Finding Freelance Design Work

My (Short) Freelance History

As with most recent college graduates, my full-time job experience is pretty sparse. Most college students have some kind of low-paying part time job to help with either books or beer. Halfway through college I was able to quit my crappy low-paying job and I was able to focus on part-time and freelance design work.

After a little more than a week of freelancing full time, it seems that my biggest hurdle is finding more work. So the following is what I did to find work when I was still in school, and what I’m doing to find work now.

Finding Freelance Design Work as a Student

The school or university itself is a students biggest advantage. I’ve found that people were more willing to forgive inexperience and take a chance on someone in a college or university setting.

• Professors

  Most Professors have research projects and side jobs that are often more interesting than what is being taught in class. The professors in a web or design majors are likely to have freelance projects of their own that could use some cheap student help

  Most of my work came from professors in other departments. Their research projects needed a publicity website or some print materials for distribution. These jobs were more satisfying because I got plenty of time to learn new technologies and take ownerships of the web or design project.

• College Job Board (Purdue)

  I’m not sure if all schools have an online employment section, if so, its a great place to look for part time work. It’s also good if you’ve graduated and don’t want to leave the college life behind.

• Networking

  Obviously, this isn’t just for students, but you never know where your next project could come from. I got a project redesigning a local church’s website from a girl I had met at a bar but failed to date. Instead of remembering my wit and charm, she remembered that I was a web designer and dropped my name to her church’s advisory board.

I’m not a student anymore, so how do I plan on getting work when I’m not trying to meet girls or go to class?

Finding Professional Freelance Design Work

This is just a list of the sources that I’ve been using to get work. I understand that there are more out there, but I’ve had good luck with the following.

• Friends & Family

  Friends and Family are a great resource. I’m pretty uncomfortable asking for any kind of help from my family, but something as simple as a well-designed email or newsletter that gives an update on your life (including your newly freelance status) could work wonders.

• Non-Family Networking

  Not really something I have extensive experience with, but supposedly LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for connecting with potential work and business partners. My online network experience is limited to facebook, so don’t expect healthy advice describing how to act in a professional online network.

  My Linked In Profile (Still haven’t filled the entire thing out yet)
  

• Craigslist & Crazed List

  In my mind, Craigslist is more about quantity than quality. The majority of the gigs are looking to pay way to little (usually nothing), and most of the jobs are for full-time positions. I probably wouldn’t even bother with Craigslist if it weren’t for Crazed List, a tool for searching all of the Craig’s websites in the world.

  That being said, I have found excellent opportunities through Craigslist, after weeding through a lot of crap.

• Creative Staffing Agencies

  This is another thing that I’m not so sure about. There are a couple that I’m trying out, but I’ve only been a member for a week, the main issue I’m having is a lack of part-time/freelance jobs to apply for. Here are the agencies that I have a profile for. Creative Group, Aquent.

As the months go on, I’ll keep track of when and how I found work and after 6 months or so, I can post a neat little graph.