Freelancing Job Boards to Build Experience

Career Advice
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Greetings, fCCF community,

Currently, I have a full-time IT job but not specifically in the development space. So, I’m looking to build my professional development experience/portfolio by doing part-time freelancing. I’ve heard the site UpWork thrown around a lot but want to get feedback from others who have freelanced about the sites they’ve used. Also, any general tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Need experience to get experience. :man_shrugging:

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Aside from online freelancing sites, you might try asking around and pitching your services in your local community. Try small businesses, performers, artists, etc. My advice there is to come up with simple packages to pitch to people, because most will not know what they want or need. If you have packages like “1 page/landing page/basic info site”, “3-5 page brochure site”, etc.

Also be clear on things like:

  • If you will just build it and that’s it or if you will be willing to provide support services (at extra cost of course)
  • Will you require your client to register their own domain and purchase their own hosting (and delegate access to you while you build the site) or if you will also handle that (again if it’s any kind of ongoing support remember to charge appropriately for this)
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Thank you for your feedback, @robertgroves. I sincerely appreciate it!

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Good discussion,

I do freelance work. It’s all about networking, talking to people and letting them know that you build websites. I built a website for a friend of friend before, previous employers, ect… The hardest part is talking to people and getting them excited to get a website for whatever they need it for, most people don’t know what they want. Show examples of what you can make or have had made previously.

Regardless, best of luck and network with people

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Hey I’m currently in a similar situation, upskilling and building experience to move from Tech Support to Developer…
Since I’m mainly in the upskilling phase, I’m focusing on building apps for those around me, Slack apps for my team at work, web app for my partner, she’s a travel agent, and utility apps that friends can use…

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Great advice, @erj0114. Thanks so much. I’m reaching out to family and friends first to see what I can take on.

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Thanks for your reply, @piouson. I’ve been working on a couple of personal projects using AWS. For example, I created a simple Slack App and deployed a Node API endpoint to AWS Lambda. I’m hoping to find some more “professional” work and starting with family and friends.

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Well I just started with it at age of 27. Where I come from (Bosnia and Herzegovina) programming wasnt really a thing. But now am curious. And I like to create things. So I started month ago and decided to sign up in AT academy in my city. I would like to create a gaming platform that will combine art and fun. So I will see where this yourney will take me. Thanks

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