I don’t know about you, but I have been to face to face networking events where it’s basically been like pulling teeth to get the people in the room to talk and discuss what they do and the benifits it has for me. There is nothing wrong with the event itself, it’s just some of the attendees don’t know how to network.
Networking doesn’t come easy, you can’t just expect to turn up to an event and it happens, you have to work at it. You have to build the trust and connections with people. You have to get people interested in you and vice-versa.
Freelancing can be really interesting, you get to often do different types of work that can vary widely, from very hands on mundane tasks, to consulting, research and report writing, and everything in between. Sometimes you can even get a section of a project that you can work on at your own leisure, as long as you meet the nominated deadlines. Other times you are just an extra pair of multi-skilled hands. It’s never a dull moment.
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Being a freelancer is the new black. It’s just a crazy fun loving world where nothing can go wrong. Well as a crusty old freelancer I can tell you that’s far from the truth.
Well Miles Burke in his new book The Principles of Successful Freelancing discusses just that. Miles is no stranger to making the leap into world of freelancing having done it three times.
I was having a discussion the other day with some fellow web designer friends on the skills that you required to be stay in this field long term.
Sure we all agreed you need to at least have the core design skills, understanding of layout, colour theory, typography and the usual tricks of the trade. The platform that you used to deliver your designs was immaterial, be that Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks or the like it didn’t really matter, the end result was what was important. That’s a given.
Tagged: accessibility, career, coding, design skills, freelance, Information Architecture, javascript, usability, user interfaces, user+testing, userexperience, web design
