A freelance career has always been considered tempting and freelancers are associated with freedom, setting your own rules, and being your own boss. On the other hand, it is also identified with financial instability and irregular working hours. As a result, a number of people have always wanted to try it at least for a while, but not everyone has the courage to do it. Then, however, the global pandemic appeared and everything has changed.
Over the past, many of us have been forced to work from home and quite unexpectedly both employers and employees have started to recognize numerous advantages of this situation. Those who only considered a freelance career before now started to have more confidence about it while companies started to hire freelancers more eagerly, too.
As a consequence, freelance work has flourished and the number of freelancers has considerably increased since the pandemic started. Moreover, employment specialists expect this trend to rise even if the pandemic is over and some even dare to say that freelancing is the future of work worldwide. Therefore, take a look at our top freelance trends of 2022 and take your freelance career to another level this year.
Growth of Freelancing Platforms
Both freelancers and those who hire them need a place where they can find, present, and meet each other. As a result, recent surveys have clearly shown that freelance platforms, such as Upwork, Toptal, or LinkedIn have experienced greater traffic than ever. This year can expect to grow even better.
The expectations are that freelance platform communities will be getting bigger and that they finally will be the leading places where all the employment process happens. The advantages are numerous as from the point of view of an employer you have a range of specialists in one place, you can go through their portfolio, experience, and even rates directly. From the point of view of an employee, you have a place where you can easily present yourself, your skills, experience, and if you do it right be noticed by serious companies. Therefore, if you want to boost your career in 2022, start with revising and refreshing your profiles on the most important freelancing platforms.
Full-time freelancers
For many years freelancing has been associated with working part-time only or doing it as some extra work. However, that has also changed as various survey results prove that a growing number of freelancers has transferred from working part-time to full time and 2022 will see this trend growing. Before the pandemic, employers were afraid that workers who are not fully engaged in one company only and who work from home instead of a proper office will be less productive than regular workers. Surprisingly, it turned out that the opposite is happening –freelance workers who work from home have higher productivity than when they worked in a traditional way.
Higher Competition between freelance workers
More freelancers mean more specialists in your industry and higher competition for freelancers. A year ago freelance work was still considered to be a niche and if you were good at your discipline, that was enough to be given good job offers. Now, however, as a freelancer, you will probably have to put more effort to find a good job as having talent may simply be not enough. As a result, 2022 will be the year in which a serious freelancer will pay extra attention to marketing him or herself. Make sure you have updated your resume and added the latest experience, certificates, and skills. It is worth presenting yourself in an attractive portfolio with a table of contents at the beginning so that your potential clients be able to look for information. Additionally, as a modern freelancer, you need to be active on freelancing platforms, react to job offers quickly, and respond to the messages of potential clients in a flash. Also, do not limit your marketing to freelance platforms only, but use the power of social media, too.
Rise of New Freelance Industries
For years the world of freelancing was mainly about a few specific industries, such as IT sectors or translating and copywriting jobs. That, however, is now a thing of the past as due to the global pandemic and growing popularity of freelance, there is and will be a need for specialists in quite new areas when it comes to the freelance sector. Have a look at the most prospective jobs, which are worth getting skilled at in 2022.
Mental Health Specialists of freelance workers
The global pandemic has changed a lot in our lives, for months we have been feeling insecure about the future and afraid of being seriously ill. Many of us have lost a close one or have gotten over a serious illness. Moreover, we have experienced a lockdown and shorter or longer periods of quarantine. The results of all that are terrifying– our mental health is often in a poor condition and many of us need help from a specialist.
In the past, we would have made an appointment with a doctor, but today we often don’t want to or can’t leave the house. Therefore, the demand for freelance jobs such as online psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists is growing rapidly. Additionally, people read more about how to stay mentally healthy so psychology writers and bloggers have appeared in the most recent trends report as top freelance workers needed.
Audio Production Sector
During the pandemic, entertainment has moved to the Internet and we need it even more than ever. Live gigs, theatre performances, sports matches – we watch it all online instead of living. As a result, the audio services marketplace is the industry that has been experiencing a rapidly growing number of experts. Therefore, all types of audio specialists and people who work with sound and voices are in high demand right now. Voice actors, sound engineers, audio producers, and audio production assistants are the directions in which a growing number of freelancers will look at. Moreover, if you have a small production studio at home, you are the winner in the contemporary freelance world as freelance platforms are packed with job offers for you.
Social Media Experts
We all know that social media is one of the most influential means of communication and now with the appearance of Meta and ongoing pandemics we can be almost 100% sure that their popularity of them will grow even more. The recent news has told us that social media has become our dominant source of information about the world. A freelancer in this sector will easily find a job as more and more sectors want to advertise themselves via social networks exclusively. Therefore, marketing managers, public relations specialists, market research analysts, promotions managers, and influencers are some of the freelance employment opportunities that will flourish.
The undeniable fact is that the number of freelance workers has been rising and that it is the most desirable type of employment in the contemporary world. The majority of freelancers, though, might become surprised with the changes that the sector has witnessed as it is no longer a niche industry, but a highly competitive employment area. Therefore, if you want to be successful, you need to keep up with the changing demands, follow the freelance trends and go into new sectors.