Honestly, I've never really thought about it too much. From the previous conversation, I do agree that the term "consultant" may carry a larger sense of professionalism/credibility in the eyes on a client. You could make the same argument for firms, agencies or small businesses.
At the end of the day, I'll go with whatever the client prefers to call me. If they get too hung-up on whether to call me a freelancer or consultant, they may not be a client I'd like working with anyhow.
I never use the term freelancer for the same reason as Matthew. One of my clients calls me the programmer which kind of bugs me and a lot of them call me the vendor. At the end of the day, they can call me almost anything they want as long as they pay their bills.
Ha :) True, Nancy! And good job culling the comment, David. It did seem to merit its own path.
My clients refer to me as "Jackie", "the designer" or "the vendor" depending on the conversation.
I briefly referred to myself as a "freelancer" on LinkedIn and started getting loads of offers for temp positions and sub work - no direct clients and no work I'd want to take. I deleted that title pretty quickly!
I refer to myself as an "independent instructional designer" now, but don't worry about a title much. I used to do lots of software systems consulting and it's just personal preference that I don't use "consultant" anymore. I'm much happier reminding myself that I'm a designer. :)
Exactly. I don't normally describe myself as a "vendor", but it's a term that quickly conveys that I expect to be treated as (and they need to set me up as) a company in their system - not an hourly temp or something, which seems to be what "freelancer" evokes.
I really haven't given too much weight to either title; I think I prefer Consultant because, as folks have said it seems more professional, and Freelancer reminds me of my days picking up odd gigs (and being compensated extremely unfairly in most cases) from freelancer.com. I will say that I get "Contractor" a lot more than any other title. I was just on a call with a prospective client who kept referring to me as a contractor - I almost wanted to tell her that I only do doors and windows.
There isn't really a title I feel disrespects me and my profession, but I certainly prefer Consultant or even Independent Instructional Designer over any of the titles.
"Limited Term Employee" or "LTE" is another one I've heard before. I think this term is more common with government organizations (at least here in the US).
I worked at one place that went through a big re-org. We had organizational consultants and productivity consultants running around and interviewing people. Among the staff consultants were seen as seagulls; they fly in, make a big noise, poop on everything, and then flock off.
I worked for an organization that had an affinity for coming up with arbitrary titles, which was awesome if you were the one giving yourself an arbitrary title...but then there were layoffs. By law, the employer would need to hire you back before advertising for your position, but no one ever hired back the arbitrary titles because those 'positions' no longer existed (they did, just under a different title), so they were kind of a kiss of death :P
We have this discussion in my circle, too, with "labels" ranging from voice actor to voice artist ... voiceover to voice talent! Voice actor is most accurate, but voiceover is most apt, to me. I do voiceover, I am the voiceover, and for me the word 'voiceover' flows best when asked.
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Honestly, I've never really thought about it too much. From the previous conversation, I do agree that the term "consultant" may carry a larger sense of professionalism/credibility in the eyes on a client. You could make the same argument for firms, agencies or small businesses.
At the end of the day, I'll go with whatever the client prefers to call me. If they get too hung-up on whether to call me a freelancer or consultant, they may not be a client I'd like working with anyhow.
Too funny!
I never use the term freelancer for the same reason as Matthew. One of my clients calls me the programmer which kind of bugs me and a lot of them call me the vendor. At the end of the day, they can call me almost anything they want as long as they pay their bills.
Ha :) True, Nancy! And good job culling the comment, David. It did seem to merit its own path.
My clients refer to me as "Jackie", "the designer" or "the vendor" depending on the conversation.
I briefly referred to myself as a "freelancer" on LinkedIn and started getting loads of offers for temp positions and sub work - no direct clients and no work I'd want to take. I deleted that title pretty quickly!
I refer to myself as an "independent instructional designer" now, but don't worry about a title much. I used to do lots of software systems consulting and it's just personal preference that I don't use "consultant" anymore. I'm much happier reminding myself that I'm a designer. :)
I am a freelance instructional designer.
Freelance describes my employment status, instructional designer describes my job, but frankly, it has never really come up as an issue.
I've tasted chocolate beer and I'd rather drink the water from my neighbor's garden pond... yech..
OH I forgot about "vendor." It's less personal but could imply a larger entity.
I like Mike Enders title on LinkedIn: The e-Learning Guy... just says it all ;)
Exactly. I don't normally describe myself as a "vendor", but it's a term that quickly conveys that I expect to be treated as (and they need to set me up as) a company in their system - not an hourly temp or something, which seems to be what "freelancer" evokes.
Good point, Jeff. I list myself as "E-Learning Designer", which seems to work pretty well too.
I really haven't given too much weight to either title; I think I prefer Consultant because, as folks have said it seems more professional, and Freelancer reminds me of my days picking up odd gigs (and being compensated extremely unfairly in most cases) from freelancer.com. I will say that I get "Contractor" a lot more than any other title. I was just on a call with a prospective client who kept referring to me as a contractor - I almost wanted to tell her that I only do doors and windows.
There isn't really a title I feel disrespects me and my profession, but I certainly prefer Consultant or even Independent Instructional Designer over any of the titles.
"Limited Term Employee" or "LTE" is another one I've heard before. I think this term is more common with government organizations (at least here in the US).
I worked at one place that went through a big re-org. We had organizational consultants and productivity consultants running around and interviewing people. Among the staff consultants were seen as seagulls; they fly in, make a big noise, poop on everything, and then flock off.
Thanks Cary - I needed that laugh :P
I worked for an organization that had an affinity for coming up with arbitrary titles, which was awesome if you were the one giving yourself an arbitrary title...but then there were layoffs. By law, the employer would need to hire you back before advertising for your position, but no one ever hired back the arbitrary titles because those 'positions' no longer existed (they did, just under a different title), so they were kind of a kiss of death :P
Funny. I, too, worked for a big company that loved to use that term:-)
We have this discussion in my circle, too, with "labels" ranging from voice actor to voice artist ... voiceover to voice talent! Voice actor is most accurate, but voiceover is most apt, to me. I do voiceover, I am the voiceover, and for me the word 'voiceover' flows best when asked.
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