Updates on gig search & job hunt, 1 month later

It’s been a month since I found out I’m in financial trouble.

What have I done so far?
What had happened since?
Have things changed for the better?

Reporting back:

• First order of the day: Find more consulting/freelance work in design consulting to extend the runway –
  • Submitted a $90k proposal to a government Ministry.
  • In discussion with a warm lead to do a small value ($6k) design research project.
  • 3 month freelance gig with a news organisation for design research.
  • 6 month freelance gig with a higher education organisation for UX design/research.
  • Met with non-profit organisation to offer design consulting.
  • Planning to write proposal for existing non-profit client for more work.
     
• 2nd in priority is to find random freelance work in other areas –
  • Updated Superpeer profile to offer micro-consulting sessions at US$150 a pop (30min) for govdesign and US$99/30min for indie hacking/nocode dev.
  • Applied for freelance writing job on Remote OK, and also asked around on Twitter. Freed up all my Medium posts from the paywall to showcase as a portfolio of work. In discussion with 1 Twitter contact to try out technical writing at $100/article.
  • Sought help from friends and personal networks for freelance web design gigs.
  • Venturing into new unfamiliar territory of frontend dev work was interesting. Talking to 1-2 folks over Twitter DMs for potential work there. Still unsure how it will pan out.
     
• Applied for fulltime jobs as a backup option, as interview rounds take time. So far, have sent in 29 applications for positions like “UX Designer”, “UX Research”, “Service designer”, “User Experience Director”. Got 1 rejection so far (probably more silent rejections). This time, besides government jobs, I was open to even private sector jobs:
  • Banking, financial institutions (DBS, OCBC, UOB, StanChart)
  • Higher education institutions (NUS)
  • Consulting agencies (Thales, User Experience Researchers)
  • Tech companies (Google, BandLab, Dell)
  • Residency programmes for startups (ninthLABS)
     

Overall, my approach to solving this crisis was to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Every day, I try to do one task or apply for one job. Being able to act and control what’s in my sphere of influence helps a bit with the anxiety about the larger situation.

No revenue earned during the last month, so that doesn’t help. But I guess last month’s play is to set things in motion, which might take time to gather momentum. Starting to observe some after-effects, like more people contacting me, opportunities arriving in my inbox. 🤞🤞🤞

I got runway for a few more months, so hopefully something pans out!