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Freelancing May Be The Best Way To Do Data Science in 2021

Why I've decided to go freelance

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Whilst the economic landscape has been in transition due to the shocks of Covid-19, the unemployment rate in the UK has risen to 4.5% which is the highest it’s been in 3 years, and it is slowly but surely biting into the Data Science market too – Edouard Harris wrote a very interesting piece about this a few months ago titled "What happened to the Data Science Market in the past month".

As companies budgets tighten, it is highly important they find the most cost-effective and time-efficient methods to fill needs hence why I freelancing is on the rise and I believe you may be better off freelancing (for now at least), especially as someone trying to break into the field rather than applying for hundreds of jobs to no prevail.

Let’s cover some of the reasons I believe this:

Real-world Experience

Figure 1: Man in Suit Image by Hunters Race on Unsplash; Thumbs up Graduation picture by robtowne0 on Pixaby; (Images put together by Author)
Figure 1: Man in Suit Image by Hunters Race on Unsplash; Thumbs up Graduation picture by robtowne0 on Pixaby; (Images put together by Author)

Note: You’d need some degree of education to even get a Data Science job.

Considering we have two aspiring candidates that have similar education but one decides to work on projects and makes them open-source, whereas the other continues to seek out educational resources to learn. Who’s efforts would catch your attention first?

Hopefully you said the person working on projects. If so, great! Now, why freelance? You’re asking all the right questions today… As an aspirant, you gain experience working on projects in the real-world and this coupled with good reviews by clients gives you the recipe for being a very competitive hire to many companies that are hiring full-time Data Scientist if you decide to transition to a full-time role when the opportunity is presented.

Generally (for aspiring and experience Data scientists), freelancing as a Data Scientist will not only grow your Data Science skills as you work on client work. You are also building what some may refer to as your "entrepreneurial skills" – which I personally believe is a key aspect of being a Data Scientist.

This is because freelancing not only makes you responsible for your client’s work since you must also take charge of your own personal marketing, personal financial management, and customer services. Effectively, you’ve become a business – We’ve covered the various "entrepreneurial" aspects of Data Science in previous posts.

The Most Important Data Science Project

The Importance of Branding in Data Science

I believe this is highly valuable for 2 reasons:

  1. You get a sense of what running a business is like and if you feel it is for you, you may decide to go on and run your own business.
  2. You develop your 3rd sense for what businesses value as you manage your own affairs

Earn What You’re Worth

Learning new skills and enhancing your knowledge is imperative for longevity in the field. However, time and time again, companies have been renowned for underpaying Data scientists to do more than what they bargained for.

Beyond that, when working for a company it’s very unlikely for you to get a raise for learning new skills or enhancing previous skills without some form of compromise. For instance, an inconsiderable amount of tasks may be lumped on you to make up for the few extra shillings you’ll be earning, or you may have to increase your hours, giving you less time to spend the extra money.

"The more you learn, the more you earn"

On the other hand, as a freelancer you have the ability to negotiate your earnings with clients. If you’ve learned how to deploy Machine Learning models to the cloud which in turn should result in a 5% pay you are entitled to negotiate this with your client. Essentially, as you develop and enhance your skills, your earning potential is in your hands and you can decide your worth.

Flexibility

Photo by Carl Barcelo on Unsplash
Photo by Carl Barcelo on Unsplash

I feel as though the world has been quite divided on whether working from home is here to stay, but as things stand the majority of us are spending our work hours at home.

Where working 8 hours in an office is quite feasible, I personally feel many may agree with me that this is not conducive when working from home since our productivity wanes away as more and more distractions are introduced to our environment.

When freelancing, this is not much of a major issue for one major reason… You can determine how long you work which means you can dedicate some time for deep focused work to accomplish the task you’ve set aside for the day.


Wrap Up

Now, there are some very obvious reasons as to why freelancing may not be as befitting as a permanent job at a company would be:

  • Submitting proposals for new work is almost a job in itself
  • Inconsistent work and cash flow
  • No paid time off

I never initially thought of freelancing before the pandemic but as there continues to be a strain on the global economy, I am starting to think that it may not be such a bad option for those that believe they can work independently.

Therefore, if you believe you have the skills to be employed by a company and you are failing to get land a gig for some reason beyond your control, freelancing whilst you’re buffering is not a bad idea. Likewise, if you want to get hands-on experience after graduating (or during your studies) then freelancing is a great way to go.

For the Data Scientist that has come to terms with the cons of freelancing and has accepted the economy for the state that it is in, then there is a very lucrative career in freelance Data Science and it may be the way to go in 2021, especially as the economy comes under more strain.

Another post you may find interesting is "You don’t need A Job to Get Data Science Experience"

You Don’t Need A Job To Get Data Science Experience

What do you think about this post? Leave a response or let’s have a conversation on LinkedIn…

Kurtis Pykes – Data Scientist – Freelance, self-employed | LinkedIn

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Kurtis Pykes


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