O Freelancing, Where Art Thou?

Spring break is over, and I've returned from another semi-successful job hunting venture. I've hinted at this before, but as my time at Emerson draws to a close, I've decided to make what many would call "a bad choice" and move to a city that is not New York or Boston. Although the pickings are much slimmer job-wise, I've been able to find some leads to places where my degree and experience would be relevant.

Somewhere in the middle of this I started running the numbers and figured that most of these jobs wouldn't be netting me a whole lot. Fortunately, the cost of living is lower in Columbus (one of the reasons I'm going there--for what I pay for one unfurnished room in Boston, I could get my own condo in Columbus), so it's not a tragedy. Still, stuff adds up, and the more I look at the more I think that I really should look for some additional work on the side.

Well, no sooner had my mind drifted to thoughts of freelancing than I picked up on Freelance America, a podcast that explores freelance careers from the ground up. This is turning out to be another very helpful resource; freelancing is tough because it's hard to know where to start, and you'll find a lot of that there. I also recommend following their links and checking out sites like eLance to get a look at just how being a freelancer works.

I should put a little disclaimer here and make sure to point out that freelance work generally is not the golden opportunity in the sky. The prospect of working on projects where it's not a problem for me to sleep from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. does appeal to me, but when you look at a site like eLance it becomes clear how competitive it can be.

This is yet another place to flex your extracurricular muscles, because when you freelance there's a good chance you'll be competing for projects with people who have much more experience and much, much longer list of recommendations than you. Experience is important, and picking it up is one thing college is good for. Look at some of my former posts if you need some ideas for how to do this. I kind of feel like I'm repeating myself here, but one thing I cannot over-stress is that in this field, you really need to go beyond your courses.