Finding the right Chicago-based talent agency doesn’t have to be difficult though. If you know what to look for then you can certainly find an agency that will connect you with clients and help you build your career. Here are some questions to consider asking them:

What are some of the companies you have placed freelancers at?

Obviously you want to know who an agency has relationships with. If you prefer working with smaller companies and the agency only works with large corporations, you may not find them to be a good fit, or vice versa.

How long have you been in business?

A company that has been around for a while is likely one of the more well reputed Chicago talent agencies. They may help you get in the door with established clients quicker. On the other side, a new up-and-coming agency may attract local start-ups that are looking for less traditional talent who are looking to grow with them. Consider both sides when determining the worth of an agency’s age.

Do you offer any professional development?

Good recruiting agencies know that as much as they represent talent, their talent represent them. By providing access to learning tools, they make their freelancers more marketable and productive. Obviously, you want to work with an agency that understands and encourages this.

How do you handle problems your freelancers have with clients?

Not all freelance workers are going to get along with their clients. You need to find out if the agency will intercede on your behalf or if they take a hands-off approach when it comes to dealing with disputes. The answer may help you decide what kind of agency you want to work with, and also make you aware of how you handle conflicts yourself.

HTML
While most websites are being built on robust web application platforms, HTML is still the foundation of the web. Knowing this basic coding language will not only help you fix problems that WYSIWYG editors can’t, but it will give you a better holistic understanding of how websites function.

CSS
HTML is the language that determines how the browser displays a web page, CSS defines its appearance, style and layout. CSS is the language used by all of the major web application frameworks as well as static websites and other frameworks like Ruby on Rails.

Programming Languages
Web coders often have a favorite language they use to program with, but they usually know more than one. Being competent in Ajax (JavaScript), PHP, ASP, Ruby and/or Java can open up many doors for web designers.

Databases
MySQL and PostgreSQL are two of the most commonly used databases management systems. Understanding databases gives designers the ability to better work with the back end of dynamic websites where content, images and other media is stored and retrieved.

Eye for Design
Of course one of the most crucial web designer qualifications to have is a strong sense of design. Without the ability to understand what looks friendly and appealing to the end user, a career in design may be short lived.

Look for experience that meets your requirements
One of the biggest mistakes made is to immediately jump at freelance designers with a great deal of experience because we feel safer with them. Instead of looking at the number of years they have been working or the number of projects, look at the type of work they have done. Does it apply to your project and needs?

Clearly describe your needs
Telling someone you want a logo isn’t going to be enough. Explain to potential designers exactly what you want and listen to possible feedback. Another thing that causes a rift between freelance designers and their clients is when the client continuously changes their mind. That is why most contracts only allow for two to three versions before it costs extra. You can really save a great deal of money, get better results and keep your designer happy if you are clear about what you want and stick to it throughout the course of the project.

Be willing to pay for results
One complaint among many freelancers is that clients often balk at their rates. The truth is, if you want to hire a professional you are going to have to pay for their quality and experience. If you want a job done as cheaply and quickly as possible then be prepared to be disappointed with the end result.

Of course no one expects the client to be the only one working at forming a healthy professional relationship, but when they do put forth that effort they are often rewarded with not only an outstanding product but a partner they can count on for future projects.

Since your resume is one of the first things a hiring manager or client will see, take some time to give your CV a bit of a makeover so that you can feel confident it stands out among the rest.

Update your skills
If your resume notes Image Ready, Front Page or Write! as software that you are familiar with or Cold Fusion as part of your web site development skills, you should consider updating your skill set. People like to see that you understand legacy tools, but they also want to know you have evolved with the times and can master current programs.

Make sure to reflect your latest work
If you haven’t touched up your resume for some time then you may need to revisit it to update any projects you have worked on recently. While you’re at it, make sure that when describing the project you describe actionable outcomes that showcase your strengths.

Give your resume a youthful look
Experience is definitely a good thing to show in a resume, but you don’t need to go all the way back to the paper route you had as a kid. Find a cutoff point for your experience and keep it relevant to the job or assignment at hand. If you feel the need to list older jobs, add an Additional Experience section to your resume. Many people will not read anything beyond a third page.

When you have revamped your resume to make it reflect your current abilities, take the time to read over it for any grammatical errors or formatting issues. This is your first shot to prove your professionalism, so do it right!

Whether you are looking to hire someone on a freelance salary or on a per-project basis, you want to make sure you have the right designer for the job. While there are many questions that you can ask during the hiring process – unless you already know what kind of answers you want to hear – you may be going into this stage somewhat blindly.

When interviewing freelancers, be on the lookout for the following five qualities to help ensure you get the best candidate for the job or project.

#1 Talent
The best way to weed out applicants that certainly won’t work out is to gauge their talent. This may seem obvious, but it can be easy to be swayed by someone’s charm or professional connections. Looking over their work, you need to ask yourself, Can this freelance designer get the job done the way I want? If the answer is no, send a polite regret notice and continue searching.

#2 Experience
The second thing to look for is experience. Not just general experience, but experience in the project for which you are hiring. Also, it is important that they have experience in the technologies you will be working with so there are no compatibility issues. It’s also worth mentioning that the number of years is not always indicative of ability, so when interviewing a candidate, ask questions pertaining to depth of experience.

#3 Engagement
Do you get the feeling that you are just another job for the freelancer? If so, then move on to the next name on your list because he or she might not put the effort in their work you deserve. Look for someone who cares about your project and takes a general interest in what you are trying to accomplish.

#4 Flexibility
Your freelance designer should do what it takes to work with you and your schedule, within reason. Make sure that the freelancers you hire are flexible when it comes to deadlines, as well, meaning they respect them but also don’t moan if an assignment is pushed back.

#5 Dependability
Lastly, you want to hire a freelance designer that you know is dependable. He or she should meet deadlines, deliver work as promised and respond to communications in a timely manner. If this last quality is uncertain, then you may be left with a product you are disappointed with and a bad taste in your mouth.

Even though web design opportunities may not be as easy to find as they once were, there are still many avenues to connect with potential clients.

Networking
Most freelance work is found through word of mouth. A friend of a colleague needs a website for their new business or your Aunt Sally wants to start a customized blog for her book club. Talking to people and letting them know you are looking for clients can have a huge impact on your business. Add this to referrals you have from existing clients and you may quickly find yourself with more work than you can handle.

Clean-up work
Another way to find clients is to look for people who need their website redesigned. Websites that are built on old frameworks or have outdated design and capabilities are perfect places to start. Many freelancers also find work from people who didn’t get the quality they expected from a less expensive “designer” they hired.

Freelance talent agencies
One of the best ways to find work is through freelance recruitment firms. They not only connect you with quality clients, but they can be a huge help with billing, communicating and interceding if there are any problems or disputes. Working with reputable agencies also allows the company you are working with know that you too can be trusted to perform the job at hand.

Competitive Awareness
Top information architects are aware of what’s going on in the industry by reading blogs, networking with other professionals and completing training to keep skills up to date. The benefits of hiring those with this characteristic is that you can keep your organization on the cutting edge of technology, which can give you an advantage over your competitors.

Empathy for Users
All too often the information technology staff is not viewed as the most personable team in an organization. It is one thing to understand technology but another to understand how to relate to people. Good information architects try to connect with users to make their work lives more productive and less frustrating. Hiring people that connect with users rather than alienate them can boost productivity across a company.

The Ability to Listen
Since information architect has such a widespread effect on the inner workings of a company, it is important that the person responsible is able to listen to what other departments and customers have to say. Being able to take constructive input from others and apply it to their work is paramount to getting the job done successfully.

These days, animators can find work creating  storyboards, designing backgrounds, doing character design or working out the timing of movements for films, television shows, video games and even corporate projects. To do this, the artist needs to be comfortable with new technologies like Fireworks, Illustrator, Flash, Maya and Lightwave. But understanding computer graphics programs is only part of the job. To be successful, an animator also has to be able to work well with clients, meet deadlines and be a team player, as no production comes to completion on the shoulders of just one person.

The hours that freelance animators work can be grueling at times. When production falls behind or changes are required, the artists need to compensate to bring things back on track. The average salary for animation jobs also varies as much as $40,000 to over $75,000 per year depending on experience levels, education, training, location and of course who you work for.

Job prospects for this kind of work are promising, and more and more companies are looking to hire multimedia artists. With impressive software knowledge, natural talent and the help of a reputable talent agency to help you find work, freelance animator jobs are well within your reach.

The web is an ever-evolving world, and no one understands this better than web designers. Those who have been in the industry since the beginning have seen web pages move from static text-only content to multi-media rich sites to robust web applications.

For freelance developers and designers that have managed to remain relevant in this industry for a long time, much of their success can be attributed to the fact that they are willing to change and learn new skills. Younger web coders need to follow this example if they too want continued employment throughout their career.

Three skills that a designer at any level or stage in their career should seriously consider learning are user experience design, HTML5 and CSS3.

User experience design is nothing new. Web pioneers like Jakob Nielsen have long been preaching the need for designers and developers to create websites that consider human factors, not just technologies. In addition to making a website more friendly to visitors, good UX design also reduces technical problems, avoids unnecessary design elements and expedites development because less time and resources are spent on things that don’t matter to business (and website) goals. Despite the benefits of UX design practices, many designers and developers ignore them.

HTML5 is the latest version of HTML standard, and while it is still in its early stages of adoption there will be a time in the near future when designers will have to move to it entirely. There are some radical changes between HTML4 and HTML5 that effect the way websites are built, so freelance web designers need to be prepared.

CSS3 release has been broken down into modules, unlike its predecessors, where the entire specification was released at once. Web designers and developers can begin to familiarize themselves with the added capabilities and features in modules that are considered stable and expand their skill set as newer ones are released.

The internet is filled with self proclaimed social media gurus. However, social marketing jobs require a person to do much more than build hundreds of followers on a social network. Unfortunately, there are myths that surround this field making people believe that social media marketing is easier and less expensive than traditional forms of marketing.

True social media specialists know that social marketing is not about simply growing fans and followers. Success in this new type of marketing comes from the ability to engage communities surrounding a business or product and getting the community to do much of the marketing for you through crowdsourcing. With this technique you not only get your community to spread the word, but you can harness the trust their family and friends have in their opinions and transfer some of that to your brand.

Social marketing jobs can be tough when it comes to managing communities, as well. Not everyone on the web is going to be your biggest fan, and this platform gives them the opportunity to share their thoughts about your organization, even if they’re negative. True social media experts will take this “bad press” and respond to it in such a way that it benefits their company and frames them in a positive light.

Another reality of social media as a marketing tool that many don’t understand is that it is not a way to cut back on traditional marketing expenses. That misconception comes from the belief that through crowdsourcing, the goals of a marketing campaign can be met without having to pay a team of marketing professionals, writers, designers or data analysts.

The truth is social marketing jobs can be very rewarding, exciting and fast paced. However, they do require a great deal of flexibility and dedication to be successful.