Keeping Your Employer Satisfied with Your New Freelance Gig

admin — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 11:00:18 +0000

Freelancing allows you to remain with your current full-time employer while creating a supplemental income stream for those incidentals we all enjoy. It also adds experience to your resume without leaving the security of a regular 9-5 job. However, freelancing with a full-time job can sometimes be tough to maneuver.

Freelancing involves a lot of hard work and commitment to not just one career focus but now a second. According to a recent report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 53 million Americans work as freelancers. If you juggle a 9-5 and seek to freelance, your main concern is completing a freelance project, while keeping your boss satisfied.

A few tips to keep your employer satisfied while working as a freelancer:

Check Your Job Contract
No-one likes to read the trivial details of the employment agreement. Keep in mind, this is of utmost importance while you’re beginning your freelance career. Some organizations contain non-compete provisions that could restrict you from undertaking any job outside the organization.

Moreover, if you don’t follow the written rules of the company, you could be fired or even prosecuted in some cases. So, check your employment agreement thoroughly. This will help you to be on the right side of your current employer and the law.

Be Candid to Your Boss
You might be attracted to the freelance projects that come about and believe that your boss would never find out about this. However, this thought process may affect you down the line. With the increase of social media, Google searches, and your acquaintances within your industry, your new freelance career could present itself.

And, once it’s unveiled, people from your organization may stumble across it. Even if your company is copacetic with your freelancing, it’s always a good idea to inform your boss about your side projects. Be honest to your boss and let them know that your side job will not affect your the work that you do for them full-time.

Share About Your Freelancing with eTeki
You don’t have to discuss each and every detail of your freelance venture with your boss. But, you should let your full-time employer know that your new side business is freelance technical interviewing. Working as a freelancer with eTeki allows you to use your technical expertise while interviewing candidates with the same mindset and skill-sets you possess. Being open about the type of freelance assignment you are embarking on or engaged in should diminish any perceived conflict of interest. The boss could quite possibly want to join the eTeki network of technical expertise. Your company will be glad to know eTeki doesn’t call on our interviewers to conduct interviews of candidates applying for positions at the companies they represent on a full-time basis.

By following these simple tips, you can embark on a new venture while keeping your employer content. Make sure regardless of whether your boss is excited about your freelancing or not, you will give a 100% to your full-time work. Here are some ways to show your commitment to your full-time job: be punctual for meetings, manage your time efficiently. Share your thoughts on your assigned tasks, accomplish your daily duties successfully, come to the office ready to accomplish the day’s work. Make sure to keep your freelance business close to the vest when working with your colleagues especially during office hours. Complete your freelancing projects on your own time (lunch breaks or after hours), and follow the rules of your company while at work.

So, be honest and notify your employer of your plans to be a freelance technical interviewer. If you can stay true to these simple tips, you’ll remain a valuable employee in your boss’s mind forever.

The post Keeping Your Employer Satisfied with Your New Freelance Gig appeared first on Resource Center.

The Rise of the Freelance Economy: Shift in Workforce

admin — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 11:33:37 +0000

The term freelancing came into existence from Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe describing a medieval mercenary warrior or free-lance. It connotes that the lance is neither avowed to any lord, nor it’s available free of cost. Today, freelance economy has begun to dominate the way of work. In fact, 1 out of 3 Americans comprising 42 million people have found to work as freelancers in 2013. And it is estimated that by 2020, freelancers will constitute 50% of full-time workers. That counts over 60 million people.

Autonomous work is getting more popular these days among all generations of workers and the majority of employees plan to work independently in near future. Still, you may hesitate to start a freelancing career as you are not sure of why you should opt for it. You may think of various reasons like whether you are lacking a good portfolio or not getting a long due promotion in your full time job. Well, there could be several excuses. However, if you do your homework and assess your skills, you will find no specific reason for not choosing freelancing. In fact, this is the right time to go for a freelance career. Now, let’s weigh up the reasons for it.

Internet Accessibility – The Key to Your Working Freedom

Freelancing has become simpler with fast internet accessibility. Now, you don’t have to wait for slow connectivity and file download. Most people can now access the internet as it has become cheaper. You are having cable, broadband sticks and other tools. Besides, the internet is available almost everywhere. As a result, the freelancing opportunity is larger than what it was before 10 years. Several websites are there to help you with freelancing jobs.

So just check out the freelancing jobs available out there and apply them before leaving your existing full-time vocations? Moreover, pick up online tools and e-learning to get your desired freelance job. If you want to obtain new skills for your freelance job, you can get them from the internet. Thousands of free online courses are there. You may look for YouTube tutorials on SEO, programming and other subjects. Furthermore, if you are searching for tips where to start from, you may subscribe to blogs or join different freelance groups.

Mobile Technology – Provides You the Flexibility of Communication

Quick acceptance of mobile technology raises the competence of freelancing domain. Virtually everybody carries a mobile phone and so communication has improved between the employers and freelancers. Mobiles help freelancers to get push notifications of location based projects and thus let them move quickly from one project to another. There is an upsurge in mobile data analytics platforms for the freelance workers, which provide employers an enhanced ability of tracking and analyzing a freelancer’s work. In 2014, businesses accessed freelancers with numerous data points like performance assessments, references, salary, certifications as well as skills.

Hence, mobile data analytics are playing an important role in helping businesses to find freelancers. Nevertheless, it should be admitted that data transparency through mobile is a two-way process. And, so freelancers are also required to access vital data about companies through mobile to take the right decisions about undertaking a worthy freelance assignment.

The Impact of Economic Change

The economy is unpredictable. Currently there is not much stability in the job market and so if you are engaged in a job today doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have it tomorrow. The working environment is changing significantly and sometimes it becomes difficult to continue with your present job, if you always have to fight for proving your worth. Having a freelancing career on the side acts as a shield to you and your family during a crisis.

Freelancing and full-time employment share an inverse relationship in an economy. So in times of economic downturn, full-time work openings get reduced and freelancing gets a boost. However, even if the economy is not going through a downturn freelance economy may continue to rise, as seen in the last 1 year. Hence, it’s not always true that freelancing is countercyclical to full-time service.

Act now!

Freelancing might not be as easy as it looks for some people. You must do your advertising, networking, management and then provide services to your clients. It may take much of your precious time and make you feel stressed. If you assess your strengths, plan ahead and be disciplined then there is no reason you would be disappointed by your decision.

Sign up on some of the major freelancing websites out there and carefully assess the requirements. Once you are confident you can submit proposals and bid for projects. However for some, going through the proposal submission and bidding process might look like a herculean task. So if you are an IT professional, you have an option to sign up on eTeki.com and let the freelancing work come to you. All you need to do is to interview candidates, assess their technical skills and provide a feedback. This is simple and each assignment lasts no more than 45 minutes.
Happy freelancing!