Dear All..!
My name is Sundas Jabeen and I started freelancing a year ago. Since then, I have been lucky enough to earn a good amount and make really nice friends across the globe. Now, I have decided to teach freelancing to all the fellows like me. Through this training, I am going to tell you all the ways you can be a good freelancer in Pakistan. All you need to do is to ‘NEVER GIVE UP” and keep improving yourself.
Who is a Freelancer?
A freelancer is a person who is self-employed. There is a misconception that people who do online work are freelancers. There is a difference between online work and freelancing. Freelancing can be online or not online. It’s just a concept that you do work for someone without being a part of their company.
Online Freelancing
On internet, there are several websites that allow you to find the jobs that people from all over the world post. It is similar to the very common olx.com. Just like all the sellers post their things to sell on website and buyers contact them and negotiate the rates, there are websites where people can register as clients (who hire people) or freelancers (who perform client’s task).
Freelancing Platforms
Though there are many platforms for freelancing like www.elance.com, www.freelancer.com, www.odesk.com, www.fiver.com, www.guru.com etc. Recently, 2 big platforms joined to form one. Elance and oDesk are now one big platform with a name www.upwork.com .
In this tutorial. We will learn about freelancer in Pakistan through Upwork.
Who can be a Freelancer?
The intention behind this training is to create awareness about freelancing for Pakistani people. Here are some things about Freelancing that you need to know.
- Anyone can be a freelancer. There is no discrimination on age, education, caste, color and skillset.
- Freelancing is not only meant for IT people, doctors and lawyers are earning more than IT people from these websites.
- You do not have to have perfect English to get the project. Clients understand that English is not your first language and they never judge you for that. However, you can’t expect to get a book writing job in English with poor English. So it depends on type of job and you are all set.
- Anyone who thinks he is good for nothing, can be a really good freelancer.
- If you can operate your phone, use facebook, or know how to browse, no one can stop you becoming a really great freelancer.
What kind of work in available.
A really wide range of jobs is available from all over the world. Either you are a French, dutch, Arabic or Russian, you have an equal chance to get project in your regional language. Pakistani people can easily find urdu jobs.
Here is a list of job categories.
- Web, mobile and Software Development
- Design and Creative
- Content Writing
- Sales and Marketing
- Admin Support
- IT and Networking
- Translation
- Engineering & Architecture
- Customer Service
- Accounting and Consulting
- Data Scientists and Analytics
- Legal
- Medical
Your responsibilities as a freelancer in Pakistan
Every job you complete leaves a feedback on your profile. It’s your responsibility to maintain a good feedback on your profile so that more people can trust you and your abilities. You must remain honest with the client and always remember that YOU are representing Pakistan in global market.
By being a freelancer, you will be directly communication with the people of other countries. What you will do will create a perception about all Pakistanis in their mind. Its your responsibility to take care of your country’s reputation. By proving that you are honest, loyal and trustworthy, you will be able to change the mindset of people about Pakistan. If you will make excuses like you don’t have electricity in your country that is why you couldn’t work, you are doing nothing but letting them know that they are not supposed to hire any Pakistani because they have power problem. You need to stay honest and take the blame on you rather than imposing it on every other Pakistani. You need to create a good image of Pakistan.
Now you are all set to start freelancing. In the next chapter, we will start with creating freelancer profile onUpwork.
Feel free to join our group on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/devstrokemembers . You can also join us at www.facebook.com/devstroketech and www.facebook.com/likhopakistan or send me a message at sundas@devstroke.com