Thread: freelancer experience

1. Not necessarily
2. Yes, as long as you're diligent in your work. If you're allowed, keep some "samples" from your freelance work and put those into your portfolio (or reference what you've done on your resume).

It really depends on where you're applying. There are a lot of factors which go into the employer's decision to hire or not to hire someone and these aren't all from the minimum requirements sheet, and many times aren't even quantifiable.

Again, depending on the employer they may or may not ask you for proof of your work on a particular project (as well as how much or what kind). You should at least be able to describe in some details what it was you did for some projects without violating any agreements you made during your freelance work.

The only thing else I can think of they'd ask about your freelance work other than what you've done is contact info of those you did work for as references of what kind of a worker/person you are. While it would be nice to have, it's not something vital (I'd rather keep contact info of former co-workers at your last IT job and/or contact info of any professors/teachers/friends who'd be willing to be references for you).

As I said, a description of what you worked on is generally all you'll need. However, you'll need to be careful not to violate any prior agreements you've made while working as a Freelancer (such as non-disclosure agreements). If they want anything more than this, they will ask for it specifically. For example, say I worked on a project which developed games for Android. I should be able to discuss with a potential employer what it was I did (program the GUI, do the artwork, program game logic, etc.). However, I shouldn't give them any information that would violate any prior agreements I've made (such as distributing the source code).

I really doubt they'd even ask you how you were payed. They might ask you how much you were paid and how much time you spent, though.

No and no. However the company I was hired into was interested in the projects I've worked on not necessarily for the projects themselves because they were unrelated to their projects, but because I was able to demonstrate I was able to apply the knowledge I knew about CS/programming into real world applications and make stuff that works.

I would imagine freelancing has a similar (if not same) effect as you get exposed to a wide variety of projects which will test what it is you know, how good you are at applying your knowledge, and how good you are at learning new stuff (a lot of my projects required me to learn about new methods and algorithms to solve problems, as well as come up with some innovative solutions of my own).

I don't know of many people who've done freelancing work specifically, but I do know quite a few people who've done what I've done and worked on their own personal side projects.