What is a freelancing job and how different is it from online jobs?
What is a freelancing job and how different is it from online jobs? You may find this topic “old news” if you are one of few million freelancers or online workers out there, but for the traditional office/corporate employees where the idea of work from home (WFH) was a complete stranger until early last year, then this article is definitely for you! This is also for you if you are one of many millions of aspiring freelance/online job aspirants.
When did this online job start and who spearheaded the idea?
In 1994, Jeff Taylor founded The Monster Board, it is a website that collects and posts “help wanted ads” from all the local newspapers across America, but it was not before 1996 have the site went public. Three years later, there was a merger between The Monster Board and Online Career Center, and the first online job search Monster.com was born and everything else was history. Let us go back to the digital memory lane of online jobs by detailing the progression of Freelancing site’s creation:
Career Builder - Robert McGovern founded NetStart, Inc. in 1995, which later on rebranded as Career Builder.
HotJobs - Richard Johnson founded HotJobs in 1996
Applicant Tracking Systems or ATS1998 saw the birth of a software that facilitates the hiring process from beginning to end. It allowed video interviews, background checking, social media checking, assessment questionnaires, and lately, ATS have been so advanced that It can serve as independent virtual recruiters, that they can even scan and forward profiles without the knowledge of the candidates that they were actually applying for a specific job posting.
LinkedIn - Reid Hoffman founded LinkedIn in 2003 and still on top of its game until today, maintaining its professional image among recruiters and job seekers alike.
The Ladders - I should say that this is a high flyer job site created in 2003 having their concentration focused on $100k+ salaried positions, but after a couple of global economic recessions, it could not sustain the standards and started lowering their salary brackets in 2011
The Rise of Scraper Sites - In 2006, due to mergers and buyouts, there was a market monopoly enjoyed by the big players like Monster.com and Career Builder, but, new players like Indeed, Simply Hired, and CareerJet got their fair share of visitors as well.
Flex Jobs -FlexJobs entered the market for WFH, part-time/full-time contract-based jobs, but it hit some stumbling block because scammers flooded it during the early stage of its operation.
Glassdoor -Expedia CEO Richard Barton founded Glassdoor in 2007 and launched in 2008 Until today, it remains relevant being one of the “go-to” job sites.
The Boom Slows - In 2009, because of the global economic recession, everything slowed down.
The Resume Writing Services Trend - Because of the difficulty the job seekers were facing, employment was scarce and millions of people lost their jobs during the recession, the Resume Writing Services Trend was born.
ZipRecruiter - with the help of the ATS program, recruiters are using ZipRecruiter to post jobs across multiple sites at once. Its database is a job aggregator, and post resumes with the capability of notifying the recruiters when there is a matching job posting.
The Professional Portfolio - In 2011, the rise of a one-page resume became on the rise, people said goodbye to the lengthy CV/resume. They have integrated the social media activities and uploads as part of the portfolio like social media posts, videos, documents, and job seekers started social media integration by linking their websites on LinkedIn.
One Click Apply - In 2013, the fastest job application feature was born.
Can you call yourself a freelancer or online worker?
We also call freelancer as an independent contractor, a freelancer can be an online worker but an online worker doesn’t have to be a freelancer. Freelancers are selling their time packaged with the services they are offering, getting paid either by the hour rendered, per week, per month, or depending on the agreement with the client based on a specific task. Freelancers can work with multiple clients at a time since it is normally offsite work, and as long as freelancers can perform the job without jeopardizing the quality and speed of work completion, then they are good to go. There are many websites where freelancers are signing up to get clients, and since everything is interconnected via the internet, it doesn’t matter from which country or continent you are living, as long as you meet the qualifications, you can get a job contract. These are the top Freelancing Sites you can sign up to if you aren’t a member yet:
LinkedIn (not a freelancing website but lately the hangout of freelancers as well)
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Awarding of contract in exchange for payment |
So let’s go to the online worker, online worker can either be a freelancer or a permanent employee working from a remote location. They can also apply from the above links or directly on the company’s websites, the only difference is that their employments are more regular and long term. Some examples of online workers that are not necessarily freelancers are online tutors or teachers, work from home (WFH) voice and no-voice customer service representatives, consultants, full-time writers, software engineers, school psychologists, and many more. The trend of working from home became more prominent from early 2020, calling them the “new normal“ in the effort of containing the infection brought about by covid-19. So if you are planning to pursue a freelancing career, you can start by signing up to a couple of freelancing sites listed above, and do your homework by reading, watching tutorial videos and if need be, get yourself enrolled in online classes of your chosen niche. Just like when you are applying for a physical job, preparations are equally necessary for online/freelancing job, so here’s wishing you All the best and happy hunting!
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