508 Making the Leap from 9 – 5 to Freelance
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Thursday, October 25
Instructional Design
St. Thomas A
As an instructional designer or developer, do you have skills that you don’t use in your nine-to-five job? Do you want to try something new, but feel stuck in the day-to-day grind? You want to be your own boss, choose your own projects, set your own hours, and remove the daily commute, but you’re not sure how to make the leap, or you worry about how you’ll make ends meet. Sound like you?
In this session, you will hear the story of a successful jump from a secure and stable government role with a three-hour daily commute to the world of freelancing and self-employment. You’ll be introduced to the decision-making and planning process that helped this developer make the leap to freelance. You’ll explore some pre-exit best practices, and dive into some of the pitfalls of freelancing and how you can plan for success. You will also discuss some of the lessons learned when making the shift and explore how you can get started freelancing today.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to critically evaluate whether freelancing is right for you
- How to plan an exit strategy
- About some of the pitfalls of freelancing, and how you can avoid them
- Five ways to get started freelancing
- Key lessons from one developer’s leap to freelancing
Audience:
Designers and developers.
Jacqueline Hutchinson
Learning Solution Designer
e-Learning Pros Instructional Design
Jacqueline Hutchinson is a learning solution designer at e-Learning Pros Instructional Design. Jacqueline has been involved in L&D for more than 25 years; she began as a software trainer, taught at a college, and in the 1990s found her passion for online learning. In 2000, she discovered eLearning and LMS implementations. She spent six years as the LMS lead for the city of Toronto, where she implemented and supported an enterprise LMS for 44 business units and more than 38,000 municipal staff. Jacqueline holds a BEd (AE) from Brock University. She’s also a Lectora-certified Advanced Author and instructor.