Freelancing is a great professional opportunity for students to get a head start on their careers. It is an accessible, rewarding opportunity to start planning your career, through which you can learn some basic, primary skills relevant to your major or career of interest.

Most majors in universities can lead to numerous career tracks. Starting work early while in school helps students figure out some important things about themselves. That might include what particularly competitive skills they have in comparison to their peers, what industry can offer them the most opportunities or the highest salary, what the learning curve with different jobs is like, and what growth in different industries looks like. All of these questions will have clearer answers once they have dipped their toes into freelancing.

Freelancing is a source of income you can use to re-invest in your education

All of the freelance positions available on freelance job marketplaces, such as the GCC’s Ureed.com are compensated. You will not work for free. You can re-invest your earned money right back into your education. You can take more courses in your specialized field. You can take courses in leading job markets such as IT development or graphic design to land more jobs. You will lead a comfortable and autonomous young student life without exhausting your parents’ income.

Freelancing is both accessible and manageable

Freelance work is manageable alongside your full-time studies since it is project-based and not hours-bound. As a full-time student, you might not have enough time to take on an internship during the school year. The best summer internships might be very competitive and employers might not take students who lack previous professional experience. Freelance work in your own chosen domain will provide you with the experience you need to land your dream internship, or even job. Freelance opportunities are more abundant than part-time jobs because you can work with anybody, anywhere. When freelancing, you certainly don’t have to log in a certain number of hours to earn your paycheck. You simply have to finish a job.

Freelance work is easy to reference to online

Most freelance job marketplaces such as Ureed.com provides you with a platform to build up your professional profile online, get reviews from previous employers, and reference to previous work all in one place. It is a much more straightforward, better designed resume than your standard regular printed resume. Future employers can vet your professional experiences with a few clicks instead of awkward phone calls.

Field specialization

Freelance work gives you the opportunity to specialize. It is better to learn how to excel at one skill or one industry than perform average at a set of unrelated skills. At least, that’s what PayPal’s co-founder, Peter Thiel, thinks. Thiel is a billionaire serial entrepreneur and investor. He knows what he’s talking about. Employers tend to hire employees who are really good at a specific area or field that they need to strengthen. Freelancing will introduce you to a range of different industries and a new set of required skills to fulfill new jobs and challenges. You will learn which job(s) you excel at and which industry interests you the most.

Building up a professional network

Starting work early helps you build professional connections. You will connect with both employers and peers in your academic and professional field. Employers are more likely to hire freelancers on extended contracts or full-time positions when they have tried working with you on previous work projects. As you progress, you will learn who are the main actors in your chosen field and hopefully connect with industry leaders.

Want to kickstart your freelance career? Sign up on Ureed.com as a freelancer now!