Freelancing and Me
I get asked this a lot. “Why did you get into web design?” My answer is simple; I genuinely fell into it. After my undergrad in Music Education, I found that my passion was not in teaching in the classroom, but rather understanding the pedagogy behind education, specifically as it pertains to the modern tech-hungry student. Because of this, I decided to go to UNC-Wilmington for a Master’s degree in Instructional Design and Technology, which was basically an intersection of the two things that I felt I most enjoyed exploring in my undergrad.
As a grad student, my first job was working with the professors in my own department, assisting them in whatever projects they had going on. This started with simple things like making copies, etc. but, as time went on and word got out that I knew things about computers, I quickly got more and more job requests for technology-related things and, eventually, started making websites for some professors.
I got a second job in the same department, putting me working the maximum number of hours for a graduate assistant, in my second month on campus working for a grant project to redesign and manage their online only self-paced BlackBoard course. A few months later I was approached by another grant project (a 1.2 million dollar grant supporting future science and math teachers) in the same department about a position that would give me the same hours but my own office and more specific work. I took it and quickly fell in love with the job. My first task was to redesign their website, which I did, and went on to build the content of the website to incorporate online training and other things that greatly enhanced the grant project’s goals.
My boss and I became friends and she started to talk about my work, which lead to a friend of her’s contacting me about a website for the Southeast Education Alliance. I took on that client, developed the website, and went on to manage the website for a monthly fee. Then another friend of mine wanted a website, and then another, and so on and so forth. A year and half after I began working for the grant project, I was done with my degree and ready to move out of town.
I decided to keep my clients while I looked for jobs, moved back home to Graham, and began the job hunt. I was looking for jobs as an instructional technologist, which is extremely difficult when you only have your master’s degree experience. The longer it took to find a job, the more it seemed I found clients. Finally, I decided to hang up the job hunt and go into business for myself, freelancing.
That was 2 years ago. Since then I’ve had some pretty great experiences, enjoyed the amazing freedom of being able to work wherever I happen to be (Florida, Ohio, Georgia, South Carolina….), and spent time at home with my family. I’ve very much enjoyed it and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I spent my free time studying new things in Web Design and Development, changed my business model to building WordPress websites, custom themes, plugins, etc., and honed my skills by developing things for myself like my own websites and the JBTheory Core Plugin.
Now it’s been 5 years since I started working in Web Design and I haven’t stopped studying, learning, and working. But, the freelancing life isn’t the most glamorous. Some days you’re so busy you forget to eat, sleep, or drink; other days you’re bored out of your mind looking for things to do. My email goes off at all hours and, because of my irregular sleep schedule, I’m generally awake to answer. In fact, I’m writing this now at 3:47am and I’m not the slightest bit tired.
So why am I ready for something new? A lot of reasons. I’m not the best at marketing, which means that business is based on word of mouth and can sometimes grind to a halt with little to no warning. Being home all day makes the days run together and my physical health suffers. But, most importantly, even though I work very well independently, I love being around people. Freelancing has been fun, and I truly appreciate every moment that I’ve had doing it, but I’m very ready for something new.