To be clear...I have been a 1099 freelancer/consultant since COVID but the opps are just not there anymore. I've been talking with other PR consultant friends and no one is finding any clients. I am just over the stress of it all. Gimme something low key hahah.
I switched in my late 20's from ******** to tech so this may not be relevant to you, but there's a couple mental frameworks and techniques that helped me break into an industry with no experience nor formal education. These ideas mostly come from the guy who runs iwillteachyoutoberich.com, but I can confirm they work. Any of his most popular videos here that are more than 5 years old are cold hard tactical advice about how to improve your career and/or finances and are worth watching if you want to improve your career.
Mindset:
I looked at my life and thought hey I have college degrees, why can't I get a real job? The answer is that A) I had a Psych + Philosophy degree that nobody cares about, and B) employers / clients don't care about your degree nor your work history unless the profession legally requires a cert. They only care that you can solve their specific type of problem. So then I had to look at it from the employer perspective and figure out what problems they need to solve and reverse engineer their problems to figure out how to make proof that I can solve their problems. I settled on web development because you don't need permission to go out and make a portfolio that proves you can do the work, it pays well, and because it's a job that can be done from home. I proceeded to go learn web development until I had enough skills to do things (~9 months), and then I went to work on proving it to potential employers. I really should have done the networking stuff before learning the skills, and I got lucky that I actually liked the industry. You can save yourself a ton of time and effort learning new skills by getting talked out of that career path early on.
Networking Technique:
Go on Linked and friend request every single recruiter in your metro. They'll always accept. Now you're 2nd / 3rd connections with a ton of local people across pretty much every industry so start shooting messages to those people asking for advice about how to break into their industry or how they got their start. Your message should ideally include whatever similarity you have such as both going to ISU, or living in the same metro, or whatever you can do to relate. Reach out to 100 people with a genuine message and you should get at least 5-10 real people to jump on a phone call or meet for coffee or whatever. DO NOT ASK THEM FOR A JOB. At the end of each conversation ask them if there's anybody else they think you should talk to, and if there's anything you should do / try to get that first job in the new industry. The most important part of this networking is to send a follow up thank you note right away, and then another message in 1-2 weeks once you've taken their advice. Once somebody knows you implemented their advice they're in your camp and will continue to be helpful in mentoring you, and might even reach back out to you if they hear about a job opening.
Interviewing Technique:
Once you get a job interview take over the conversation by doing "The Briefcase Technique". Basically just overprepare and show proof that you understand the business / job role, and already have a plan. The plan in the briefcase can be created from things you've discussed with real employees while doing the networking above. To close interviews as a web developer, I look through the corporate site for any tiny bugs or things that could be improved, copy the entire page to my own site, and fix the bug. Then during the interview I have literally pulled a laptop out of a briefcase to show them the bug on their site, and on the next tab it's my website "benman82.com/company-name" with the bug fixed, and I offer to send them the code to fix that issue. Regardless of how well the interview discussion went, I've now proven that I cared enough to research the company and can do the exact job for the exact company that I'm applying to. Spending a few hours on a presentation that proves you can do the job is always worth it.
