I am one of those people who thinks negatively of freelance: that it is not a good career option because it does not give stable returns. After two sweaty job interviews from two big companies in my place, I soon learned that freelance is not what I thought of before – it can be a good career!

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Since I got the first job in oDesk, I had the opportunity to work with various job assignments. I was one of those who are complaining how difficult it is to land on a freelance job. I also have the skills to do a job, but it seemed to me that the jobs that are posted on oDesk look quite complicated. Besides, I had a full time day job which always required me to work overtime. I applied to some jobs then I got one rejection after another. I got my Payoneer card but no one was interesting in hiring me for a job.

Until I left my full time job and decided to find greener pastures. I went on to apply to companies near my place. One company offered me a good package because they wanted to hire me but I declined the job. During that time my adventures in freelancing had started to pay off.

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photo credit: ba1969 (SXC)

One of the hottest debates in most online job marketplaces is when minimum wages are being discussed. I’ve often seen this discussion in forums of online job sites. Online freelancers often have mixed feelings on this issue. One group of people accepts the reality that freelance jobs should NOT have minimum wages. Another group of freelancers asserts that there should be a minimum wage that online job board sites should implement. There is even a minority who got some ideas on that seem to combine the best of both minimum and non-minimum wage implementation.

Right Now

Most online freelance sites do not dictate any minimum wage restriction. Freelancers at matured economies like the US often find out that there are some job openings that are awarded to those in the emerging economies like the Philippines. The freelancers at emerging economies charge a lot less than to those living in matured economies. The difference in the standards of living is a huge factor why emerging economies charge lower than that of the matured economies. Some freelancers from matured economies express their concern that their charge is no higher than getting employed. Thus, the minimum wage issue is always proposed.

Others point out that many clients open low paying jobs to online job sites. I’ve often seen data entry jobs that come with even less than a dollar per hour. Providers at matured economies may attempt to submit their intention but bid to higher rates. In the end they lose the job to some freelancer living in India. Since there are freelancers who accept such jobs, clients are excited about getting huge savings in outsourcing jobs to countries like the Philippines.

I Say

I do not like to have the minimum wage rule implemented in online job sites. I believe that the solution to raise the price of a particular outsourced job is NOT to apply low paying jobs. As long as there are freelancers who accept job at lower rates then clients would believe that this particular job costs at a given rate. Besides, complainers who start this kind of discussion in the forums are often those who signed up for just a day to a week, without exerting any effort to apply to jobs. Successful freelancers living in matured economies do not compete at the rates that emerging economies charge. These complainers often like to stir some issue in the forums, in the hope of getting noticed. I think they just like to get the all the attention which the heated discussion fuels them up. There’s no point convincing them that they do not have to charge the same rates.

Do you think minimum wage is a must in freelance job board sites?

A common mistake done by new freelancers is to get jobs that are not within the range of the present skills and experience of the individual. Perhaps this has something to do with the desperation of getting hired on to the first job. There is also the mindset that applying to more jobs means more chances of getting an interview and eventually working on the first freelance job. I strongly believe that this is what many job seekers think when they applied for their first corporate job.

The similarities of applying to freelance jobs and permanent jobs are not at all different when it comes to having a resume, a portfolio and a cover letter to submit to the prospective employer or client. The big difference lies in the way that the new freelancer thinks about applying for a job. It is common to see freelancers apply for a job that is obviously short of the qualifications that are specified.

The client’s main concern is to hire the freelancer with all the necessary skills to complete the job. This is very important because they are paying the time spent on the job and not the time that the freelancer would study a new set of skills. The inexperienced freelancer runs into the problem of delaying the project because of a skill that he still needs to study further.

This is not to stress that the new freelancer has to find jobs that strictly adheres to the skill and job experience that he has, but he should consider jobs that he is confident enough to finish at the client’s reasonable time.