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What is the lateral hire process like?
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I've known people who found freelance work via Upwork. I gather it can be pretty competitive, but if you put together a good profile you can probably pick up some gigs. You may not make a fortune doing it, but if you're more interested in building up a portfolio that might be a good place to establish yourself.
Fiverr is my go-to. I've been on the platform for years. It takes a bit of time (and low-paying work) to get started, but it's decent.
If you’re mostly focused on building your portfolio, you could also try to do some work for non-profits for free
UpWork is the only one I've used. Haven't been on there in a while, but it was a decent way to pick up extra work a few years ago. I'm guessing that hasn't changed too much, although things are probably even more competitive on there now thanks to all the AI related layoffs.
Subject Expert
I haven't had a ton of success via Fiverr and Upwork yet (although, I haven't tried super hard on there). Something that has worked for me (although I guess a bit heavier of a lift) is creating small pitches for companies that I really want to do work from and sending them to emails of leadership at those companies (or people on their design team)