Finding work online is not the only place. 1
And we have a lot of jobs available locally as well. 2
And one such place would be studios. So this would be marketing agencies, digital agencies, creative agencies 3
the design studios. 4
I don't know. 5
There is many, million different names that they have. 6
Basically, these are companies that do web design and digital work for their clients whoever may be, individual 7
or company clients. Right? Sor if they are advertisement agencies for example. right? 8
Marketing agencies, they are being hired by some big company that they need a landing page or 9
a website. 10
So these sort of studios then they hire, 11
they do have in-house staff, right? 12
Obviously. They do have his in-house designers and in-house developers and all that. 13
But what happens, is many middle, sort of medium-sized agencies like that and studios, they have 14
like a small amount of staff in house and they have like an army of freelancers 15
they do most of their work. So that's how they sort of work. 16
My biggest work engagement was actually with such studio. And we worked for a long time and they've sent 17
a ton of work for me. And I've learned a great deal from them. 18
And that doesn't mean, that they have to be local studios, they can be from different countries, different 19
cities and different continents. I myself worked with a studio that was in Australia. And really really 20
far from where I live, which is in Europe, in Portugal. 21
Now, how you can approach these studios will depend case by case, but here are some strategies on how to approach 22
them. 23
I have a friend who is an illustrator and he has this approach. Once I asked him, you know, how do 24
you get your clients? Because he doesn't work on freelancing platforms. And he told me that he just 25
spams them. So he has this email list of different, potential clients, like agencies, companies, advertisement 26
agencies, publishing books or magazines. Because those are the type of clients that he works with. 27
And every time he needs work, 28
every once in a while, he will blast email, using some email software. And basically he will inquire for 29
work saying like, "Oh do you guys need an illustrator". Or something like that. 30
And I'm not sure exactly what's the text he uses and how he approaches. But I know, he just inquires and 31
asks, if they need an illustrator. And what happens is more of, sometimes at the exact time, one 32
of these companies will need an illustrator at that exact time. So they come back to him saying that, 33
"Oh yeah we actually do need an illustrator". And he gets hired. And it's a great approach because this 34
saves the other guy's time. 35
So, they don't have to post the job on freelancing platforms, or wherever, go through different people's 36
portfolios and interview them, hire them, all that. It's really easy when somebody already came to you 37
at the exact right time. Every design studio will have their own sort of style of design that they do 38
on websites, right? 39
They'll have specific approaches with the designs. 40
There might be a bit more illustration based designs, might be more photography, might be more type based 41
and layout based design, right? 42
So, when you approach this, when do you decide to approach these design studios, go through their examples 43
of work and most of them obviously will have their portfolio work on their website. Go through them and 44
understand and kind of nail down what sort of style they use. And then approach those that you match 45
the style or refine your portfolio in a way that you're kind of bridging that gap between your work 46
and their portfolio to make it match as much as possible. Because when you then apply to the studios, 47
they're gonna see if they have lets say, 48
I know, dozens and hundreds of different candidates they are looking for. 49
Obviously they are going to be leaning towards and picking somebody who really matches their style. 50
Because they know that you will easily plug in into their workflow. So they 51
don't have to train you. If you are like a more illustrator and and they are more into like photography 52
based websites, now they would kind of have to retrain you on how to do a photography. Or they might, 53
they will need to kind of completely challenge and alter your design style. So bridge that gap between 54
their and your portfolio. And you will increase your chances of being hired by them. 55
When I was managing company, we had this vacancy posted online and we had a whole bunch of candidates 56
obviously applying for it. But one of these guys, one of the candidates showed up at our doorstep. 57
He just showed up in our office and had a printed resume and CV of his. And he just handed this 58
he said, you know like, "Oh hi, 59
just, you know, I was applying for this job ad and I just wanted to hand my CV personally." And I was 60
like, I was very surprised, but very impressed as well, to see this guy's kind of confidence and audacity 61
to kind of show up and come and apply for the job at in-person. 62
And when I had to go through 200 different job applications. 63
One person really stood out. Obviously, because he showed up. No one else did. And no one else did anything 64
differently. 65
And funny enough, I would probably dump his application, if he hadn't showed up. Because his CV and 66
his application wasn't strong enough, and his experience wasn't good enough for what we were looking 67
for. But because he showed up, he was just, you know, memorable. And I kind of liked that confidence and his 68
sort of proactive attitude and he got the interview. 69
He actually skipped the interview part and got to the final phase, 70
final selection phase, with the three other finalists. And he got that only because he showed up. 71
Sometimes all it takes is just show up and hand in your printed portfolio. Because not many people are 72
doing that. 73
People who hire, they are busy and they appreciate any extra step that the candidate will take. 74
No one can get you closer to the job opportunity than the people inside those studios. Using LinkedIn 75
and Facebook, 76
you can definitely find people who work inside those studios and then connect with them directly using 77
other social networking sites probably like Facebook Instagram Twitter and direct messaging them. 78
I myself have never done this but I know a lot of freelancers. 79
They do things like that they connect with people inside. 80
Even those who are actually hiring the managers or the founders of these studios if you are that kind 81
of person and if you can easily connect with strangers, give it a shot. 82
I'm not that kind of person and it doesn't work for me, but may be it would for you. 83
So, just throwing it out there, as an idea.