Can I include freelancers experience in a resume?

Design Discussions design employment
1

I would like to ask about how to include professional experience in a resume, please.

Since I just graduated from graduate school in U.S. for 4 months, and I am looking for a full-time job but I don’t know how many years of experience that I should state in my resume, and what is the level of position that I should apply for (junior-level or mid-level.)

I actually work as a freelance flash developer/ designer in US for 2 years while studying in school. And I also have 3 years of working experience from another country. And after graduated, I also continue working on 3-5 small different projects from my clients until now.

So basilly how should I say about my working experience?
5-year (3 years from another country, and 2 years as freelances in US) or just 3-year (as a full-time), or 0-year of experience ?


I know this is sort of silly question, however, it is a little bit serious for me because I don’t know much about the working culture in this country :frowning:

Thank you very much.

2

I try to do it by actual time (billable months). If I only freelanced the equivalent of 2 fulltime working months last year, I won’t count it as a year of experience. I’ve seen some fresh grads claiming 4 yrs of experience because they had 4, 3-month internships during school. At the absolute most I’d say they could have 1 yr of experience with that and that’s if they were actually doing design work and not just cleaning the shop or designing the lunch route. So try to use your good honest judgement. I’ve had some serious downtime early during my freelance career so even though I was a 96 grad I still only claim about 8yrs exp.instead of 9-10.

3

nice- thats a good call. I will have to remember that,

4

wait a minute- does that mean that accrued overtime adds up in your years of experience? :wink:

5

I was thinking about that one too, but everybody is doing the overtime so nah. But as far as the minimum is concerned, base them off of near full work hours to be safe/accurate.

6

skinny! Thanks so much for very helpful advice. :smiley:

7

First, have a native go over your language.

If you don’t speak English as a first language, that needn’t be a problem but your resume should read like a native wrote it. As long as you can back up any questions about it, it isn’t a bad thing to have help getting the language perfect.

If you have two years of experience overseas, list it by all means. List it like anything else.

Under “work experience,” give it an entry, formatted just like any other work experience you’re listing.

If you have a large number of freelance clients that you worked for here and there over a long period of time, you might not want to list them each as a job, but instead list that period as freelancer with a client list, and refer to them in a section of your portfolio.