JT & Dale Talk Jobs: Turning freelancing into a full-time job

J.T.: First, it’s great to see that you took the initiative to gain the internship, then turned it into a work opportunity, and now you’re thinking ahead to a full-time position. Spend some time putting together a deck that outlines all the activities you’ve been doing and how they have saved or made the company money. If you can, build a case that the additional assignments you could take on can generate or save enough money to justify the cost of hiring you. (Just so you know, it costs a company about 130% to 140% of your salary to hire you — they’ll have overhead, taxes, benefits and other expenses beyond just the salary.) No matter what, I just love the fact that you’re letting them know that you really want the job and that you’re thinking of ways that you can be valuable.

DALE: Even if they agree completely, they may not be able to hire you — headcounts, budgets and all the rest of the bureaucracy. That’s why there’s another (possibly better) option: to love freelancing. Pay attention to the keyword in there: free! You’re free to take the credibility from working with your current client and start to seek assignments elsewhere. Better yet, you’re free to make a lot more than you would from a traditional salary. Say that an entry-level job in your field pays $40K. That’s $20 an hour, plus benefits. As a freelancer, you might charge double that or more. Sure, you have to provide your own benefits, but you eventually have the stability of multiple clients versus a single employer, and you have the freedom to set your own hours and working conditions.