Showcasing freelance work on your resume is a great idea to highlight how versatile, adaptable, and diverse your skills are. Today, with the gig economy growing rapidly with each passing minute, freelance work is becoming increasingly common, even among big corporations. So, showing off your freelance work on your resume can be a huge asset if presented correctly.
This guide details how to effectively showcase freelance work on your resume, why freelance work is so beneficial, and how to identify relevant experience with the best formatting tips to highlight your achievements and skills.
Ready to polish that resume and show off the work you’ve done? Keep reading!
Why Include Freelance Work in Your Resume?
Including freelance work in your resume is one of the best ways to set you apart from other candidates applying for the same job. If done correctly, freelance work can demonstrate your ability to manage many different projects independently, meet crazy deadlines, and adapt to various industries and roles within them.
As a freelancer of over a decade, I’ve done it all–written for magazines, created copy for websites, produced massive buying guides, and more. Each role revealed different abilities I never knew I had and helped me discover how valuable a freelancer can be.
Employers value initiative, self-discipline, and entrepreneurial spirit, usually associated with quality freelancing. By showcasing your freelance work for potential clients to review, you highlight your proactive approach to career growth and your capability to handle a wide range of diverse tasks.
How Do You Identify Relevant Freelance Work?
Identifying relevant freelance work involves selecting projects that align with your career goals, showcasing your skills, and demonstrating your expertise to potential employers.
Here’s how you can identify relevant freelance work:
- Review the Job Description Closely: Look at the job description carefully and list the key things they’re looking for. Note the key skills and experiences required. Then, match these with your freelance projects and list the ones that prove you can meet those requirements.
- Highlight Any Industry-Specific Work: If you’ve done freelance work in the same industry, prioritize these projects first and list the key skills and duties you performed while doing the gig. This shows the employer that you’re familiar with the industry, and they won’t have to invest as much time in training and getting you up to speed.
- Try to Focus on Your Transferable Skills: Even if the freelance work isn’t directly related, your work might be fairly broad and cover several areas. Emphasize any possible transferable skills, such as project management, great communication, and quick problem-solving. Skills like that can be applied to just about any job.
- Showcase Your Long-Term Clients: Long-term freelance projects prove to others that you’re reliable and able to stay the course. Most companies want to invest in their workers, so dependable skills are an asset.
For example, if you are targeting a graphic design position, relevant freelance work could include projects where you created branding materials for startups or designed marketing collateral for small businesses.
You can present a compelling resume that resonates with potential employers by identifying freelance work that aligns with your career goals, showcases your skills effectively, and demonstrates your expertise in a particular area.
How Should You Format Your Resume to Include Freelance Work?
Ensuring your resume is properly formatted is crucial in maximizing your chances of securing the job. When structured effectively, your freelance work can grab the attention of busy employers who typically skim through numerous resumes. Implementing the following tips will help maintain a professional and well-organized appearance on your resume.
- Create a Separate Section: Dedicate a specific section of your resume just for freelance work. In a big, bold font, title it “Freelance Experience” or “Independent Projects” to draw their eye to your best skills.
- Use a Consistent Format: List each of the freelance projects you’ve chosen to showcase for the job application just as you would do for a traditional job, including the project title, client name, and dates of engagement. With freelance work, the client name could also be the company name, website name, or even publication name.
- Add Descriptive Titles: Use titles that accurately describe the role you played in each project, like “Freelance Graphic Designer” instead of “Graphic Designer” or “Independent Marketing Consultant” instead of just “Marketing Consultant.”
If you were the lead on any of these projects, include that tidbit as well, so it would look like “Lead Freelance Graphic Designer” or “Lead Independent Marketing Consultant.” This proves that you can easily take on responsibility and lead different projects.
- Short But Informative Summaries: Include a summary of each project, focusing only on the scope of work, responsibilities, and outcomes. Don’t get too wordy. Just get straight to the point and highlight the key factors an employer would be looking for.
Use Bullet Points for Relative Achievements: Add bullet points to pinpoint the specific things you’ve achieved with each gig and the contributions for each freelance project. They could be things like helping the website increase daily traffic with your quality content or overhauling a client’s social media to generate more leads.
How Can You Highlight Achievements and Skills?
Highlighting achievements and skills effectively is crucial to making your freelance work resonate with potential employers. To ensure your resume stands out, prioritize showcasing your accomplishments and the valuable skills you’ve developed. Here are some key tips I would use:
- Quantify Your Achievements: Whenever you can, use numbers to demonstrate the impact of your work. For example, “Increased website traffic by 50%” instead of just saying “Increased website traffic” or “Managed a budget of $10,000” rather than just saying “Managed a budget.”
- Emphasize Your Core Skills: Choose and emphasize the core skills you utilized in each project. This could include skills like leading content creation, client communication, time management, team management, and more.
- Always Use Action Verbs: Start each bullet point with a strong action verb like “developed,” “designed,” “implemented,” and “coordinated” to cement your role in the task.
- Add Testimonials: If you’ve received positive feedback or reviews from your past clients, consider including snippets that highlight the best of what you did. You can also link to your portfolio, where these testimonials should be displayed. (wink wink)
If you don’t have any reviews or testimonials from past clients, ask politely for some! If you did a great job and left things on a positive note, most clients are more than happy to provide that for you.
Side Note: Always protect yourself and your work. Protecting your online presence and work is important as a freelancer, especially if you save it somewhere, like Google Docs. A VPN service like VeePN can help safeguard your precious data and maintain your privacy while working on sensitive projects.
How Can You Enhance Your Resume with Infographics?
Integrating visual elements such as infographics can significantly elevate your resume’s appeal to individuals drawn to visual content. Leveraging tools like Canva to create custom infographics or utilize their ready-made templates can be a simple yet effective way to make your resume more engaging. Let’s explore a variety of approaches to leverage infographics for your resume.
- A Skills Infographic: Create a visual representation of your key skills and their proficiency levels.
- A Project Timeline: An infographic timeline can visually summarize the duration and scope of your freelance projects.
- Your Achievements Chart: Use charts to highlight significant achievements, such as increased sales, improved engagement, or other measurable outcomes.
- Some Client Logos: If you have worked with recognizable brands, consider including their logos to add credibility to your freelance experience.
It’s Time to Add Your Freelance Skills to Your Resume!
Freelance work is no longer just a side hustle. People are building entire careers for themselves with the work they do online. It’s time to start using those accomplishments with pride. Add your achievements to your resume and broaden your search for new jobs.
Use these tips to decide which skills to showcase, how to format your resume with freelance experience, and highlight the best of your abilities. You’ll land that job in no time!