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Archive for the ‘Career Resources’ Category
5 Programming Languages to Help Freelance Coders Find Work
2/7/2012 3:26 PM By ArtisanIn case you hadn’t noticed, applications for mobile devices are all the rage, and for good reason. In a sense, apps are extensions of powerful programs and services that have been historically limited to use on desktop computers and laptops. With the explosion of high-tech mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, many of those programs can now be taken with us wherever there’s a 3G or Wi-Fi connection — and sometimes, even that’s not necessary. The end result? Freelance coders are finding limitless opportunities to earn a living doing what they do best – creating new and exciting mobile apps that replicate and even enhance the “home computer” experience.
Web coders are an astute group, and they know that regardless of how much studying they’ve done in the past, their education is one that’s never complete. To that end, it’s critical for PHP developers and freelance coders alike to stretch the boundaries of their knowledge by absorbing as many programming languages as possible. Doing so, they can remain viable in what’s becoming an incredibly competitive field. Below are five useful programming languages that can help freelance coders achieve that end.
- Lua: Popular for use in the development of video games because of its ease of use and rapid-fire execution, Lua’s got versatility because it’s a multiparadigm language. Lua has been used by Cisco Systems and Damn Small Linux (DSL).
- R: Also a multi-paradigm language, R is best used for the creation of applications that are for use with statistical computing and graphics.
- Clojure: Derived from Lisp, Clojure is gaining popularity among freelance coders who develop applications Android devices.
- Erlang: A general-purpose, concurrent programming language that supports “hot swapping” which is the act of replacing computer components or updating codes without having to shut down the system. As a result, it’s mostly in use with applications that are operating constantly.
- Go: Developed by Google and used in the creation of Google Wave, which was the predecessor to Google Plus, Go is what’s known as a compiled, “garbage-collected” programming language.
If you’re interested in joining the ranks of freelance coders who make their living creating useful and sometimes groundbreaking applications, it’s not enough to educate yourself on all of the popular programming languages. New languages are being developed all the time, and what’s hot now may be passe tomorrow. Make it a point to keep abreast of current and developing trends by subscribing to industry blogs and taking the initiative to educate yourself whenever you see the opportunity to do so. This extra mile will be the difference between earning a living as a freelance web coder and finding extraordinary success.
Vince F is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
The Surprisingly Lucrative Career of a Freelancer
2/2/2012 3:39 PM By Artisan
When most people tell their friends that they are freelancers, the response is sometimes a thinly disguised concern that you aren’t making enough to support yourself. Then they often follow up with something about how great it is that you’re following your dreams and wish they had the freedom that you do. What they don’t know (and we should probably keep this just between us) is that “creative staffing” freelancers can make a very good living and that their gigs can be just as demanding as professionals with fulltime jobs.
“Creative staffing” is a pretty broad term that basically applies to anybody who gets paid to create something, from writing to web design to information architecture to anything in between. How much they get paid to create something varies based on their experience, level of skills, contacts and, most of all, what their client is willing to pay.
As you would imagine, with so many variables you can have some creative freelancers who are doing extremely well for themselves and others living paycheck to paycheck. In order to get the highest pay possible (and more consistent work), it would be advisable to get in touch with a freelance job agencies, as they can expose you to a wider group of clients.
In terms of an average salary for creative staffing, it is hard to calculate because of the range of jobs and level of experience involved, but there are some accepted ranges. For instance, according to the New Jersey Creatives Network, a person who writes advertising copy could make between $33 and $120 per hour. Clearly, the high end of that scale is nothing to sneeze at. The average, however, is in the $50 to $60 per hour range – a pretty well paying gig by anyone’s definition.
Roger C is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
Hiring Solutions: Freelance Graphic Designers for Rapid-Fire Marketing Projects
1/30/2012 1:50 PM By Vince Font
Do you work for a marketing company that needs to hire Graphic Designers for projects with an incredibly rapid turnaround time? The mere thought has been known to send hardened career marketing experts into tailspins of panic, especially considering the time and effort needed to launch a search to find qualified job candidates. If this story is starting to sound all too familiar, take a deep breath and relax. It can be done.
First, consider all of your options. Finding a freelance Graphic Designer or Production Artist might just be a far better solution than making a permanent hire. But will bringing in a freelancer—or freelancers, if your project requires nothing short of a small army—into the mix be cost effective? In a word, yes. Think about the following things you won’t have to worry about if you opt to hire Graphic Designers from the freelance market.
- No legal requirement to provide healthcare benefits. And fortunately for you, Artisan offers that option for its talent.
- Far less overhead costs, especially if the Graphic Designer in question can work remotely.
- Less need to provide training unless it is project or software specific. Most professional freelance Graphic Designers for hire are highly experienced, having worked in a variety of environments.
And if you work with a talent staffer like Artisan, where we’ve already taken care of everything from background checks to prior work history, you’ll have even less on your plate. Get a jumpstart on your marketing project by contacting us today.
Most Popular APIs Used By Freelance Coders
1/27/2012 4:19 PM By ArtisanApplication programming interfaces (APIs) are the tools that enable web coders to develop applications that function with existing services and websites. A perfect example is when a developer uses YouTube’s open API to embed videos onto the main page of a client’s website or when a website uses the Google Maps API to enable brick-and-mortar establishments to map their location so customers can easily find them.
Even more websites are turning to social media platform APIs like Facebook and Twitter as a way of integrating their websites with their social media accounts. This is something that YouTube, Google, Twitter and others encourage, as it is mutually beneficial by creating an interactive, integrated user experience while promoting further use of the API provider’s services.
The following is a list of some of the most popular APIs that are commonly used by freelance coders and website designers for integration with client websites. It’s by no means a comprehensive list of all of the APIs that you can find; therefore, it should only be used as a starting point for your continuing education as a web designer:
If you’re a freelance coder eager to get your name listed in a prominent position on a heavily trafficked web designers directory, learning to be fluent in some or all of the above listed APIs can help you accomplish that. Having a dozen or more websites to your credit that utilize these APIs to drive traffic can also infuse your portfolio with the kind of pizzazz and diversity that potential employers looking to hire freelance coders will sit up and take notice of.
Yet another effective way of increasing your profile in the ever-competitive world of freelance developers and web coders is by allying yourself with a creative talent agency like Artisan, where you’ll be listed alongside other in-demand professionals. To get started, sign up with Artisan today.
Vince F is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
Popular Software for Freelance Animators
1/26/2012 3:13 PM By Vince FontThe pursuit of 3D animation careers is no longer just a pipe dream. If you’ve ever harbored a fantasy of joining the ranks of freelance animators who make their living doing something few people like yourself ever dreamed would be a practical reality, now’s the time to strike. If you need a reminder of how lucrative animation employment can be, look no further than the slew of animated feature films, video games and computer simulations that are on the market today.
There are many corporations and studios out there that are looking for talented freelance animators, but the reality is that even the greatest talent in the world will only take you so far if you don’t have any experience or know-how with respect to the software programs that are regularly used. To help get you started, here’s a list of some of the most popular software for freelance animators for both 2-D and 3-D rendering.
2-D Rendering Software
- DigiCel Flipbook – This is a popular program among professional animators that enables you to illustrate images directly onto your computer using a mouse or stylus. You can also draw your illustrations directly to paper and then scan them into the program.
- Adobe Illustrator – One of the most popular names in visual software, Adobe has a great reputation for quality that’s made even stronger through Illustrator’s ability to help freelance animators create stunning images utilizing a number of effective drawing tools.
- Toon Boom Studio – One of the highest quality 2-D animation programs for aspiring artists hoping to find animation employment, Toon Boom Studio lets you draw digitally or scan paper-drawn creations. You can even import existing art or capture live images.
3-D Rendering Software
- Poser – In use by a variety of industries including TV, film and video game creation, Poser is an affordable software program that can be used by beginners and experts.
- Autodesk Maya 3-D – Operable on Windows, Mac or Linux, Maya is capable of recreating three-dimensional humans or animals to precise details. It’s well known for its fluidity of motion and can be used for TV, movies, video games and architectural renderings.
- Houdini – A far more complex and high-end software program when compared to many others on the market, Houdini lives up to its name by delivering a superlative – if not difficult to master – end product that’s been seen on a variety of TV ad campaigns.
- Cinema 4-D – Having a working knowledge of modeling and rendering is critical to using this highly functioning software, which has been used in such Hollywood productions as “Beowulf,” “Spider Man 3” and “Inception.”
Those seeking animation careers can make significant headway into developing an impressive portfolio by mastering the use of some of the above listed animation programs.
Vince F is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
Three Myths About Interactive Design and Web Development
1/19/2012 2:52 PM By Vince Font
Being a full-time Interactive Designer doesn’t mean you know all there is to know about building the perfect website. Believe it or not, there are tons of professional ecommerce Web Developers out there operating on totally false principles, completely obliviously. The real trouble with this is that buying into certain myths can turn a potentially fabulous designer into a mediocre one. Here are three common myths that Web Developers all too often take as gospel.
Too much white space makes a website look empty.
Wrong. While we’ll admit that too much white space can be a bad thing, it all depends on what your definition of too much is. Some people’s idea of the ideal website design is one that doesn’t waste a single solitary pixel. But as you might imagine, taking this approach can result in an incredibly unattractive and cluttered site. When used properly, white space can make a web page more digestable and leave a user with a far more positive impression of a brand or product.
Quality content isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Occasionally, you’ll hear someone ranting about how unimportant online content is by pointing to a popular website with zero content as a perfect example. The only thing is, situations like these are total anomalies and ecommerce Web Developers have to understand this. Effective interactive design balances quality content with quality layout and visuals. If one or the other falls out of balance, the whole site’s integrity is shot. Well-developed content may not be the only determining factor that gets someone to come to your website, but it can play a huge role in keeping them there long enough to make a purchase and often ensures they’ll come back again.
Copying a proven model will work every time.
This isn’t really a dangerous myth as much as it is a time-wasting one. Far too many people believe that they can take shortcuts to website preeminence by blindly following the example put forth by far more visible websites. The only problem is, that’s breaking one of the very basic tenets of organic interactive design. The most successful websites got to be that way as a result of trial and error, and years of making tweaks that not only took user feedback into account but that also anticipated the wants and needs of future users. Copying someone else’s model is like copying someone else’s Bingo sheet pattern. It just doesn’t work.
If you’re having trouble finding work as a full-time Interactive Designer, take heart. Even though companies hiring Interactive Designers and ecommerce Web Developers may seem few and far between, there are still ways to make money on the full-time or freelance market. Artisan is a creative staffing company that has established clients who are regularly seeking developers and designers for full-time and lucrative freelance projects.
The Mobile App Quandary – iPhone or Android?
1/18/2012 3:09 PM By Vince Font
One of the biggest myths about the development of smartphone apps is that there’s more money to be made on the Apple market than on the Android market. If you’re an aspiring smartphone App Developer, this sort of thing can muddle your decision on whether to focus your efforts on becoming an iPhone App Developer or an Android App Developer. Before you make that choice, it’s important to take a few things into consideration.
1. Android has quite a bit of catching up to do. No question about it, ever since the release of the first iPhone, the rest of the tech world has been busy playing catch-up with Apple. The trouble is, it’s tough to catch up with a trailblazer and Androids are still engaged in a high-speed pursuit. What’s encouraging, though, is that the Android market has something that Apple lacks: diversity. There are far more Android handsets available than there are iPhones, and at far more affordable prices to boot. What this means is that the demand for quality apps is much higher on the Android market, which could impact your earnings significantly.
2. First movers don’t always win the race. In other words, don’t declare iPhone the winning platform yet. For a perfect example of how this can work out, just look at the space race between the ex-Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviets were the first to launch satellites, monkeys and eventually men into space— but with a lot of ingenuity and even more cash backing, the US emerged victorious in that regard. If you want a more earthbound example, take a look at Google and Facebook. Neither were the first to move into their respective fields, but having seen the diminishment of Yahoo and MySpace, there’s proof that being first is no guarantee of longevity. If you’re a smartphone App Developer considering focusing your efforts solely on the Apple market, you’d do well to remember this.
3. There’s always a dark horse. In the future, the competition will expand far beyond the iPhone and Android markets. So apart from hopping into a time machine and traveling a few years into the future to see what newfangled platforms and operating systems are headed our way, what’s a smartphone App Developer to do? Keep your eyes and ears open, because if there’s one thing in this world that you can count on every time, it’s change.
If you’re a Mobile App Developer, the best thing you can do is pursue as many opportunities as you can while building your resume and gaining valuable experience. You can accomplish this handily by getting registered with Artisan, a staffing agency that focuses on matching up talented freelancers with companies hiring for freelance projects. To crack open a new chapter on your earnings potential, visit our job board today.
How to Answer the Most Frequently Asked Job Interview Question
1/16/2012 3:13 PM By Vince FontEveryone’s always looking for new and innovative job interview techniques. But the fact is, job interviews haven’t really changed much; they have no need to. Therefore you’d think it wouldn’t be that tough to learn how to ace them, but still we all struggle sometimes. For example, one of the most frequently asked job interview questions—“Tell us about yourself”—is one that many people find the most difficult to answer.
Why? Because very few people are comfortable divulging personal details to strangers. If this sounds like you, then it’s very possible you’re going about answering that question in the entirely wrong way. Your potential bosses don’t want to know how you like to spend your Saturday nights. What they’re asking for is a fleshed out picture of the “professional you.”
Here are a few tips to help you answer the most common of all job interview questions.
• Come up with a list of talking points that speak to your work life and leave out personal details.
• Include statements and circumstances that exemplify your passion for what you do.
• Discuss what drove you to pursue your career, and what’s driven you to apply for the job you’re applying for.
• Work in a statement about your talents and abilities without sounding cocky, but don’t shy away from letting a potential employer know that you think you’re worth hiring.
It’s also important that you not go on too long with your answer. One of the most effective job interview techniques is to give them what they want without overstaying your welcome, but also without being monosyllabic or too short. Aim for an answer that takes you a full minute to deliver and you’ll nail it.
Weeding Out Web Designer Pros From the Flakes
1/9/2012 1:15 PM By Vince Font
The trouble many companies face when hiring Web Designers has little to do with finding people of skill and more to do with finding individuals who can produce high quality work on time. The reason? It’s easy for someone to get an education as a Web Designer. Work ethic, on the other hand, can’t always be learned and is seemingly in short quantity these days. If you’re looking to hire a Web Designer but want to avoid finding certain things out the hard way, we’ve got a few tips to help you out.
• Approach a creative talent agency in your search. You can still hire a Web Designer by listing the position on your company website or job boards, but top staffing agencies pre-screen all candidates and even perform pre-qualification interviews to be able to present you with a list of ideal job candidates.
• Know what you’re looking for. You don’t have to be an expert in web design to hire a Web Designer, but you should know enough to be able to discuss what you expect of them. It’s not enough to know what you don’t want, and it’s certainly unfair to expect someone to read your mind.
• Follow up on referrals. This is particularly important if you’re not using a creative talent agency or other staffing firm to find qualified people, since they’ll usually take care of all of the verification for you. You don’t want to find out that the individual you’ve hired for a critical project is not at all who you thought, so do your homework before signing a contract.
If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, it’s strongly recommended that you work with a staffing agency like Artisan who will be able to work with you to determine the quality of Web Designer you need and can provide a qualified match faster than it’ll take you to say “We should have come here sooner.”
The Top 3 Realities of Being a Freelance Marketing Consultant
1/6/2012 3:18 PM By Vince FontIf you’re considering leaving your day job to pursue a career as a freelance marketing consultant, it’s critical that you look before you leap. Most importantly, you should take a long hard look at some of the realities that freelance marketing professionals face on a daily basis.
• Reality #1: There’s no guarantee that you’ll get to work from home in your jammies. While this might sound like the dream environment for many, even if you’re a wildly successful freelance marketing consultant you may never spend any work time in slippers and sweats. Lots of companies that hire marketing professionals require an in-person presence, in which case you’d better not get rid of your business wardrobe prematurely.
• Reality #2: There’s no such thing as long-term job security. Although you can improve your chances of never running out of work by hooking up with a staffing agency like Artisan, there are no assurances that the job market for freelance Marketing Consultants won’t dry up. Then again, there are no assurances these days in any job market at all… so why not explore your opportunities in the freelance field?
• Reality #3: You may have to move around a lot. At very least, you should be prepared to do a lot of traveling. Part of being a successful marketing professional will require that you take project assignments in various locations throughout the country. If you’re not comfortable moving around or traveling, freelance work in this role might not be for you. At Artisan, we not only offer to connect you with plenty of hiring companies—we also offer health benefits and time off. To find out more, contact us today.
