Money and Promotion
The more experienced – the higher the rate
The highest hourly rate is earned by specialists aged 55–64 — $36/hour. This generation is known as Boomers, people born during the baby boom era. Young people aged 18–24 earn $16/hour, and millennials aged 25–34 make $19. So if you want to earn more — work more. Expand your skills, learn to communicate with the team and delegate tasks. Here we go into more detail on how to stay in demand in the freelance market.
The highest-paid field — project management
Yes, we also thought IT specialists earned the most — but that’s not the case. The average hourly rate in IT is $23, which ranks third, along with finance and marketing. Project managers top the list with $28/hour. Next are Sales and Multimedia production — $25/hour. Web and graphic designers earn $19/hour on average.
Conclusion: strategic roles pay more. You can be a great developer or designer, but managing a team, defining tasks, tracking deadlines, and handling communication between departments and clients pays better.
Promote yourself through Facebook and LinkedIn
Out of 100 freelancers, 34 use Facebook for promotion, 28 are on LinkedIn, and 21 use Instagram.
Conclusion: if you're not yet positioning yourself on social media as a freelance professional — start right now. Seriously. After your resume, recruiters immediately check your social profiles.
Social capital from followers in your target audience and well-designed, cohesive profiles are your face. Ideally, jobs will find you through them. In this article we go into detail about the most important social platforms for freelancers.
Education
A university degree isn’t mandatory
19% of freelancers have no higher education.
This is especially relevant in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, where the level of education in internet technologies and marketing is relatively low compared to Europe and the US. If you feel like university is taking time you could spend on self-education or your own projects — maybe you’re right.
57% of freelancers have a bachelor’s degree and 24% hold a master’s or higher.
A degree doesn’t affect earnings. Statistically, freelancers without higher education earn $22/hour, while those with a bachelor’s make $19/hour.
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Happiness and money
Freelancers who work for themselves earn more and are more satisfied with life. Those who run several remote projects or their own startup rated their life satisfaction at 4.1 out of 5. They earn $22/hour.
Those who work part-time for a company and freelance or run a side project in their spare time rated satisfaction at 3.8 and earn about $19/hour. Most part-timers combining corporate and remote work are in finance — 5 out of 10 specialists.
The highest-paid aren't the happiest
The most enjoyable job turns out to be in administration — satisfaction rated at 3.44 out of 5, despite having the lowest market rate of $10/hour.
Other enjoyable professions include:
Now you know which freelance professions are the most profitable and which are the happiest. In the intensive course “My New Online Profession,” you’ll gain all the essential skills to start earning money freelancing. You’ll learn the basics of web design, layout, CSS, HTML, and work with jQuery. You’ll create 5 strong portfolio projects and learn how to find great freelance jobs. Enroll now.