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Another obvious, but often overlooked option of finding work, is networking. In every big city,
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there are swarms of interpreters and startups that are hustling and trying to make their
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business work.
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And they all need a website.
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You're in a very good market.
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Every business be it small, or large, or international, or local.
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Even individual professionals like you and me.
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Photographers, coaches, KonMari organizers, they all need a website.
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So, where do you network?
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Start with meetup. Meetup,
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if you've never used it, is a place where people organize different events surrounding a specific theme
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or a topic.
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For example, this group Lisbon.ux organizes different design related meetups and events in my
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city. Entrepreneurs, startups, other designers they're quite valuable connections for you and they often
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go to meetups like this. Because they run their own sort of meetups, and organize their own talks, and
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workshops, and different sorts of events that attract the right crowd that could be useful for you as connections.
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I once got a gig out of an event like that. I once attended a workshop on how to wireframe a  website.
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Really, I actually attended a workshop on that. Not that I needed to learn. But I thought, you know,
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what, it's gonna be fun.
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And what do you know.
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I got a gig out of it. Even if you meet the right crowd in meetups, you'll realize that many of them don't
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have good enough budget to pay you well for website projects.
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It's good when you're starting and you're fine sacrificing some pay for the experience and network. But
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in a later state, it's not the best option. A better place to find bigger fish,
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it's conferences, tech or other startup related conferences.
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Startups often go to places like these to exhibit their product, or find investors, or find customers
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for their company.
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Most of these conferences are paid, so it's more suitable on a later stage.
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Once you get your freelancing going and you can afford a little for the marketing. Many cities will have
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startup incubators. And you can check that, if your city has such incubators. Because these places they
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kinda put a lot of startups together, and then they are always organizing different events and demonstrations
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and things like that. And a lot of jobs and freelancing work can be found within this ecosystem and environment.
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And a lot of people are web designers or developers, these are, you know, crowd and good connections
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for you to develop and grow. And if you hate networking, then don't do it.
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Put your time and effort in something more suitable for you and your personality.
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I myself,
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I don't like networking.
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I'd rather chew on glass than go and talk to people.
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It's always best to put your efforts in something that clicks with you.
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I have one rule for you.
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Don't do anything that will make you hate web design. You liking and enjoying web design is crucial to
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your success.
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It's a better factor of making you profitable and successful than any talent or fancy university education.
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And your enjoyment of web design depends on a lot of things around it.
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Because just like any other job, there is much more involved than just sitting down and designing, right?
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There is looking for clients and negotiating, sending proposals, and all the meetings and all that stuff.
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So, make as many of those things enjoyable too.