Hello!
I'm new here. I've been browsing tons of forums for an idea of what to do. I was laid off from my job about 3 month ago. I've been looking for a job since then, but did not even get a single interview. I worked as a web designer for a publishing company for the last 5 years. Looks like spannerbackup.ipbhost.com is an active forum with active members and may be someone has some experience working as a freelance web designer. May be "International Issues w/ cptrev" category is not the most appropriate for this question, but I want to try anyways to get some opinions before I go ahead with my life. I'm wondering if it is possible in the current economy to find work for a freelance web designer and make enough to pay for rent and groceries. I was able to find a small project on craigslist and I developed a website for a company. It was a small project and took me only a week to complete. I got paid $800 for 1 week of work which is not bad. Please people give me some ideas. I have 2 kids and my wife is out of work as well. Thank you in advance.
Full Version: I need an advice
QUOTE (seskenata @ Apr 2 2009, 06:30 PM) 
Hello!
I'm new here. I've been browsing tons of forums for an idea of what to do. I was laid off from my job about 3 month ago. I've been looking for a job since then, but did not even get a single interview. I worked as a web designer for a publishing company for the last 5 years. Looks like spannerbackup.ipbhost.com is an active forum with active members and may be someone has some experience working as a freelance web designer. May be "International Issues w/ cptrev" category is not the most appropriate for this question, but I want to try anyways to get some opinions before I go ahead with my life. I'm wondering if it is possible in the current economy to find work for a freelance web designer and make enough to pay for rent and groceries. I was able to find a small project on craigslist and I developed a website for a company. It was a small project and took me only a week to complete. I got paid $800 for 1 week of work which is not bad. Please people give me some ideas. I have 2 kids and my wife is out of work as well. Thank you in advance.
I'm new here. I've been browsing tons of forums for an idea of what to do. I was laid off from my job about 3 month ago. I've been looking for a job since then, but did not even get a single interview. I worked as a web designer for a publishing company for the last 5 years. Looks like spannerbackup.ipbhost.com is an active forum with active members and may be someone has some experience working as a freelance web designer. May be "International Issues w/ cptrev" category is not the most appropriate for this question, but I want to try anyways to get some opinions before I go ahead with my life. I'm wondering if it is possible in the current economy to find work for a freelance web designer and make enough to pay for rent and groceries. I was able to find a small project on craigslist and I developed a website for a company. It was a small project and took me only a week to complete. I got paid $800 for 1 week of work which is not bad. Please people give me some ideas. I have 2 kids and my wife is out of work as well. Thank you in advance.
Greetings, ses! Sorry not to have noted your post sooner. May I suggest you will get more readers if you post in the Political Soapbox in "news today."
I feel your pain, man. I have been unemployed for over a year - lucky for me I have always been a saver and had a hefty rainy day fund. Something I know many people don't have. I didn't think it would be a monsoon tho.
I suspect as freelance you may not be eligible for unemployment insurance. If when you were working, your employer was deducting taxes you would be tho. Look into it. Also many states have Workforce centers that can advise you on resumes, cover letters, and interviewing techniques for free.
From the sound of it you should be eligible for food stamps - apply for them. Also check out food shelves. Likewise your kids should be eligible for health insurance thru SCHIP programs - federal program that your state manages.
Not sure where you live, but frankly MN has normally had a lower unemployment rate than the national average - not so now.
Web design sounds like a good skill set tho. I would suggest looking as to what on-line resources your state may provide. MN has a very good online job bank. As you know Craig's List also has job listings. Then there's CareerBuilder and many others. But beware of scams - if it sounds too good....
Get a email addy that doesn't include your name on Yahoo or Google or such, and use that for job search. Pick an appealing addy name - HR can be turned off by just an addy. Something like "acewebdesigner@yahoo.com" or such. Don't get stuck with just 1 resume. Customize as much as possible. Many HR departments use software that uses key words to pick the best candidates. Your resume should use as many as possible that are in specific job description.
Also, network network network. Let everyone you know that you are seeking work. Contacting the school where you were trained would also be good. You never know where the door you are looking for may be.
Meanwhile I would suggest broadening your job search outside your last work. When I got laid off I never thought I would be unemployed for 3 months - let alone a year. I have a college degree in math and had an excellent work history as a facility manager - a job of some responsibility. Frankly, the job search is daunting. After this long from me a growing depression. And the longer one is unemployed that more employers seem sceptical.
Something that is now in play is the 2010 census. They are looking to hire for temporary work. For more:
http://www.census.gov/hrd/www/
Unlike the old expression I know misery isn't comforted by company. I know a good dozen folks who are also unemployed. But try to stay positive.
Rely on your family. While added responsibility, they can keep you bolstered. Love helps fight the panic.
But best of luck to you. Hope to hear more from you.
Hang in there,
Hu
Networking is great. Though I haven't gotten a job through friends I've helped a couple land decent entry level positions. Being able to say you know somebody is a leg up in most places. Like being welcomed to the family instead of going in cold.
Having done the one project is good for the resume. Might also look at advertising to various charities and non-profits in your area who might need support - while some of the work may be gratis it will build your portfolio and give any prospective employer something to actually look at and assess the look, feel, and quality of your work. Doesn't feed the kitty now but can pay dividends in the longer run.
Hunin's advice is right on as well. Been in the out-of-work myself over the past decade, a couple of times. Hang in there.
Hunin's advice is right on as well. Been in the out-of-work myself over the past decade, a couple of times. Hang in there.
QUOTE (Bob_K @ Apr 5 2009, 01:54 PM)
Networking is great. Though I haven't gotten a job through friends I've helped a couple land decent entry level positions. Being able to say you know somebody is a leg up in most places. Like being welcomed to the family instead of going in cold.
The most effective network ties to have are those that link one to another relatively "multi-plex" network. The effect is called "the strength of weak ties", after Granovetter's pioneering article with the same title.
Check it out:
http://www.si.umich.edu/~rfrost/courses/SI...Granovetter.pdf
QUOTE
The overall social structural picture suggested by this argument can be seen by considering the situation of some arbitrarily selected individual-call him Ego. Ego will have a collection of close friends, most of whom are in touch with one another-a densely knit clump of social structure. Moreover, Ego will have a collection of acquaintances, few of whom know one another. Each of these acquaintances, however, is likely to have close friends in his own right and therefore to be enmeshed in a closely knit clump of social structure, but one different from Ego's. The weak tie between Ego and his acquaintance, therefore, becomes not merely a trivial acquaintance tie but rather a crucial bridge between the two densely knit clumps of close friends.
To the extent that the assertion of the previous paragraph is correct, these clumps would not, in fact, be connected to one another at all were it not for the existence of weak ties (SWT, p. 1363). It follows, then, that individuals with few weak ties will be deprived of information from distant parts of the social system and will be confined to the provincial news and views of their close friends. This deprivation will not only insulate them from the latest ideas and fashions but may put them in a disadvantaged position in the labor market, where advancement can depend, as I have documented elsewhere (1974), on knowing about appropriate job openings at just the right time.
Furthermore, such individuals may be difficult to organize or integrate into political movements of any kind, since membership in movements or goal-oriented organizations typically results from being recruited by friends. While members of one or two cliques may be efficiently recruited, the problem is that, without weak ties, any momentum generated in this way does not spread beyond the clique.As a result, most of the population will be untouched.
The macroscopic side of this communications argument is that social systems lacking in weak ties will be fragmented and incoherent. New ideas will spread slowly, scientific endeavors will be handicapped, and subgroups separated by race, ethnicity, geography, or other characteristics will have difficulty reaching a modus vivendi.
QUOTE (Nomarchy @ Apr 7 2009, 06:10 PM)
The most effective network ties to have are those that link one to another relatively "multi-plex" network. The effect is called "the strength of weak ties", after Granovetter's pioneering article with the same title.
Interesting. It makes sense to cast the widest net possible. It seems to make a pretty big difference what kind of ties you have when it comes hiring time.
QUOTE
Administrative or
managerial employees had a pattern very much like the one I reported:
35.5 percent using weak ties, 15.8 percent strong ones, and 48.7 percent
intermediate. Professionals and office workers also were heavy users of
weak ties (30.8 percent and 25.8 percent but, unlike managers, used
strong ties even more frequently (51.0 and 44.4 percent). Semiprofessionals
found only 13.1 percent of jobs through weak ties and bluecollar
workers 19.1 percent; the former found 44.9 percent of jobs
through strong ties, the latter only 19.1 percent.
managerial employees had a pattern very much like the one I reported:
35.5 percent using weak ties, 15.8 percent strong ones, and 48.7 percent
intermediate. Professionals and office workers also were heavy users of
weak ties (30.8 percent and 25.8 percent but, unlike managers, used
strong ties even more frequently (51.0 and 44.4 percent). Semiprofessionals
found only 13.1 percent of jobs through weak ties and bluecollar
workers 19.1 percent; the former found 44.9 percent of jobs
through strong ties, the latter only 19.1 percent.
Unfortunately, the longer one has been unemployed and the more dire one's circumstances, the harder it is to 'cold-call', so to speak, those "bridge to higher-status" folks in one's network. As in 'dating', the 'best' time to accumulate leads and call on them is when one is not 'desperate'.
Yep, these weak networks do work. When my brother lost his job as a consultant to the defense industry, he mentioned his situation to a friend who was the father of another child on his son's swim team.
That turned out to be the magic contact.
That turned out to be the magic contact.
Thank you for the kind and informative responses. I've asked around the internet and gotten many good responses and put out many feelers. I'm sure something good will turn up. I tried to send a personal message but the messenger is down, so this will have to do. Back to the hunt. 
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