Tips for Student Designers and the Small Businesses Who Love Them: OrangeSlyce Life

We spend a lot of time telling you how to find freelance jobs on this blog (and we don't even shamelessly plug our job site…err, well other than that) but there's one question we haven't really addressed here: why you should want to find freelance work to begin with.  On some level, we've taken it sort of for granted that if you're reading our blog it's because you're interested in finding freelance work–or finding freelance workers–but we really shouldn't. Like that guy in the old Hair Club for Men commercials, we're not just advocates of the Freelance Community in Arizona, we're also members.  We owe a lot of who we are–and hopefully that's a good thing–to the freelance work we did as students, and we really should be more explicit about that.  So, we'd like to take a minute–just sit right there–and we'll tell you why you should want freelance work in the first place.  We loved being a student freelancer because…

…it gave us a job that we could fit around our schedule.  Some weeks we had way too much class work to comfortably fit in work; being a freelancer meant that wasn't a problem.

…it taught us to be self-driven.  Very few small businesses (or businesses in general) hire a freelancer if they want to micromanage someone.  Being a freelancer (whether you're a freelance writer or a freelance designer or a freelance coder) forces you to learn to take charge, solve problems yourself, get work done on your own.  This something you want to be able to tell businesses when you graduate and start looking for a career.

…it was fun.  No, really, it was.  Being a freelancer let's you seek out the projects that you find interesting and avoid the ones that you don't.  Honestly, it's the most fun we've had with any job other than our current one (and why we love being an entrepreneur is really another story for another day) and we couldn't recommend it enough.

…it let us get work done from home.  We actually don't mind coming into an office–especially now because it's really fun working with the other OrangeSlyce people–but there's something really nice about being able to start working without having to spend 20 minutes driving somewhere first.  There's also something really nice about being able to work whenever you feel like being productive instead of having to shoehorn your productivity into your scheduled hours.

…it gave us relevant work experience.  Let's be clear here: we're not knocking traditional student jobs.  Your standard job as a stock worker or telemarketer or sandwich artist or whatever has a purpose insofar as it demonstrates a good work ethic, a willingness to follow orders, and a general sense of humility (let's be honest: it's no fun to work with someone who thinks that certain work is "below" them). Having said that, our freelance work did a heck of a lot more to prepare us for what we do now than the summers we spent working in a stock room.  Freelance work gives you a good idea of what your future will be like if you pursue a certain field, too.  So, even if you end up hating it, you benefit from learning that while it's still easy to change course.

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We like to help you stay productive here, but sometimes you just need to kill some time.  With that in mind, here are some things to do:

(1) Read this excellent article on confirmation bias by the folks over at You're Not That Smart.

(2) Watch this baby do the samba.  At press time, it was the most popular video under the category of…News and Politics.  Move over oil spill!

(3) Play around with this awesome toy that a Swiss radio company put together.  You type in phrases, and it "sings" them using clips from popular songs.  Don't do this one if you're at work; you'll annoy your coworkers and get yourself fired.

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Writing a resume, in some ways, is easier now than it's ever been.  Just Google "resume tips" and you'll find a wealth of information on how to write a "proper" resume.  There's one problem with this, though: everyone else has access to those exact same resources.  When you're applying for a job, you don't want to turn in a resume that's "just like" the other ninety-nine resumes that the hiring manager has to sift through.  You want one that stands out (in a good way) so that people can remember who you are.  One big way to do that is to write a solid cover letter (and that's a lesson we plan to cover later) but today we're focusing on a much smaller step that is too often overlooked: interests.

Yes, believe it or not (and let's put this in bold for the people who only skim these posts) your resume should have a line (or two) talking about your personal interests.  Now, it's important not to overshare here (your employer really doesn't need to know that you were the 2009 Manzi Beer Pong Champion) but it's equally important that your resume tells the person reading it a little bit about who you are as a person (rather than just what you've done as a student/professional).  Tell your employer what you like to do in your free-time–but put an emphasis on the more "active" hobbies.  Are you interested in cooking?  Are you an avid softball player?  Do you have an interest in foreign literature?  Do you rock-climb in your free-time?  These are all things that help a prospective employer remember you ("let's bring in the girl who climbs rocks" is a lot more specific than "let's bring in one of the girls who is proficient with PowerPoint") while also (subtly) telling them that you're a go-getter who won't bore the crap out of people in the office.

If you can, try to tailor the interests you have to the type of job you're applying for. Think about the key requirements for the job and try to think of activities that show your have those traits.  Are you applying for a job that requires someone to be extroverted and personable?  Being involved in social activities like dance classes should stand out to your employer.  Are you applying for a job that puts a lot of emphasis on attention to detail?  Activities like cooking (which involves following a recipe closely and noting minor details with the food) car repair, or officiating youth sports leagues demonstrate that you can be detail-oriented.

The bottom line, though, is that you want the person reading your resume to feel like they know you a little bit after reading your resume–and like they want to get to know you better.  When you read your resume, ask yourself "what does this tell an employer about me?"  If you don't like the answer, it might be time to find a few new hobbies.

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We were making our daily rounds through the internet today when we came across this article, by Lisa Seasholtz over at WetFeet, about how to answer “The Weakness Question.”  We have all the respect in the world for the folks at WetFeet, but the article’s very existence demonstrates a point that we’ve been stumping for since before we were old enough to drink: that asking a candidate for her “greatest weakness” is counterproductive.  We’ll give you three big reasons why

1) It Rewards Dishonesty
Our big problem with the question is that, by it’s very nature, it encourages a candidate to lie to the interviewer.  Let’s just put the obvious out there right now: everybody has “weaknesses” that would theoretically inhibit them from doing a job. Here are some examples of extremely common weaknesses that an interviewer would almost certainly eliminate you for admitting: you prefer other activities to working, you don’t like having to get up at 6am, you enjoy using programs on your computer that aren’t designed for productive purposes, you put off doing work until it has to get done, or you like drinking on weekends.  Based on typical human tendencies, it’s extremely likely that at least one of these applies to pretty much every person who’s interviewed, at least to some extent. Obviously, most/all of these are weaknesses that any professional person would never let stand in their way of being productive (a good percentage of people just flat don’t like getting up in the morning, but very few of them let that stop them from being productive) but a candidate could not possibly hope to admit to any of the items on that list and still get the job.

This fact, on its own, is enough to undermine the claim that the question indicates that someone is “self-reflective.”  Ms. Seasholtz article, unintentionally, proves that point by suggesting (as so many career centers have) that a person find an answer that’s not “too honest” but that identifies some incredibly minor problem–and explains how the candidate is working on that problem.  The problem, here, is that these sorts of problems are usually the sort that a good candidate has already addressed.  We, for example, had the same fear of public speaking that Ms. Seasholtz suggests as a possible “weakness.”  We did not, however, wait until we started applying for jobs–jobs which would have required speaking in public–to start “working” on that fear.  Does the fact that a candidate has already addressed weaknesses that would directly inhibit his ability to do the job he’s applying for somehow make him less qualified than a candidate who hasn’t?  The implication of putting any emphasis on a being “self-reflective” is “yes.”  The assumption is that not being able to list any applicable flaws (we can’t imagine admitting that we, decades after our childhood, still eat Pop-Tarts, would satisfy an interviewer) means that you’re incapable of introspection.  This assumption is horridly flawed.

2) It Doesn’t Do What It’s Designed to Do
Another problem with the question is that it’s too predictable.  Any career counselor worth her salt is going to prepare a candidate for this question (the article’s mere existence is sort of proof of this point).  So, you’ll get plenty of people who, knowing that the question is coming, have prepared an answer that might not be truthful (eg, they might actually have no problems with public speaking) but that sounds good. As a result, you’re not going to get a question that filters out the “introspective” from the terribly pompous, you’re just installing a filter that favors people who have been taught how to game the system. Is this necessarily a bad thing?  Certainly not, insofar as you could argue that a person who “cares” enough to study these sorts of questions is more likely to be a better worker.  Even in this case, though, we’d argue that the question is given too much weight if it’s used as anything but a tiebreaker between two otherwise similar candidates; it’s foolish to hire a person who devoted his time to learning how to tell the right lie in job interviews at the expense of learning how to function well in the workplace.

3) It Gums Up Interviews
If you want someone to open up to you, you should try to put the person at ease.  People, by our nature, are a lot more inclined to be honest when they feel like they’re talking to somebody who’s trustworthy and likable.  What you absolutely don’t want to do is make a person feel confronted.  Asking a person to tell you their greatest weakness is an incredibly blunt and confrontational question.  No matter how “nice” you try to sound when you ask the question, you’re still asking a job candidate “please give us a reason why we shouldn’t hire you.”  It puts the candidate on the defensive for (probably) the rest of the interview.  There are dozens of studies that tell us that the information that you get out of people you torture is unreliable.  Knowing this, why turn your interview into an interrogation?

If you really want to learn about your candidate, ask questions that will make him comfortable.  Ask him about where he went to college and why he went there.  Ask him what he liked about it (and if there was anything that he didn’t like).  Ask him about other jobs that he had, ask him what he liked about his old jobs, ask him what drove him crazy about his old jobs.  Ask him, in short, questions that will tell you what you need to know about his work ethic and his personality without making him feel like you’re forcibly extracting that information out of him.  You’d be amazed what people will tell you about themselves if you let them open up and tell you about themselves.

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Being in a job interview is a lot like being a contestant on The Dating Game.  The person asking the questions has a short window of time to find something (anything) that distinguishes one contender from another.  As a result, it can feel like your every move is being scrutinized, and even a slight slip-up could ruin your chances.  There are tons of big things that any list of job-interview tips will tell you will ruin your chances (showing up late, dressing unprofessionally, keeping your cell-phone on, etc).  But, as the saying (and once-popular Bush song) goes, it's the little things that kill.  Today we're going to talk about one of those little things:

Asking for something to drink

We've heard interviewers complain about this more than once.  We've even heard interviewers complain about it even though they offered the candidate something to drink.  It might seem silly to you (especially if you're offered) but job interviews are all about risk management.  Even if you're thirsty–and even if they offer–inconveniencing your interviewers is a bad move*.  Maybe your interviewer won't be consciously upset, but there's still the chance that, subconsciously, she'll be biased against you for the rest of the interview.  On the other hand, no interviewer is going to be annoyed if you politely decline their offer of a drink.

*Of course, there are exceptions.  If there are water bottles right in the room that's another story.  And, obviously, if the worst-case scenario rears it's head and you're losing your voice and you need a drink of water to be able to talk, then you're probably hurting yourself more by not asking for water.  On the other hand, never ask for coffee.

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Last week we spelled out a handful of helpful lessons for aspiring freelance writers.  We've got a few more lessons in our pocket but, for the moment, we'd like to change it up and open things up for questions.  If you have any questions (preferably related to freelance writing) we'd love to answer them in an upcoming post.  Please leave questions in the comments or email them to ed@orangeslyce.com.  Thanks!

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If your dad’s anything like ours, we know what he really wants for father’s day: a video demonstrating a hilarious glitch in a game that was popular 13 years ago.  Enjoy!

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We woke up (far too early) this morning and were pleasantly surprised to find this new Huggies(R) commercial sitting in our inbox:

Our immediate instinct (we suspect this will be the case for a lot of you) was to show this video to everyone we know.  Why?

We suspect that one of the main reasons that people share videos like this is a desire to be perceived as "useful" to the people they show the video to.  It seems silly, but think about the times you've shared a video like this with other people: did you watch them watch it?  Did you get a little nervous/anxious while they watched?  If they laughed, did you feel personally relieved?  If they didn't, did you feel a little (just a little) disappointed, maybe even embarrassed?  We're not too proud to admit that the answer to all of these questions is, for us, usually "yes."  That level of personal investment is what drives people to share a video: by showing someone else a good video, you're showing them that you're an insider, that you have a good sense of humor (assuming that they laugh) and that you know where to find things that make the person laugh.  You are, in essence, proving your worth to your "tribe."

So what did this video do that made people–including us–want to share it?  The easy answer is that it was funny, but this is a bit of an oversimplification. After all, we see plenty of "funny" commercials that we don't bother sharing.  What was more important is how the video managed to be funny–by overstepping the perceived "boundaries" of its genre (in this case, diaper commercials) in a completely ridiculous manner.

Let's start with the obvious: the product idea is at once brilliant and absurd.  The things look ridiculous–it's essentially a pair of Daisy Dukes scaled down to baby proportions.  More importantly, the concept of putting that level of decoration onto something that's going to be filled with human waste and flushed down the toilet a few hours after it's put on is preposterous.The commercial doesn't shy away from that, though. 

The commercial just comes out and says that the jean-diapers will be  "[t]he coolest you'll ever look pooping your pants."  The ad knows you want to laugh at this preposterous idea, and so it helps you do that.  Everything–from the voiceover guy's accent to the overacting done by the people "reacting" to the baby–is designed to point out how absurd the whole concept of jean diapers is.  It makes you laugh, but it also makes you say "I've gotta show my friend what those crazy idiots are doing."  After all, if you show your friend, she'll know that you are the person she can count on to find weird, hilarious stuff.

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A sad truth about summer vacation is that, inevitably, you're going to find yourself sitting on a huge chunk of time with nothing to do.  Even if you're working or taking summer courses, you're inevitably going to have one of those stretches where you have no work and all of your friends are out of town.  The temptation at a time like these is often to watch tv, stalk people on Facebook, or look for videos of zoo animals acting like people.  We won't judge you if you go that route (there were a solid two weeks one summer where we got way too into the Steve Harvey show, so we're kind of living in a glass house) but we're here to help you if you want to fight that urge. 

With the NBA season over, the D-Backs waving a white flag and the USMNT not playing until Wednesday, now would be a good time to find something productive to do.  Here are two (relatively easy) things you can do that will make you more valuable to employers:

Get really good at using Microsoft Excel
One question you're going to see a lot when you apply for office jobs is "how would you rate your Excel skills?"  When that question comes up, wouldn't it be nice to be able to say "I'm very proficient" instead of "Well, I know how to make a bar graph."  If you've never heard of a pivot table, why not spend the weekend brushing up on your Excel skills?

A lot of what you need to know on Excel (basic functions, etc) you can learn just by playing around, so if you have little to no experience with it (although we're betting that most college students have at least a little background) start there.  Here's a nice beginner's guide to Excel 2007 if you're more comfortable reading first.

Next, you should learn how to use Pivot Tables.  Here's an excellent video (with a transcript if you prefer to read than watch) that hits the key points for: http://examples.oreilly.com/9780596527594/Excel/Chapter21/Pivot_Tables.html.  Not only will this skill help you get (and keep) jobs, it's also extremely helpful any time you have to work with data.  If you're doing any data-based thesis, this is practically an essential skill.

Want to be closer to an expert?  Why not learn how to write macros?  Not only will this impress employers, it will make you the hero of any group project that requires repetitive managing of spreadsheets.  Here's a great write-up that explains what macros are and how to use them in Excel: http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/advancedexcel/ss/080703macro2007.htm.

We hope we've given you plenty to do with your time.  If we haven't, please enjoy this video of a dancing bird:

!
 

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We've been talking about how to tackle freelance writing jobs that you get, but we haven't yet told you how to get freelance writing jobs.  That's why we're shifting our focus today, and helping you figure out how to get a freelance writing job.  We're taking it for granted that you've already created a profile on our site (if you haven't, that really will help matters) but doing that is only a starting point.  To actually get hired for writing jobs jobs, though, you're going to have to make yourself stand out.  We're going to help you out with that today by giving you 4 easy things that you can do to improve your chances

1) Have Blogging Experience
Businesses will pretty much always prefer a known commodity to an unknown, so it's key that you make yourself a known commodity by building up a portfolio.  An easy way to do this is have your own blog.  Preferably, you'll keep the thing updated frequently, but even just having a handful of posts that you can point potential clients is huge–it's the difference between telling people that you know how to write and showing people that you know how to write.

In addition to maintaining your own blog, be sure to familiarize yourself with different blogging platforms.  Know how to use WordPress, Posterous, and Tumblr, and make sure that your resume tells businesses about it.  This brings us to blogging's hyperactive cousin…

2) Have a Twitter Account
It's not really "writing" per se, but familiarity with twitter (and the multitudinous applications that go along with it) is always an asset in the eyes of a small business owner.  Showing businesses that you can use twitter (especially in conjunction with your blog) only makes you look more valuable.

There's another reason to be active on Twitter (and we stress active here: do NOT have an account with 1 post that says "hoping to learn about this twitter thing").  A lot of freelance jobs are found through networking–you're going to be more attractive to businesses if they see you involved in their "network."

3) Understand the Fundamentals of SEO
SEO (search-engine optimization) will be critical for a lot of your clients.  They want to find a freelance writer who can drive traffic to their site, and a central part of that is finding a freelance writer who understands SEO. How can you be that writer?

For starters, read this excellent article on Google SEO basics.  Get familiar with these basics, and practice them, and you can boast an understanding of the principles of SEO.  Keep one thing in mind, though: no matter what sort of freelance writing you're doing, you're writing for people (not algorithms).  Google's algorithm does reward your use of phrases, but the critical component is links.

Good, interesting, and frequent content will draw links (especially if you're working actively on social media platforms like twitter).  Bad writing won't. Don't ever make your writing clunky, awkward, and hard to read just so you can sneak in a key phrase a few more times.  It makes people a lot less inclined to read–and, more importantly, link–the article.  On top of that, people might be insulted by your transparent attempt to improve your search rank.  On top of that, we'd also like to add this: freelance writing tips for college students.  *Ahem* Where were we?
Oh, right, we're moving on to…

4) Learn basic HTML
Freelance writers aren't exactly coders, but knowing basic HTML is an essential skill for writers.  You won't always have the convenience of a button to hyplerlink for you or add bold text; your clients want to know that, in those instances, you know how to get your hands dirty and mess around with the text yourself.

NDNation–a Notre Dame message board–has a great rundown of all of the major HTML skills you'll need to know here.  Learn these skills well (and make sure that your resume reflects that knowledge).

With these four skills added to your resume, you should be well on your way to landing a few freelance writing gigs.  Best of luck!

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