What You Do Not Know Can Hurt You (the Freelancer)
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.
