How to return from freelancing to office work and not go crazy
Text: Anastasia Maximova
Life is different. For example, like this: a few years ago you collected a potted flower, a mug and a teddy hippo from your desktop in an office, threw it all into a box and, running out under the pouring rain, shouted: "Freedom!" We felt exactly like Kate Winslet when she stood, arms outstretched, on the nose of the Titanic. Now you feel your ship slowly but steadily sinking into the icy waters of fatigue.
After stuffed cones, permanent exhaustion, work at the weekend, you passionately want to go back to the office. You crave to drink coffee with colleagues for half an hour again, to lead "air conditioning wars", and even a team-building party on a day off does not scare you. It seems that it will not be difficult to return to office work, but suddenly you are faced with a problem: barely potential employers hear the word "freelancer", their desire to take you to the staff is fading away. We understand how to return to the office with minimal losses.
Get ready for change
Returning to employment requires the same thorough preparation as the transition to freelance. “This is a huge, giant shift. After all, when you were a freelancer, you were your only boss,” says Teresa Rilly, vice president of operations and strategy at Atrium Staffing consulting company. “When you return to the corporate environment, you’ll have to again force yourself to fit into the policies of the company for which you are going to work. And it can be difficult. "
Remember again why you left your previous job and how you decided to work for yourself. If you have once left a former place, because you cannot stand it when you are commanded, then hardly having come to a new position, you suddenly fall in love with it. And most corporate structures are still arranged hierarchically. Answer the questions: "What exactly do I want?" and "Do I really want to work in the office again?". Recall that, although now you will have a stable salary and even paid vacation, you will have to spend time (and money, by the way) to travel, communicate with colleagues and obey someone else's schedule. If this is exactly what you would like, go ahead, search.
Connect
The ability to build connections and make useful contacts in due time helped you become a freelancer and find the first orders. So let it serve you well here too: one of the ways to get full-time is through current customers. "One of the principles of freelancing is that work is result-oriented, whereas if you are working full-time, you are expected to work with full dedication and perform as many tasks as necessary for your position," says Catherine Hawkins, co-founder and director of marketing agency Eucalypt Media. Previously, Hawkins herself worked on freelancing, then became an employee of the site gimundo.com, and then she and her husband acquired it.
Hawkins recommends that freelancers who want to start working full-time for their clients, prove that you can rely on them. "Even before you talk about the prospect of getting a client on the staff, make sure that you complete all the tasks flawlessly," she says, "hand them over on time and do everything that depends on you to facilitate the work of the manager." You should get out of the shadows, stop being just a function, and instead become a living person, open and ready to help. In the end, if you want to become part of a team, behave as if it has already happened: be interested in the health of colleagues, congratulate them on birthdays and corporate holidays. And, of course, see if they have a vacancy.
Ask for recommendations
What your customers say about you, whether it is a comment on the site or a full letter of recommendation, is one of your most valuable currencies. Fortunately, if you worked for some time in freelancing, you have clients, and hopefully they are satisfied with your work. It is best to ask for recommendations in hot pursuit, that is, when the project is just completed, and not six months later. Especially willingly customers sign reference letters if the project was urgent and difficult, when you really helped them out. For example, if a customer calls you at half past one night and begs for the project to be submitted in the morning, you have every reason to ask for a positive review. But even in the case of just a job well done, if the customer thanks you for the work, you might inadvertently ask if he will issue his gratitude in writing.
Also, do not forget to warn the client that you are in search of a full-time job and ask if he will object if he is asked for advice over the phone. If a client says that a formal letter of recommendation with a signature is difficult to obtain (for example, because of bureaucracy), ask him to write "on his own." Ideally, the letter should indicate the work you have done ("translated the presentation for the marketing department", "designed the site", etc.).
Work on a resume
"Freelance Designer: 2010-2016." - This is how your resume should not look like if you are looking for a job in the state. Instead, it should contain several other things. First, your projects. List successfully submitted projects, starting with the last one or even the current one and ending with the very first one, just as you would in a “regular” resume. If this was a work that was later "published", you can, by agreeing with the customer, give a link to it. Long-term projects should be indicated as a separate place of work with a detailed description of the tasks and a demonstration of the result.
“It is very important to make it clear to a potential employer that, while working on freelancing, you did not leave the sphere of business or profession that you had in the past,” emphasizes Anna Benko, senior consultant of the Financial Institutions practice of the Hays recruiting company. “A potential manager should see that you have a hand on the pulse: you know about the latest industry news, have not lost contact, have not forgotten the program.To do this, when describing the freelancing experience, specify only the information that will be relevant for the vacancy you are applying for. LITE special emphasis on the experience that you have, working as a hired employee. Rather, in an interview it will go just about him. "
You can also specify the companies for which you worked. It’s worth calling them only if your customers agree to have their organization names publicized. If not, you can simply indicate that you have worked, for example, with an international consulting agency.
Also in your resume must be present numbers. In fact, this is the most important point, although the information for him to collect the most difficult. What could it be? Percentages from sales, number of views, likes - whatever. Of course, it is desirable that these figures could also be confirmed, but, unfortunately, this is not always possible.
Get ready for uncomfortable questions.
So, the moment has come. Someone was impressed by your success, and you were invited for an interview. What many freelancers are afraid of, crossing the threshold of a new office and meeting a cute smiling recruiter, will surely happen. You will certainly want to learn about this: "Why did you decide to return to the office?" It seems that this question does not have the correct answer. Almost always, self-employment will cause a specialist in personnel distrust. Even greater distrust will cause a desire to return to the office service: you will be treated not as a spy, not as a deserter, who played yesterday for the opposing team.
The editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Work for You”, the editor of the portal spb.rabota.ru, the recruiter Igor Abramov thinks that the applicant is hampered not so much by the career of a freelancer, but by its collapse: “Why did the freelancer decide to change the form of employment? What went wrong? - notes he is. ”“ Former freelancer going to mercenaries is a sad story, because it is, by and large, a story of career failure. "
Anna Benko believes that the desire to return to big business is a completely rational motivation: "I understand the motives of the candidate who says that he wants to be part of something bigger. The applicant can answer that he is attracted by the opportunity to work on a large volume of tasks or with larger ones clients. He can say that he wants to gain new experience, knowledge of methods and technologies and the ability to immediately put them into practice - after all, freelancing does not have colleagues and managers who can teach the new. "
“If you are asked why you decided to return to the office, say that you want to work in a team again,” recommends Alla Bryakina, a personnel specialist. “The person is a social being, and the freelancers have a very limited social circle. You can always say that returning to the office is an opportunity to make new connections and work side by side with colleagues again. "
Another difficult question - why, in that case, did you ever go to freelance? It is not worth answering in the spirit of “I wanted freedom”, simply because it would entail a logical continuation: “But now, don't you want to?” If this question baffles you, just answer that you have seen new development prospects for yourself.
Underline your pluses
Often, the former freelancers, coming to the interview, are so nervous that they forget to mention their merits, which once helped them to build their own business. “The people who worked for themselves have a lot of experience,” says Sam Notli of Alexander Mae Recruitment. “They worked for many companies, with different people, systems, and processes. They know which of these systems and processes worked and which didn’t If you look at this angle, freelancers have a huge knowledge base. "
Tell us how well you have with time management and self-organization: you managed to think through your own schedule, complete tasks on time and even have a rest sometimes. Mention that you know how to find a common language with different people - after all, you had so many clients who were satisfied with your work. Share what you have learned during this time: recruiters like to listen to how someone was able to overcome difficulties. For example, mention that it was very difficult for you to distribute your tasks, especially when there were too many of them.
We know that we often lack self-reliance. Before you go to the interview, be sure to think about what kind of victories you will talk about. Remember, this is not an interrogation, but a dialogue. And think not only about what you can offer the company, but also about what the company will give you.