How To Add Freelance Work To Resume

List Your Position/role In The Freelance Opportunity

Your job proposal is much more likely to be accepted when you can prove that their job requirements are something youve successfully done before. While it may seem like an obvious addition to any resume, its important to let potential clients know what kinds of projects youve completed in the past. Whether the project was big or small, freelancers need to give prospective clients a look into their successful work history.

As freelancing carries the weight of independent business ownership, you can demonstrate to clients how youve handled these various responsibilities. For example, if youre applying to an ad-writing job post, you should include your related writing experiences in your resume .

Focus On Accomplishments And Value

To properly highlight freelance work in your resume, you need to focus like a laser on your accomplishments. Every detail should be crafted to document the value you provided for your clients.

Those details all combine to create the narrative that you need to demonstrate your value as an employee. Todayâs employers care less about who you worked for and more about how your work impacted those companyâs bottom line.

Listing Freelance Is Unwanted When

There are numerous things to avoid on your resume. But when it comes to listing your freelance experience, be sure to take down:

• Free work for your family and friends even if it somehow helped to gain the skills and knowledge, you shouldnt mention this kind of experience on a resume.
• Episodic jobs which referred to different professional skills and led to no substantial result.
• If the results dont claim about your professional development or a competence.
• If you worked for the clients, who decided to remain incognito.
• If you dont know enough information about your clients or the specifics of the work.

In other cases putting your freelance work on the resume is a reasonable idea. Especially, if you are proud of the projects and are sure that they are worth mentioning!

+ Top 5 Freelance Websites:

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Include A Separate Section For Skills

The main thing you’re trying to express is what you can do for the client or employer. It makes sense to include a . If you know an in-demand software program or programming language, have a prized certification in the field, or years of experience doing something that takes time to learn how to do, this is the section in which to brag a little.

The usual caveats apply: don’t claim knowledge that just about everyone has, like internet literacy or Microsoft Office, and don’t claim expert-level familiarity with something you don’t know how to do.

How To List Your Work As A Freelancer

Putting up your freelance work can be quite a task at first, but once you get a hold of it, you will realize that it is just a piece of cake.

But how will you get a hold of it? Well, I have some golden tips for you.

If you are self-employed, it can be helpful to keep an up-to-date list of projects and use them on your resume, such as:

• Keep the extras in mind Including extra skills on your resume shows recruiters that you have a range of hard and soft skills that you can bring to the role.
• Prioritize the items you want to include Keep your resume to one page and provide a link to your portfolio or profile so recruiters may see all of your experience if they wish.
• Leave some space between the information A visually beautiful resume with well-spaced text, professional typefaces, and well-organized information can help a hiring manager identify the most crucial parts at first look.
• Use facts and figures A fantastic technique to illustrate your abilities is to provide objective data that indicate the impact of your effort.

As we move ahead, I am putting up a few freelancer resume examples that show you how to put your work in your freelance resumes.

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Find A Template That Works

Organize your freelancing resume to best convey your history, be it as a self-employed contractor or otherwise. A traditional resume lists experience in chronological order, but this may not be the best fit for your freelancing work, especially if you have had jobs that overlap or multiple small contracts. Consider a functional format for your resume, which organizes your skills and experience by theme rather than time period.

Be Specific On Job Title

Give yourself a title reflecting the type of work you do. Remember that the job title should be easy to recognize by others. It should mention your capabilities.

Look for title options that come across better to your potential employers or clients. You may use the following job titles:

• Consultant
• Freelance designer, developer, writer, or any job you do

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Choose Your Resume Wisely

Before you worry about how to put self-employment on your resume, first figure out what kind of resume is best for your situation. While youre probably most familiar with the chronological resume , there are other resume styles that may work better for your specific situation.

A functional resume groups your skills into categories , and within each group, you highlight your accomplishments. A hybrid resume is part chronological resume, part functional resume.

Though each resume has pros and cons to consider, it is surprisingly easy to include your freelance work on each of these resumes. Simply treat your freelance work like you would any other position on your resume and incorporate it accordingly. Here are some samples:

Why Seek Employment With A Company

Of course, the natural question is this: why would a freelancer choose to rejoin the traditional workforce and work for someone else? There are a variety of answers to that question, but a few stand out.

Sometimes, you may simply see an opportunity that you cannot enjoy as a freelancer. In other instances, a freelancer may simply miss the stability that they previously enjoyed working for someone else.

Still others want to take advantage of the benefits many corporate workers enjoy â benefits that are rarely available to freelance workers.

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Understand The Job Requirements

First things first, you should carefully read the requirements for the job you are applying for. Understand the job description correctly. Learning your job position and responsibilities is an essential aspect when applying for a freelance job. By doing this, you will ensure that you know the tasks and duties required to perform to get your payment, and you create your resume according to the information you gathered.

When Are Verbal Agreements Not Enforceable

There are some types of contracts which must be in writing.

The Statute of Frauds is a legal statute which states that certain kinds of contracts must be executed in writing and signed by the parties involved. The Statute of Frauds has been adopted in almost all U.S states, and requires a written contract for the following purposes:

• The sale of real estate or vehicles
• Real estate leases lasting longer than one year.
• Property transfer following the death of the owner.
• The case of a party agreeing to pay debt for someone else.
• Any contract that requires more than a year to fulfil.
• A contract involving and exceeding a specified amount of money .

Typically, a court of law won’t enforce an oral agreement in any of these circumstances under the statute. Instead, a written document is required to make the contract enforceable.

Contract law is generally doesn’t favor contracts agreed upon verbally. A verbal agreement is difficult to prove, and can be used by those intent on committing fraud. For that reason, it’s always best to put any agreements in writing and ensure all parties have fully understood and consented to signing.

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Tailor The Resume To The Company And Job

This cannot be overemphasized: always tailor your resume to fit the job youâre seeking. Thatâs actually easier to do with freelance work, as counter-intuitive as that might seem. When you work for companies, your role is typically defined in a somewhat rigid way. Freelancing requires you to exercise skills in a different way.

Moreover, you typically have opportunities to exercise skills that are far outside your general area of expertise. That should give you plenty of fodder as you work to convince the employer that you can provide him or her with real value.

Use Clear Language And Be Concise

Use clear and precise language to make your points throughout your resume. Your resume must be written in a professional tone and without spelling or grammar mistakes. With that said, its also important not to overdo any language or stuff your resume with industry jargon. Using unnecessarily large words may feel out of place and will likely turn off for the resume reader. Its critical to strike that balance between professional and knowledgeable, but not over-the-top.

While you want to convey your previous experiences, a prospective client will not want to read through a five-page resume. Therefore, try to keep your resume as concise as possible, preferably limiting it to a single page.

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Create A Custom Design Or Use A Template

Should you create your own custom design for your resume or use a template? Thereâs no right or wrong answer, do whatever youâre most comfortable with. If youâre quick with designing a simple 1-page text document then itâs helpful to create your own custom design so you have full control over every detail. But it also doesnât hurt your chances of landing a freelance job if you decide to go with a template. Your portfolio is where your creativity should shine as a designer. The resume should be simple, straight to the point, and inspire them to reach out to you.

I created my own resume in Adobe InDesign and set up grids and guidelines on a master page. Whatâs great about using a program like InDesign is the ability to use master pages and create paragraph and character styles to format your design. Once created, itâs super easy to update with new roles and project experiences and send out a new version.

But if you donât want to design your own template and just want to use a premade document that you can copy and paste your experience into to, consider purchasing a resume template from a site like Creative Market. Even if you donât end up buying a template, itâs a great way to gather inspiration for designing your own. Take a look at the various layouts, how they organize the sections of information, and see which ones stand out to you most.

A word and cover letter template created in Word by DemeDesign.

Cv & Resume Templates

A thoughtfully designed CV or resume can help you stand out from other candidates, and make a memorable first impression. It isn’t enough to use the standard template in MS Wordyou need to be thinking more creatively! In this series, we’re sharing tips, advice and templates for creating the perfect CV or resume!

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Should You Add Freelance Work To Your Resume

The short answer in most cases is yes. If you have been freelancing in a specific field and are now looking for a job in that field you should absolutely list that work on your resume.

Adding in your this type of work to your freelance resume can help to close employment gaps and show the potential employer that you are a motivated self-starter.

How Do You Prove Freelance Work Experience

If a potential employer asks for proof of your freelance work experiences, you have a few choices. You can ask your freelance clients to provide a letter stating you worked with them, for how long, and your role. Another way to prove your work experience is to provide other documentation like tax forms, invoices, or other documents .

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Key Takeaways: Vital Tips To Keep In Mind At All Times

• Research who posted the job offer and who it is intended for
• Determine whether a freelancer resume or a service proposal is the best approach
• Choose a reverse-chronological format, if you’re sending your resume to a recruiter
• Opt for a functional or a hybrid layout, if you’re contacting a client directly
• Focus your resume around one topic – skills building, customer pool expansion, networking
• Tailor each section in your resume according to the job ad
• Keep your certifications and portfolio up to date
• Maintain a projects journal so you can easily pick and choose which projects to share
• Be mindful of your NDAs before you discuss your past projects

Volen Vulkov

When Is A Verbal Agreement Legally Binding

For any contract to be binding, there are four major elements which need to be in place. The crucial elements of a contract are as follows:

Therefore, an oral agreement has legal validity if all of these elements are present. However, verbal contracts can be difficult to enforce in a court of law. In the next section, we take a look at how oral agreements hold up in court.

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What To Include On A Freelance Resume

Adding freelance work to your resume is slightly different from listing any other position. Your employer, after all, is yourself.

There are three common ways experts advise listing freelance jobs on your resume:

• Only include projects that you worked on for 3 months or more .
• Just list everything, making sure to lump together any small projects as one job listing .
• List every single thing youve worked on in detail .

Our philosophy is that if it adds value to your resume, include it.

But sending a 10-page resumé to an employer is probably not a great idea.

So go ahead and group together smaller, less-significant projects if it makes sense, just be sure to leave space to let the notable work shine.

Once youve picked which work to showcase, your freelance listings should feature all relevant information including:

• clients youve worked for
• projects youve completed, and
• results you saw through your work.

This may all seem straightforward, but let us break down what to include in each category and what to leave out. Below, well share some simple Dos and Donts for each piece of information.

How To Put Freelance Work On Resume

Creating a CV is relatively simple a process for people who work a 9-5 job. However, if youve been freelancing for a while, you could be struggling to keep track of all the projects and jobs youve worked on in a logical manner to impress potential employers.

Since many freelancers are continuously looking for new work, your CV should be kept up to date and serve as a great demonstration of your talents and experience as a freelancer.

Also, for people who want to look for a full-time job, many employers do not consider freelance work as legit work since most people make the mistake of presenting it as a project on a resume.

If you are having trouble including your freelancing work on your resume in a way that genuinely highlights your abilities, use these strategies to help you get your CV in tip-top shape.

Check out this article to be a successful freelancer in any field.

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Let Your Work Speak For You

Don’t forget to include URLs to online clips, sites, or projects, or references to an attached portfolio of your work, along with an explanation for why these particular work samples are relevant to the company’s needs. Don’t include everything you’ve ever done, or anything unrelated to the industry or the company.

Craft A Freelance Resume Summary

This part is well-worth your time and effort as the reader can find it more convincing to dive into your freelance resume after reading the summary statement.

What to put in a professional freelance resume summary:

• The summary of freelancing experience you’ve obtained
• Outstanding accomplishments
• Relevant certifications

Examples of well-written resume summary for maintenance jobs:

• Freelance translator resume: Freelance Translator with a track record of success in translating documents and spoken words. Converses efficiently in Chinese, Korean, and English.
• Freelance video editor resume: Creative and detail-oriented Video Editor with 8 years of hands-on experience in editing videos for business and individual clients. Adept at pre- and post-production editing and visual effects application with excellent time management and writing skills.
• Freelance musician resume: Freelance Musician & Composer with a strong love and working-knowledge of music and music theory. 10+ years of extensive experience in orchestra, band, and theater settings, as well as teaching all age groups and ability levels.

If you are writing a freelance resume with no experience and not sure what to write in the summary statement, this comprehensive resume summary guide will help you out!

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