First, I’ve got to let it out there that I respect you as an entrepreneur, and have followed your work since I first noticed the great things you are capable of. I also admire you as a person in the charity/volunteer work you do.

I also agree with a few of your points (all of them to some extent).

However, I think it’s important for you to reflect on the beginning of your own career. It wasn’t too long ago that you were getting started and were in the same boat as the majority of us.

Using myself as an example:

I have over 8 years of experience, and throughout my entire career have been commended in one way or another for most of the work I’ve done. When I apply for work, I generally only have few examples of work to show. This doesn’t mean I don’t have experience. I only send select pieces of work that I feel are relevant to the position, pieces that are recent enough for the client to get a good understanding of my current skill-set, or that I believe will reflect on my ability as a developer/designer for the specific job. I’ve done my fair share of outsourcing and hiring for projects as well, and truely believe that we (as clients) can’t expect much more than what we get, and should take time out of our days, no matter how busy, and study each applicant to the best of our ability. The lack of links in an email says nothing about an applicants ability as a developer or designer, and sometimes can’t even speak for the applicants experience.

On my service website, I use the phrases “the team”, “we”, “us” and the like. Plenty of people don’t like this because of the rep that designers have: It’s not expensive to get started and anyone with the talent, drive, and time can do it. However, this doesn’t mean that every designer works alone in “mom’s basement”. I agree when you say “don’t misrepresent yourself”. On the same token, don’t assume we fit into the peg. I work with a great team of individuals who pool our talents under a collective name. This is, after all, what a company is. In short, don’t assume everybody works out of their mom’s basement. If you have a feeling they may be fibbing, confront the designer about it.

Like I said, I love what you’ve done and will continue to do for this industry, but sometimes we forget the nature of this business. There’s nothing wrong with “paying your dues”, but there’s also absolutely nothing wrong with believing in yourself either. I believe those of us who provide the work to the freelancers of the world really need to keep ourselves in check and refrain from discouraging “the small potato”. We all had to start somewhere.

I didn’t apply for your position, but I can understand how some of those who did might be a bit offended by some of your points (and rightfully so).

On all other points, WAY TO GO! Keep doing what you’re doing.

Lorren

P.S. To those who feel like you need to dog the client: You’re work has to come from somewhere. You’re not always going to like who you have to work with (and THAT, my friends, is a two way street). If you expect every client is going to cater to you and the way you work, you seriously need a better view of the industry in which you work. You’re bound to collide with clients from time to time, but part of your paycheck is rolling with the punches. Suck it up and produce already.

“If “We & Our Studio” is “You & Your Mom’s Basement” just say that you are full time freelancer. ”

Okay… I get that, and in fact I agree with it, but for some people their real name (full name) is not as memorable as a classy ‘corporate’ type name.

When I started my personal site / portfolio etc. I considered just putting my full name as the logo/header but it seemed restrictive and quite a long name, so I chose a memorable name for my ‘design’ label instead which I thought people would remember plus it looked nicer.

I am not pretending I am some large design agency working in a massive studio somewhere, but sometimes I think it is necessary to sound good regardless of your actual situation in an industry! - after all ‘we and our studio’ sounds so much better than ‘you & your moms basement’ or ‘a freelancer’!

Tonnes of people refer to themselves in the third person on their own home-pages; why is that seen as acceptable?

I am not meaning to belittle the industry, or the fact that, in this instance, you were honestly looking for what you said you were looking for. The problem is that everyone who makes use of freelancers likes to think that their business is the dog’s nuts. So whether it is Mr Jobs of Apple, or Mr Jobs of Small Jobs Yard Services, everyone posts ads looking for a “top-notch {insert quasi-title here}” or a “skilled {application/infrastructure} engineer}, etc. No-one ever really asks for an “unskilled Photoshop learner”, or a “amateur PHP coder”. And, much like the credit conundrum, the only way to have experience is to get experience.

As there is no real, clear, difference between real Big Fish clients and others which are only “Big Fish” in the same way that the one that got away was a monster, apart from the wonderful world of social networking and actually being approached directly by clients, then the online posting boards will continue to be swamped by inexperienced new designers and cynical frustrated more-experienced workers.

Maybe a better article would have been suggestions on how people who are new to the industry should present themselves, and how they should approach their first prospects - what to say, how to portray their skills level, how to price themselves, etc.

As it stands, and whilst I understand that this article is clearly meant to be a guide for what not to do, it does come off as more of a glorified rant than a helpful how-to guide to try and educate those new freelancers and make the world a better place for all.

So either the person posting the job doesn’t know what they’re asking (ie, is not as good at evaluating work as they think) or they’re grossly overestimating the significance of the job they’re posting (ie, if you say you’re working on one of the “top sites” on the internet, it better damn well be Amazon.com or CNN.com).

So it takes patience, as well as the willingness to sift through some crap, in pursuit of the best job you can find…or the best applicant you can hire.