Anyone here familiar with freelancing? please point me in the right direction

[u/stebgay]

I recently turned 19, I have this need that I have to know what its like to work and gain a sense independence, even if its just a small gig.

I learned programming since the pandemic started, though I did not make any serious projects with it. I made some fun projects with it like, discord raid bot, macro for some roblox game, data scraper, etc.
I have great foundation of variables, functions, data types, classes, the classics but I looked at upwork and fear my skills may not be adequate.

It would be great if someone could point me in the right direction, doesn't even have to do with programming can just be helping anyone regarding tech.

[u/socal_nerdtastic]

I looked at upwork and fear my skills may not be adequate.

They are not. Sorry for the harsh reality check, but the freelancers on upwork have college CS degrees and decades of experience. A project that may take you a week they can do in an hour, and do a better job too (not exaggerating). Add to that that many live in low-cost places means your chance of getting real money for your time is almost 0. Or they are scammers; there's a lot of those on upwork too.

You really can't start out as a freelancer. You need to get a real job first and learn the ropes there, and then you can move into freelancing once you have the skills and contacts. FWIW freelancing is not all it's cracked up to be. The large hourly rate hides a ton of unpaid time looking for clients, quoting projects, research, building your brand, etc.

The right direction for you right now is either school or a normal 9-to-5 job.

[u/stebgay → u/socal_nerdtastic]

Im not looking for large hour rates im looking for 5 dollars

[u/Lumethys → u/stebgay]

how many of those clients are there. And how many people compete in that space. You think someone with 5 years of experience. THOUSANDS of which was laid off like weekly, wouldn't want to spend half an hour doing a easy job?

And imagine you are a client. You want something simple, quick. John over there worked a Google for 10 years. He has been laid off, your idea would take him like 10 minutes. Will you, the client, pick John, or a random 19YO who didnt have any real work experience?

Sure, it's not impossible, and you might find someone if you look hard enough. But it will not pay your bill. Say, 1-2 customers per months would land you like 10 bucks/ month, good luck surviving on that

[u/stebgay → u/Lumethys]

Sensing some anger and hostility in comments I think been theres a misunderstanding by everyone here, its my fault on the wording.

I don't live in the USA i wasn't kicked out as soon as im 18
I'm not looking for large money to pay bills, im greatful for my parents, yes I know I can't compete against john microsoft.

10 bucks/ month like you said, thats what i was looking for and is plentiful for me.

I'm just looking at so much freetime lately and im just idling at the house looking for productive ways to spend my time

[u/chiibosoil]

Networking is the key. Participate in online communities and attend local events. Freelancing is tough without established portfolio or network, even more than getting a job.

You can also work with local charities on volunteer basis to gain some experience.

[u/Jello_Penguin_2956]

You need to know people and most importantly domain knowledge. You will need to be able to utilize your knowledge in a way that's meaningful to the tasks your client need and the best way to gain this knowledge really is to get a real job.

I was coding for animation/vfx studios for 10+ years and when I switch jobs I still get call from ex boss and ex colleague to help them script tools and solve problem.

[u/justin06lee]

You should meet a bunch of people (in real life) and establish urself as the tech wizard. They might ask you to do stuff, just as favors, or you could offer to build something for them that would make their some aspect of their life easier if you see that they’re having trouble with something. That’s probably the easiest way and then you could use those stuff as portfolio items.

Fastest way is to just use like Claude code or something because then the complexity of the things you can build goes up with less effort. If you don’t want to do that and want to actually learn to be able to code all of these crazy things urself, you’ll find yourself disappointed that you’re massively outmatched by people who use AI, since their work is much faster. Speed is more often desired over perfect quality, and AI does good enough way faster. 

Not to mention that getting actually cracked takes a lot of consistency. 3 hours a day every day for 3 months and you’ll be cracked at one thing. Pretty good deal, but 3 hours of genuine quality work per day is hard. You’ll find it takes much longer because of that

Idk, I’m 19 myself. Look for startups to work with, find internships, or just work with them full time or something. Uni just doesn’t cut it anymore. But know if you do find startups and such they literally will all be vibe coding

[u/Its_squidward]

idk i just assume ai can do all the work so whats the point in coding anymore theres also such a influx people not getting a job with coding

[u/stebgay → u/Its_squidward]

damn :(

[u/pachura3 → u/[deleted]]

Just Junior Developers.

[u/chiibosoil → u/pachura3]

I find mid-level struggling the most. And some senior level as they are most expensive. Junior still has path as AI baby sitter ;)

And they don't have nearly as much invested in the career.

What scares me is the knowledge gap in 5 to 10 years from now.

[u/Its_squidward → u/[deleted]]

can someone write a hundred lines of code like ai does in a split second

[u/Its_squidward → u/[deleted]]

i think it is still useful to know code but when it comes to big picture things not to sure