Whether you want to stay in freelancing for the rest of your professional life or shift to the corporate world, learning how to perfectly list freelance jobs on a resume is critical. If you opt to stay independent, the resume will be crucial for showcasing personal skills to prospective clients. If you are shifting to the corporate world, you need a freelance resume to demonstrate that you were busy in business, as opposed to being unemployed. This post is a demonstration of how to create a perfect freelance CV.
How To Put Freelance Work On Resume
For many people working as freelancers, the first line of thought when writing a resume is indicating they were unemployed. But that is the wrong thing to do.
The top-quality tasks you do as a freelancer, such as assisting companies with social media marketing, constitutes work. Indeed, your writing jobs and other works could give you an added advantage over other candidates because employers want people who can get things done. With that said, what is the best way for adding freelance work to resume?
The good thing about including freelance work on resume is that it is not difficult once you learn the process. Fundamentally, you are crafting a functional resume. That implies that you should focus on demonstrating your skills and achievements through online works as opposed to outlining working history like in a chronological resume.
Make sure to give yourself a job title commensurate to the nature of work you did as a freelancer. Some common titles you should consider include “consultant” and “freelancer.”
Design The Freelancing Resume For The Targeted Job Or Client
When you take a closer look at the “how to list freelance work on resume,” you will realize that it can be a liberating experience. The main focus is what you have done and what you can achieve. It is less about where you schooled, and if your career has moved from point X to Y in an orderly manner.
Your potential employer or targeted client wants to hire someone who can make things happen to take their operations to the next level. Now, make sure to demonstrate how you will “make that happen” with precision because most HR managers only take less than ten seconds reading through a resume to give it a “yes” or drop it. That means three things:
• You need to look at the available position and tailor your freelance resume to it.
• Make sure to understand how the target company operates and use the resume to demonstrate how you fit in the big picture.
• Note the objectives of the company and use the freelance CV to showcase how you can assist in achieving them.
Talking of designing every resume to specific jobs means that you need several CVs when targeting multiple organizations or clients. Though this can be a lot of work, it is a worthy course. It is the ideal way to outshine others and grab that job of interest.
Add Skills On A Separate Section Of The Freelance CV
Because the primary goal is showcasing what you can do, you will easily achieve the goal by placing the skills in a separate section. If you have a highly demanded skill, the skills section will be the right place to demonstrate everything about it. For example, a software programmer can include things such as years of experience, certification, and mentorship capabilities in the skills section.
When adding the skills, make sure to only focus on what you are proficient in. Besides, you should not claim knowledge of what everyone has, like Microsoft Office.
How To List Contract Work On Resume
As a freelancer, the chances are that you have completed a number of contracts and acquired varied kinds of experience. While keeping out the undesired contracts is critical, the way you present the others is also very important.
- Capture the contracts in bullets to draw attention from the reader.
- Describe every contract indicating what you achieved with it. What value did it add?
- Include the contact details of the work you did where possible. For example, if you want to add a contract about a social media contract that you ran a few months away, include a backlink to it.
The following are three examples of how to list contracts in a freelancing resume:
- “Designed a logo for XYZ Firm as part of the company’s rebranding effort that resulted in a 45% increase in sales.”
- “Social media campaign manager for ABCD Company from 2016 to 2019. After creating funny and targeted tweets for the company, it secured a blue verified badge.”
- “Increased consumer awareness for ABCD health firm through the development of online campaign materials such as banner ads, memes, infographics, and print collateral.”
By portraying the contracts and how you executed them, the employer will start looking at you from the viewpoint of the work to be completed. Your target client or company wants results, and here you are; demonstrating that you have delivered similar results in the past. That is the perfect way to bag that opportunity with your freelancing resume.
Make Use Of Verbs In The Freelance CV
To make your freelance CV more impressive, it is important to strike the right tone with your writing. Make sure to use a lot of action words to demonstrate that you are the person who goes to any length to get things done. Some of these words include yield, show, utilize, and won.
One hidden secret used by HR managers, especially when dealing with online resumes is the applicant tracking systems. These are bots that filter the resumes based on specific keywords. Using the right verbs in your freelance resume is a great way to get the CV past the bot and onto the HR table.
Use A Freelance Resume Example
For many people, writing resume gigs sends shivers into their spines. But it should not because you can use a freelance resume example to learn how to add freelance work to resume sample. Simply look at how the skills and freelancing work have been added on the resume and craft a similar model. However, make sure that the freelancing resume is a true reflection of your capability.
Great CV – Write One Or Get Help From A Pro
If you are a freelancer, knowing how to write a winning freelancing resume is very important. This post has demonstrated that understanding the process of adding freelance work to resume can be the defining line between your success and failure to winning a new client or getting hired. Do not just write a standard CV, get the best to have a competitive advantage and apply for freelance writing jobs at the most trusted companies!