Freelance Career Options For Young Adults
530,000 young adults aged between 16 and 24-years of age are unemployed, according to the UK Parliament. As a young adult, you may find it difficult to get work due to your lack of experience and a skills gap. But there’s no need to remain unemployed as there are plenty of viable freelance career options for young people that will increase your knowledge, skills, and bank balance.
Virtual assistant
Every business has admin and other support tasks, which is why becoming a freelance virtual assistant (VA) can be very profitable. VA’s are also popular with employers as they can reduce a company’s operating costs by as much as 78% per year. As a VA, expect to book and manage appointments, type up letters, respond to customer queries, produce and manage content, market items, and a whole lot more. It’s relatively simple to become a VA. To start with you’ll need a quiet space to work, a laptop or PC, access to the internet, a phone, and office stationery. You’ll need to build up a portfolio, so having your own website and social media channels is recommended. You may need to offer your VA services for free to start with or volunteer at a local company in order to create your portfolio. But it won’t be long before you can charge for your services.
Web Designer
It’s estimated that 2 million UK-based businesses don’t have their own website. This is costing them £174,000 each, reports Quake Digital. Over the past year, an increasing number of businesses have been keen to build their online presence by launching their own websites or rebranding their original ones. However, this all takes a lot of time, craft, and knowledge. If you’ve got design experience and know how to market a business, you can succeed as a freelance web designer. Some companies will have strict criteria for taking on someone who works for themselves. Most will want to hire a freelancer with experience, so make sure you’ve got a portfolio ready to show potential clients. You should also be able to share details of previous clients you’ve worked with and your specialised skill set. To really make it as a freelance web designer, listen to your client’s needs, build a great rapport with them, and remember communication is the key to a successful business relationship.
Social Media Manager
84% of 18 to 29-year olds use social media, according to Pew Research. The familiarity and expertise that many young adults have of these platforms, makes a career in social media management highly attractive. As a Social Media Manager you’ll have the busy job of organising all of a company’s social media. This will include creating and launching campaigns and marketing strategies, analysing social media performance, building relationships with customers, clients, and other businesses, and so much more.
Thousands of young adults are unemployed and desperately looking for work. But rather than waiting for a job to land on your doorstep, why not make the bold move of becoming a freelancer? After all, there’s plenty of freelance career opportunities out there which will provide great job satisfaction