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After nearly 17 years in the same job, freelance is the way forward for me at the moment... folio is up and running which was great to work on as I’ve always had an old school A2 portfolio that I dragged to an interview when I had one. Good thing for me is that I’ve got way more contacts now than I had years ago, so they’ve all got my new cv and know that I’m up for work... I’ve been working on some logos for a local company that hopefully might lead to more work and I’ve started working on some T shirt designs that I’ll look into getting printed.
Glad you’ve got yourself sorted out @tb and you’re right, keeping a bit of faith is something that you need to do.
Johnnyw75
I can't speak to your particular field, but from personal experience, there is a lot more creative work starting to crop up.
If you're open to freelancing for a bit, now is a great time (I think). The unpredictable situation in general means businesses are looking for flexible options. I'd get your website bang up to date and start messaging anyone that might give you work (even if they aren't advertising) and reach out to old contacts if you have them. I wouldn't worry about being too specialised, you'll probably be able to adjust to more broad tasks pretty quickly.
It's proper shit not having any work, but after three years of freelancing you start to realise that nothing lasts forever, and just keeping the faith as much as possible will usually win out.
At the start of this year I had had a dreadful 2019 with very little work - owed my partner a couple thousand and no signs of any work incoming, looking back I realise I was pretty depressed. In February I took a freelance gig as a copywriter (something I'd never really 'done' officially but did have experience of), and now I've been working that same gig for most of this year. I feel incredibly lucky, especially considering how this year has panned out. The freelance gig actually came from someone I'd showed my folio to six years ago, so it shows you really do have to 'trust in the process'.