Newbie Needs Direction

Hey Mary!

Welcome to the community! First off, from what you've described, you for sure have the experience to snag an e-learning job. It's not about # of years experience - but what you can do! I started my e-learning career in a corporate-type job, and I have to say that it was great experience to help me prep for eventual freelancing gigs.

I would suggest that you just go for it! Continue building your portfolio and apply for jobs. Don't hold yourself back with the thought that you don't have enough experience. If you can provide solid examples of your work, it will outshine any lack of experience you may have. By the way, as it relates to freelancing, I've NEVER been asked about my length of experience. It all comes down to demonstrating your skills.

Continue building your skills, get involved in the community here, post some examples and build your portfolio!

I hope that helps. If you have any other specific questions, let me know!

Tim

Thanks Tim!

It's great to hear such encouraging words.

I definitely want to get some professional experience before heading out into the freelance world. I guess to be more specific... I've noticed many job postings by corporations (i.e. Kaiser Permanente hiring an e-learning developer), but I've been more interested in possibly working for an agency. It seems like that might make more sense for developing a broader set of skills, but to be honest, I don't know much about that type of work.

Maybe I'm overthinking it a bit, but if you or anyone else has any thoughts on where is the best place to start out, please feel free to chime in!

Thanks again!

Hi Mary - and welcome.

The "best" place is the one that works for you

Agency work, developing your portfolio and your "spare time" portfolio is one way to go.

Some come through the corporate route, some (like me) come through corporate and then redundancy - and have to survive!

The best advice I can offer is develop a plan, ANY plan that works FOR you - then as Tim says, just do it. You can waste so much time waiting until you have a "complete" plan, and know all the rules.

There are no rules.

Believe in what you do, be able to explain what value you can add, and be prepared to learn fast and "tap the tiller" to change direction when you need to.

Good luck.

That is such great advice Burce mentions, and I couldn't agree more.

There is no one path, format or plan to get you where you want to be. In fact, I'd go as far to say that it's almost impossible to plan. I could have never predicted what the last five years has brought me, let alone the last nine months! But I agree that you should try to create some vision about what you want your end-goal to look like, and make decisions/take opportunities that move you in that direction.

It sounds like you already have your vision in place, you just need to make the leap.

I agree completely with Bruce and Tim. Goals and plans are fantastic guides and they can get you focused and pointed in the right direction - but the key is to follow your instincts, take action, and be ready to adjust course as you go. The odds are that life will serve up great things you could never have dreamed of (as Tim points out) and your job is to pay attention and be ready when opportunity knocks.

As to how those generalities translate to immediate action, I'd certainly suggest getting your online portfolio together since - regardless of which direction you go - people will need to see your work.

Best of luck to you, Mary!

I can't stress enough how important it is to have a portfolio of work handy. It doesn't have to be very complicated or a full blown course, companies/people just want to see what you can do. I've had a few offers for work on just my Street Fighter quiz alone and that was just an experiment I decided to do. I almost didn't include it in my portfolio.

Mary, why don't you think about what kind of work you (think you) are suited to and build from there. For example, consider: "do I think I'd be great at process type of e-learning courses?" or "I really relish the idea of doing branching scenarios and have a flair for that". Then you can think about: what kind of organizations do a lot of process work and how could I show my skill in that regard, and it doesn't matter if it's a full time gig or freelance. It would help you identify how to position yourself in the marketplace and/or in the hiring manager's mind. It would also give you some direction on building a portfolio of both design activities and portfolio of work.

It would get you focusing and feels less like "boiling the ocean".

Hope that helps,

Holly

Mary: Fellow freelancers may not agree, but if you want to eventually go freelance, I'd suggest working for a company for a few years. Then take the leap. There's a lot to learn, and it's better to learn it while getting a steady paycheck.

Of course, if money is no object, just build your portfolio and go freelance.

You might find the following resources helpful:

Freelance Heroes Thread (ton of info on what freelancers deal with)

The following are articles about freelancing on the Articulate Word of Mouth blog. Kind of a summary of the Freelance Heroes thread.

http://www.articulate.com/blog/5-tips-launch-career-e-learning-freelancer/

http://www.articulate.com/blog/top-tips-landing-freelance-e-learning-gigs/

http://www.articulate.com/blog/3-ways-protect-project-contract/

http://www.articulate.com/blog/daniel-brigham-4/

You'll find many other resources in the above series of articles. Best of luck and hope to see you around. --Daniel

I agree with Daniel. Work with a company and get a few solid years of experience.