Faced with a decision to relocate with her husband when he was posted to Surabaya for work, former communications consultant Talita Putriyanti chose to leave her full-time job to become a full-time freelance translator and copywriter. In the final installment of freelancer stories, we speak to Talita to find out about this significant decision, and the ways in which it has transformed her life.
1.What started you on this freelancer’s journey?
My freelancing journey began when I was a student in college in 2011. Back then, I saw freelancing as a means of gaining income while studying in in college. I started with copy-writing assignments which help grew my freelancer portfolio. This naturally evolved into bigger copy-writing projects as well as translation assignments. Noting an increasing demand for Bahasa Indonesia translation work at that point of time, I started taking on more translation assignments, and before I knew it, I had carved out a niche for myself as a freelance translator.
Following that, freelancing has since been a big part of me - I have often think of my freelancer journey as something which is natural and ever continuing. Even as I graduated from college and took on a full-time role as a communications consultant, I wanted to continue freelancing.
2.How has your life changed since you became a full-time freelancer?
At first, I did not really think about becoming a full-time freelancer as I already had a full-time job in Jakarta and was enjoying it.
However, two years ago, my husband and I received news that he had been posted to Surabaya for work, a city that is a 14-hour long drive from Jakarta and is at the other end of the West Java peninsula. We had a decision to make - we could either do a long-distance marriage or I could turn to freelancing full-time. The answer was clear: I became a full-time freelancer.
Since then, I have enjoyed the benefits and challenges of being a freelancer. Of course, the most transformative impact for my life had been the mobility that freelancing affords. It enabled me to move to Surabaya with my husband and that has gone a long way to help strengthen our marriage. We were looking to start a family around the time and it was important to us that our family will not be separated by distance and work hours then, now and in the future.
In addition to this, flexibility in a freelancer’s work hours is something which my husband and I both welcomed too. While I do want to take the time to raise and care for a child, I did not want to give up on my own career development. Becoming a full-time freelancer gives me the best of both worlds. I am currently seven months pregnant, and I am excited for what is ahead for me both at home and in my work.
3.What are your plans for the future? Do you foresee yourself doing freelancing in the long run?
I do see myself as a full-time freelancer for at least the next five years. As I plan to devote attention towards raising my child in his/her early years, and to enjoy these sweet initial years as he/she grows up, I value my decision to become a full-time freelancer even more so as freelancing gives me flexibility in time and location to do my work.
4.What do you think is the biggest challenge for freelancers?
As with all jobs, there are challenges for freelancers too. I think challenges vary according to where we are at in our lives, and how well we adapt and respond to circumstances which we are presented with.
I often hear from fellow freelancers that they face challenges such as irregular income and difficult clients. I certainly agree that these are top challenges which I too have encountered in my years as a freelancer. However, at this point of time in my development as a full-time freelancer, I would say that the biggest challenge for freelancers would be the opportunities we have to upgrade our skill-sets and capabilities to meet evolving client needs and the requirements of more complex assignments.
Speaking from the perspective of a full-time freelancer, I think it is important to develop ourselves to stay relevant and to thrive in an increasingly competitive economic landscape. In a full-time job, we can see this visibly through our upward progression in an organisation’s rank / hierarchy. However, due to the flexibility afforded by freelancing, freelancers may not able to visualise their career progression. We may not know where we stand, and how much more we can push ourselves. As a result, we start to believe that freelancing is something which we do in the meantime and we lose sight of how being a freelancer is part of our careers.
5.What words of advice would you give to others looking to embark on the freelancing journey?
People always think of freelancing as doing work to help fill their spare time or as an escape from the workforce. This isn’t true – freelancing is much more than simply spending your free time productively; there are many freelancers with great expertise who are leveraging the flexibility of freelancing to apply their skill-sets in creative ways. So, take this opportunity to push yourself and always find ways to develop your abilities, whether it be through taking on more challenging assignments or through courses to upgrade your skills.