I am a designer, specifically I design exhibits and displays. In truth my specialty is not yet fully immersed in this new freelance world, but graphic design is. It’s impossible to plan your life in this system. I find the job alerts are always for gigs that start tomorrow, and you’re competing against multiple other candidates, many who have more specific experience than you do. The job may last two weeks as stated, but it might end in a few days in which case you’re scrambling to find another gig. There is zero investment in you as a worker, unlike in the older system where employers might pay for additional training and education. On top of all that pay rates on many offers are ridiculously low, as another poster wrote.
Freelance work as a category is fine. I see that as different then the “gig economy,” which seems like a license for amoral millennial aged middle managers to go all Simon Lagree on your ass.
My Uncle works for a company that has hands in many different places. Radiation detectors in ports across the world, electrical remediation, superfund cleanup sites...
That said, it’s a huge US company.
They don’t even have technical design people on staff any more because it’s cheaper to sub out the work to India.
Freelance work is great, for those who can do it. However, you aren’t trying to compete for jobs in a market that has been flooded by 600 million third worlders, as the fascist cooperation between multinational corporations and political leaders take root.
Freelancing might not be so great then either.