If you’re a freelancer, you really should have an updated freelance writer resume with you at all times. But more than that, you really should be armed with a quality freelance writer resume at all times.
After all, it’s this resume that’s pretty much your lifeblood as a freelancer; it’s your workhorse, your foot through the next door. As you search for new gigs each week, the best way of getting one is via quality resume distribution.
So if you’re experiencing a bit of a lull in your freelance career, and if the jobs have dried up and no one wants to touch you, it could well be that it’s your freelance writer resume that’s letting you down. Take a look at it. Go on. You don’t need to be embarrassed, it’s just us.
Is it jumping out at your with its mediocrity? Is it making you want to cut it up into a million different pieces before throwing it out of window like a load of mediocre confetti onto some stranger?
You could solve your problem by paying an online service to write you up a resume. You could. OR you could take a look at our hints and tips on what to include in a freelance writer resume.
Include Your Work Experience
As a freelancer, you’ve probably got a lot of work experience under your belt. For this reason, you don’t have to include every job you’ve ever done. Just include the best ones, the ones where you excelled at, and the ones which are related to the work you’re now applying for.
Include Your Online Presence
Nowadays, more than ever, potential clients want to see some juicy online presence. They want to see that you’ve given the online world a shot - and you’re doing really well at it.
For this reason, we recommend including your website in your resume distribution, as well as any social media accounts. A tip though; don’t include social media accounts that will do no harm than good. You know, if you’ve got a twitter account where you interact with ‘the lads’ over football, cars and beer. This is a big no-no. If you have a professional twitter account, stick it on your freelance writer resume. If not, leave it out.
A website is huge eye-catcher because it says a lot about you as a freelancer. It says that you’ve taken the time to get yourself organized, and that you present yourself really well.
Include Samples!
A graphic designer can’t include samples in their resume because a resume is text only. Neither can an artist or a web designer include their samples. For them, life sucks.
For you, though, it’s great! Because a resume is text-based anyway, you can nicely fit in one or two short samples of your writing - no more than two - to give clients an idea of your style.
Include Any Side Specialties
Freelancers are often multi-talented individuals who have a few strings to their bow. If, for example, you’re a writer who is also pretty darn good at taking photographs, include it. I myself am a filmmaking graduate who now works as a writer, and I include this on my resume. You really do never know the opportunities that can arise! You’ve just got to sell yourself.
Include Your Education
People tend not to care all that much about education when it comes to working with freelances. They don’t really care about what grade you got in math and science back in 1999 when all that matters is whether you can write killer content for them.
But it’s still good etiquette to include your education and qualifications. In a freelance writer resume, you can include this stuff near the bottom. If you haven’t graduated from University, education on a freelance writer resume is honestly the least of your worries. But be savvy and include it anyway. (Just keep it brief).
Include References
Some people looking for jobs struggle to come up with referees. But you as a freelancer should be able to call upon lots of satisfied clients who can act as your references.
With this in mind, you can select two - maybe three - of your most regular and satisfied clients and stick them in your resume. Freelancers always include referees, so make sure you do too. If you don’t, it looks like you’ve not done any work for anyone.
Or you have, but you were rubbish.
About Author:
Amy Huges has been a professional ghost writer and content manager at http://www.resumewritingservice.biz/ for 5 years. She provides writing, editing and coaching services independently on various freelance platforms. Among her favorite activities there are browsing the web, social promotion of friend's and colleague's profiles and reading.
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4 comments:
Hi, Amy, thanks for sharing these great tips on what to include in a freelance writing resume.
Neat topic! I once (pre computer days) a scrapbook I had made of some clippings from the first newspaper I worked for. I was a little fearful that it would appear to be too, too much because it wasn't the norm. And this was big time NY (Good Housekeeping). I could have been laughed out of the office. Instead, my interviewer was impressed and I got the job. It's all about putting that best foot forward--and making it quite evident that you are. Thank you, Amy!
Thanks for sharing! Very timely and informative especially to those looking to build a career as a freelancer such as myself.
ChatEbooks recently posted https://www.chatebooks.com/blog-Good-Books-The-Inside-Scoop-on-Readers-Book-Selection-Process
Amy, this is a much needed topic. I am always surprised at how little we tend to know about something so essential.
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