Applying for Full-Time Jobs as a Freelancer? Read This
Making the leap from freelancing to full time - whether it's a new client contract or leaving the freelance life behind - can be really tricky.
Take it from me: the world of full time work is not set up to accommodate freelance applicants, nor is it always particularly kind to those who want to keep their side gigs after signing on the dotted line. However, I have twice made a successful transition from freelancing to a full-time role, so I am living proof that it is not only possible but a great way to find the career avenue that suits you.
Here are my 5 top tips for fitting freelance life into a full-time job application:
1. Sort your CV into categories
Before you even starting putting things on the page, I recommend sorting your work experiences into categories. This is especially useful if you usually work on more than one commission/contract at a time, like I do.
For me, it was pretty obvious: I market myself as a journalist, a consultant, and an educator, so I went with those. I took a blank piece of paper and wrote out those three headings, then I went through all of the commissions that I wanted to include and sorted them under the headings. Some things, like my qualifications and publications, warranted their own categories, regardless of their topic, so I added those too.
In the end, I went with:
- Personal information
- Education
- Journalist
- Consultant
- Educator
- Publications (i.e. Online Courses, Books/Book Contributions and Journalistic Portfolio)
- Professional positions (i.e. any full-time positions pre-freelancing)
- Voluntary positions (i.e. any volunteer positions pre- or during freelancing)
Rather than trying to type out every 'Contributing Writer' contract or online course as a separate job, this will save you time and help whoever reads your CV to see your most relevant experiences first.
Alternatively, if there are clients that you did major, months- or years-long projects with, you can put those clients as separate 'jobs' or 'employers' but under a unifying heading, which will allow you to skip through the similarities between the different roles. For example, I was a consultant for DSFRS for two years and with AND for a year, so they were listed as separate jobs but under the 'Consultant' heading.
2. Put everything on your unabridged CV - then make industry-specific versions
This might sound like a lot of extra work, but it's really not. Start by making a full CV and put everything on it - and I mean everything. Every by-line, every client, every project, every online course or book or commission. Once you've got everything on there, apply Tip 1.
Then, when you find a job you like the look of, you can make a shorter, more specific version of that CV for that job/industry. I have a 'journalist/editor/copywriter' CV, a 'consultant/HR SME/project manager' CV, and a 'teacher/educator/education SME' CV. (SME here just means 'subject matter expert'!)
3. Pick a long-standing client/editor/liaison as your main reference, then get creative with the second
Finding and choosing referees can be a tricky step in the application process for freelancers. In this day and age, I rarely meet or work with clients in-person and relationships are mostly short and sweet. Therefore, I would advise speaking to a long-standing client to act as your first referee - mine was my editor of 3 years for a nationally published magazine - and then you can choose a different client, an academic mentor or supervisor, another freelancer you have worked closely with for a long time, or a character reference.
4. Bring lots of evidence to back you up
Evidence can take lots of different forms, but quantity and quality are both important things to consider.
If you don't have a website, make one or get someone technically minded to make one for you. If you can't afford a proper website, set up a free or cheap online portfolio on Wordpress or PortfolioBox. If you prefer the old-school method, build a physical folder with evidence of previous clients that you can take with you to interviews. You can put certificates from CPD opportunities, printouts of articles, photos or examples of completed work, and testimonials and reviews from previous clients.
5. Use a recruitment agency
If you do none of the above, do this one. For the love of all that is good and holy, do this one.
A recruiter can help you jump the fiddly drop down boxes and time-consuming personal statements and get straight to the interviews. This allows you to put you - your skills, your work, your Unique Selling Point - front and centre, contextualising with examples and selling yourself to the panel, just like you would with a prospective client.
You can find them directly, by going to their websites or Googling 'recruiter in [X industry]'; you can stumble on one like I did the first time by replying to a job ad they have posted; or you can add your CV to an online candidate database like CVLibrary and hope you get picked out and contacted.
Something you'll notice: they'll all tell you to use the STAR or CAR method - which is fair, because it does work. This stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result, and is a way to structure your response to a question to ensure that it is relevant and showcases your decision making and the outcome.
However, if you (like me) struggle to remember the acronym in the moment, just remember to put at least one example in every answer you give.