How I Got My Full-Time Remote Working Job from A US Private Company
From freelancing to working a steady job
The Reason I Choose To Do Freelancing Before
The story went on in 2020 where after I graduated, I had to look for job opportunities everywhere and I couldn’t land any. At that time I had applied almost a hundred applications to every job opening available on every online job portal available out there.
Frustrated that I didn’t get a single job interview, I set out to look for other alternatives. One of the things that caught my attention the most was how to make money online. There is a lot of information online on how to make money online, but I picked a way that I thought I could do with the most basic skill, which is writing.
Writing is not easy work either. It can be done, but you still need technical knowledge like how to create engaging titles and insightful content. As for grammar, you can go to Grammarly or use Google Docs’ proofreading feature.
So for writing, I got many insights about how to make money online by writing from the internet. The most common way to do that is by offering your services as a freelance writer on notable freelance platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr.
But….
Getting clients that will trust their writings to you wasn’t as easy as you’d think. Everything you see on articles, YouTube, or Facebook, about making money online mostly is just clickbait.
But…
You can work that out. You can get clients and write for them. And like me, you can get a steady job and work for an overseas company.
Blogging on Medium
I know how hard it was to get clients and make them choose us. So before I created an Upwork account and won the competition on proposal bidding, I created a Medium account to write a blog.
So what is the relevance of writing on Medium and getting clients on Upwork?
Blogging platforms such as Medium are the best place to showcase your writing capabilities. It works as a portfolio for writers. Not only is it free, but you can also gain organic traffic for your articles. Medium does this by curating readers’ interest so that it could match their reads.
For example, I love to write about writing online and writing tips and tricks in general, so readers on Medium who always read about what to write or how to blog will see my articles as their reading recommendation.
Although you may write like a beginner, at least you start somewhere and it could be the place to leap your career.
On Medium, I wrote many articles. I wrote almost every single day. Only one article, but I did it consistently. After more than 30 articles had been written and I got enough readers and followers, I then took the steps needed to create an account on Upwork and offer my writing services.
My Experience on Upwork
I could say that my experience on Upwork as a freelance writer wasn’t that smooth. For someone whose English is not my native language, freelance writing was hell, now too since I haven’t written anything since last year. So for you who wonder where I come from, I’m from Indonesia.
Upwork is the best freelance platform to get your clients since they are using a bidding system to get the project. This bidding system is beneficial since clients will know everyone who bid for the proposal and what kind of proposal you gave to them.
Compared to Fiverr, where you set up an account, make a service offer, and wait for the clients to reach out to you and ask about your services, Fiverr is quite passive. Upwork may need extra work and extra “connects” to bid on a project proposal, but if you’re lucky you can win the client’s heart.
My experience on Fiverr is the opposite. I have done everything I could to attract clients, but none of them stuck with my services. Fiver is like the marketplace for services, where clients get to choose the best and the most rated services.
The chance of you getting noticed for offering services is low or even none on Fiverr. As of Upwork, it’s only between you and the client the moment you bid for a project proposal.
How about the pay on Upwork?
I charge my freelance writing rates low. As low as $5. But I didn’t mind at that time. I know my position and skills well. I can’t charge more than that. Sometimes you need to be realistic. You can’t just go on Upwork and charge clients with big fees.
However, there was a moment when a client paid me more than I charged. Didn’t know the reason, but it looks like they need a beginner to write for them. It was a client from Europe. A bit different from clients from the US where they pay you as low as possible.
My advice to get decent money from freelancing is that you need to find clients from Europe as a beginner. You can still take the US clients as your freelance writing portfolios. Make sure to be diverse about where your clients come from.
As I said, to someone whose native language is not English, I felt hopeless. Got so many writing jobs, yet the money I gathered was still not that much. However, I knew that I needed that job to live my life. So I continue the work.
Transitioning from freelance to steady work
So, I got my steady work from Upwork too. I never expected that the day I would get a job and work for a US private company that gives good money and bonuses if you do the work well will come in July 2022.
At that time, Jason, who is now my boss, reached out to me using the Upwork chat feature and offered me this virtual assistant work called Amazon product sourcing. I read the proposal and once I saw I would get paid $3 for an hour I immediately accepted the offer, though I still had to follow an interview and a test.
By working 7 hours a day and with a pay of $3 per hour, I didn’t think twice. After doing the math, I calculate that it will give me a much better and steadier income. I saw that as an absolute win.
After going through an interview and getting decent test results, I finally got accepted. That was the best moment in my life for sure. I’ve been working for one and a half years, and still going strong.
I work for a US private company whose work is to find cheaper products outside Amazon to be resold again on Amazon so clients (people who buy our leads and for cheap products I found outside Amazon we call leads) would yield high profit and ROI (return of investments) for each product they sell on Amazon.
Conclusion
The reason why I share with you my story and how I got my current job now, is because I believe there will be a moment when you finally find the AHA moment that could change the way you live your life and income.
Many people struggle and complain, which I did too at the beginning. Yet I didn’t lose my conviction and stayed strong on the path. If you just hold on to your goals and keep on grinding, the day that you’re going to get the money will be there.
Good luck on your journey and I pray you succeed.
