Archive for April, 2008
I am sleep deprived and drowning in deadlines. Posting will continue to be light until May 5th or so. For now, enjoy this freelancer-related randomata.
Here’s what happens when Homer Simpson decides to work from home. (Via Jezebel.)
Here’s what the New York Times has to say about charging your clients enough money. (Here’s what I — and some of you — have to say.)
Here’s what a recent study on individual health insurance found:
People who buy their own health insurance saw their average annual premiums rise 18 percent between 2002 and 2005, a modest increase compared to the 34 percent jump in average premiums for people insured through their employers, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Somehow that didn’t make me feel any better about the 30+ percent increase in my health insurance premiums this year. After all, I don’t have an employer to subsidize the monthly premiums. Instead, I raised my deductible so I can afford coverage. Lame. But a common problem in this country.
Here’s a story that made me feel better about the above. This kind doctor quit the medical rat race and started a clinic that serves people with no health insurance. 40,000 patient visits since 2002. Nice!
April 25th, 2008
If you or someone you know is graduating this year or thinking about changing careers, check out Alexandra Levit’s brand-spanking-new book, How’d You Score That Gig? A Guide to the Coolest Jobs — and How to Get Them. Reading this book is like going on 60 informational interviews for some of the most coveted careers out there — boutique owner, inventor, video game designer, archaelogist, landscape architect, futurist, classic-car restorer, and on and on and on. Happily for us, Alexandra answered a few of my questions about writing this book and some of its most important take-aways.
Q. What prompted you to write this book?
A. The idea originated as a result of several conversations I overheard at friends’ dinner parties. It seemed that someone at every event always had a job that totally intrigued the rest of the group. People were completely captivated by this individual, and were always curious to know how s/he scored the gig, and what exactly it entailed.
Q. In doing your research for all these careers, what did you unearth that surprised you most?
A. First of all, because I tend to caution people against going to graduate school to prepare for a career they have no experience in and don’t know if they even like, I was encouraged to discover that so many of the dream jobs didn’t require a master’s degree for entry into the field.
Second, it was interesting to find that so many of the jobs I was profiling attracted similar types of people. For example, documentary photographers, travel journalists, news correspondents, and oceanographers are all rather spontaneous and thrive on new and varied experiences. This led me to develop my seven “passion profiles” — adventurer, creator, data-head, entrepreneur, investigator, networker, and nurturer — and place my 60 cool jobs into the appropriate categories. Readers can take a quiz at the beginning of the book to see what passion profile and corresponding jobs best suit them.
Q. Was there one refrain you kept hearing over and over in the interviews you did with these dream careerists?
A. It’s not about talent, it’s about persistence. Most of these careers are tough to penetrate, but not impossible. If you take the right steps and push hard enough, for long enough, you will eventually break through the wall.
Q. Were there any dream careers you once mythologized that now have you thinking, “Ugh, I could never ever do that!”? Any that you’d initially looked down on that now have you raising an eyebrow?
A. I used to think that it would be amazing to own my own business, but after speaking with dozens of entrepreneurs, I’ve realized that it’s incredibly hard work. You have to sacrifice your personal life for a long time to get things off the ground, and frankly, I don’t know if I have what it takes. I didn’t exactly look down on any of the top careers per se, but I was pretty surprised when school teacher ranked so highly in the survey. I wouldn’t have personally considered this a dream job, but the teachers I interviewed were some of the happiest, most satisfied people in the entire book.
Q. What are the top three things a newbie with no experience in their dream field can do to break in (aside from applying to grad school)?
A. This tends to vary by field, and How’d You Score That Gig? provides specific guidance on how to break into different ones, but here is some general advice:
- Join an appropriate professional organization and attend events regularly.
- Seek out volunteer opportunities.
- Research individuals doing your dream job, and set up informational interviews with them.
Q. Give us your best informational interviewing tips.
A. Use the Net, your contacts, and your college’s career center to set up informational interviews with people already working in your career of choice so that you can learn more about what the job actually encompasses. In these meetings, which will usually take place via the phone, don’t be afraid to ask specific questions about training requirements, responsibilities, salary, work environment, and opportunities for advancement. As long as you are polite, no one will fault you for wanting the real scoop, and if a job is not as glamorous as it sounds, you want to know that before investing your time and energy.
Q. How do you account for a complete career 180 in a resume and cover letter, say if you’re applying for an internship or entry-level gig in a field you have zero experience in? What do you say (especially if you’re in your mid-thirties and above)?
A. Instead of writing a resume that lists your previous and unrelated jobs, which might have your potential new employer questioning the relevance, create a functional one that’s organized by transferable skills that would be applicable in your new career, such as client relations, project management, and budgeting. This will turn their attention to what you know already as opposed to what you might be missing because you haven’t worked in the field before.
Q. So many people choose miserable complacency in a career they loathe because they’re worried about the financial ramifications of starting at the bottom again. Or they’re scared of change. What advice can you give to light a fire under their butts?
A. First, ease into a new career one foot at a time. Perhaps this means earning a paycheck at your current job while doing a part-time internship in your new field or taking an adult education class or workshop on the weekend. The only way to find out if you’re passionate about something is to try it, and to do so risk-free will make it less daunting.
Also, remember that any progress is good progress. As you say, even confident people stay in unsatisfying jobs because they feel safe, and because they’re afraid of making a bad decision. But in the quest to uncover a source of meaningful work, your worst enemy is inertia.
Q. Were there any careers you’d initially planned to put in the book that landed on the cutting room floor? Why?
A. There was only one — astronaut. This career made the Top 50, but I couldn’t include it because NASA refused to grant me an interview. I pursued their PR department for weeks to no avail. I feel they missed a terrific opportunity to promote their field to the public.
April 16th, 2008
Happy tax day! If you’re a U.S. freelancer, not only is your 2007 annual tax return due today, your first of four estimated tax payments for 2008 is due too (PDF form here).
If you need a refresher course in freelance tax-paying, here’s a collection of some favorite freelance tax posts from this site (complete with bonus resource list!).
And if want a good chuckle, here’s a hilarious yet ever-infomative piece on freelancing by Salon’s Catherine Price.
See you in the post office line!
April 15th, 2008
Exhibit A: I’m sure you’ve by now seen the sensationalist New York Times piece that might as well have been called, “Blogging Killz!” While it’s tragic that three prominent bloggers have had heart attacks recently (two of them fatal), this article was a huuuuge stretch. It did remind me, however, that no career is worth compromising your health (as I write this at 5 am, said the insomniac).
Moral of the story: The webconomy didn’t invent workaholism, crappy pay practices, and on-the-job stress. Workaholics, companies with crappy pay practices, and stress bunnies did.
Exhibit B: It’s worth reading Freelance Fizzle! The Decline and Fall of the Writer in the New York Observer, which pines for a freewheeling freelance past (complete with expense accounts!) that died decades ago — and probably only existed for a handful of A-list writers anyway.
The Reader’s Digest version: Once upon a time, magazine writers in Manhattan supposedly had it made. Today they have dwindling markets/readership/budgets to content with, not to mention — cue scary music — the web. Believe me, it saddens me greatly that print pubs are in peril. (Just this week, one of my beloved print clients had massive layoffs.) But I can whine about it, or I can wake up and smell the new economy.
Moral of the story: Freelance publishing rates haven’t gone up in decades. And unfortunately print as we know it is rapidly becoming yesterday’s news. Writers who want to eat need to have at least a couple toes in the digital pool (and depending on how much money they need to make, perhaps a couple more in the copywriting world).
Exhibit C: Procrastinating writers, take heart! Now you can strip away all toolbars, inboxes, and web connections and focus on the blank page at hand. Two distraction-busting word-processing programs (Mac version here; PC here) try to recreate the supposed glory days of writing by typewriter or clunky 80s computer, only with today’s processing speed.
On the one hand, I’m sorely tempted to check out this cool-sounding app. On the other, I did a fine job of procrastinating in the 80s and 90s, first with a typewriter, then with a Mac SE.
I applaud entrepreneurial software devs who sell their creations one download at a time, so I’ll skip the snide moral of the story here. And if anyone’s tried an app like this, I’d love to know what you think.
April 10th, 2008
Thanks to everyone who wrote in with their burning freelance questions last month. I really appreciate it. This question really stuck in my craw, so I decided to give a quick answer now.
Frustrated Freelancer asks: I recently was negotiating a project with a client I really wanted to work for. After I told them my price, they came back with, “We think this could turn into a lot of ongoing work, so would you be willing to come down?” It made no sense. If they are going to come to me with more work (and therefore take up a higher percentage of my time, which is then unavailable for other projects), why would I lower my price? Maybe there is some logic to lowering your price for some situations? I’d love to know.
I answer: Your instincts are right. “We will give you more work later” does not justify a haggle-down now. It’s a pretty weak argument for the client to make. Not only are you forfeiting 5, 10, or 20 percent of your earning potential now, you’re doing it month and after month if you continue to work with this client. And since you’d ideally want to raise your rates in another year or two to keep up with the cost of living (a topic for another day), you’re starting out wayyyy behind where you need to be.
The client’s tentative language (”Would you be willing…?”) indicates they’re just bluffing and trying to save a few bucks. Something more hard-and-fast like, “We’d love to work with you, but $xx.xx is the highest our budget will allow” lets you know there’s no more wiggle room (say, because you’re negotiating with a non-profit organization or a small company with limited funds for outsourcing projects). So my answer would be, “No, but I could do [a price midway between what you initially suggested and what they’re now offering].” If you’ve padded your first offer by 10 to 20 percent of what you actually want for the job and a haggle-down ensues, you have a much better chance of coming away with a price you like.
Before you enter into any negotiations with a client, I’d get clear on what “I really want to work with them” means. Would one sample in your portfolio from this company meet your needs? If all you’re looking for is to be able to say, “I’ve worked with Fancypants Client X,” then the answer is yes.
If, however, you believe strongly in the organization’s mission and want to do whatever it takes to forge an ongoing relationship with them, maybe you resign yourself to working for them at a discounted rate (if that’s the best you can do) in the name of community service and make up the difference with higher-paying bread-and-butter clients. Or, if the client’s offering some high-profile work that would get you noticed by other potential clients, industry bigwigs, and perhaps even the media, maybe you do a few pieces for them and reap the rewards in other ways (perhaps press for your business, which leads to more business) before moving on.
But back to the haggle-down at hand: Say the client’s shot down your counteroffer or shut you down with a “We simply can’t afford it” statement. You want to work with this client at least once, but you don’t want to get branded as someone who makes 80 percent of what she knows she’s worth. So you tell them you’d really like to work with them on their campaign to save the polar bears and will give them a 20 percent discount on this one gig so they can afford it. If it’s a for-profit company, you can add that you hope they can come up in price in next time.
Then on your project agreement and invoice, be sure to indicate that you’re giving a 20 percent discount. That way, the client won’t expect the same low price in the future. And neither will any of the colleagues they recommend you to.
April 3rd, 2008
