What is freelancing?
We get asked this question A LOT. What is freelancing? The term freelancer refers to someone who “is self employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term”. This has been around for a long time and is more common in some sectors than others.
If you look at the likes of the trades: plumbers, electricians, carpenters and such like have been working for themselves for years. Yet they don’t usually refer to themselves as freelancers.
When you look into our industry of Technology, most commonly people will work full time for a single company for an average 3 years minimum. Then they get bored or want more money. The solution to this is to spend weeks speaking to recruiters as they give you the same boring sales pitch about a “really innovative company” with a “flexible working environment”.
However this tends to be on their terms. To them, flexible working means you’ll maybe get a couple of days working from home every few months and you can wear jeans on a Friday. This approach is outdated and has been for a while.
Technology from a contractor point of view
Now let’s look at Technology from a contractor point of view. If you are a seasoned contractor you might also find that you’re asking the question What is freelancing? and how does it differ from contracting. Well, contracting tends to be a lot more interesting as you’re usually only working for a client for 6 months then move to another client.
There are pros and cons to this as well of course. It might take you a while to find your next contract, you don’t have the benefits of a perm role such as sick pay and holiday pay. But all in all contracting has a better reputation in Tech. Who ruins it though? Shoddy contract recruiters who mess people around delaying an easy process.
Post Pandemic Work
I’ve said it before but the working day is changing, coming out the other side of this pandemic. People like working from home instead of an office and people like the flexibility of not working 9-5 anymore.
The biggest benefit of freelancing is that you aren’t restricted to one employer. You can work across multiple different projects from different clients at once. As long as all agreed upon work is completed on time. This completely eliminates the issue of perm employees who get bored of the same thing, in the same office everyday for years.
Gigged.Ai and the rise of the freelancer
This is exactly what we’re trying to do with Gigged.AI. I myself am very excited to see how the freelance community in the UK grows over the next 10 years especially within the tech industry.
The possibilities are limitless with the way remote working has improved over the last year and a half. So now you know the answer to the question, What is freelancing? what are you waiting for?