No matter if you
are coder, graphic designer, photographer or college student, you have probably
had a request to work for free. The expected benefits should be the expansion
of your portfolio, improvement of your brand or gaining valuable experience you
can add to your CV. My advice: don´t accept these requests, no matter if it´s
made by a company or good friend.
This attitude could
be considered as radical, but lets go through it. Is there anyone who will have
a financial benefit because of your work? Let him pay for your help! No matter
if it will be just a small amount compared to your experience.
Still not
convinced? Read more…
Deadline
Imagine a
situation. Your good friend asked you to meet to make a logo for his new
project (bike repair or design new web, etc.). Your automatic reply was yes.
The next morning you receive two well paid, but time consuming job offers.
Considering your chart of priorities, which rank is your friend´s request now?
Hmm… very likely the last. And maybe it will never be done. Think about it,
nobody can insist on deadlines for volunteer projects.
Quality
Lets presume you
have decided to take the unbelievable effort to make a logo for your friend
before doing the other paid work. It is after midnight already, your eyes are
small and red, you are tired as hell and you are angry at Paul for bothering
you with his new start-up. Right before sunrise you are able to click the send
button… Noone cares what is really in the attachment. Your job is done here,
isn´t it?
Relationships
Don´t be fooled, expectations
of your performance for an unpaid project will be the same as for a paid one,
if not higher. And nobody wants to hear excuses like: „I can´t do miracles for
free.“ An unsatisfied customer will always be an unsatisfied customer, no
matter how much he does (not) pay.There is nothing easier than ruining your
friendship or reputation that way.
Unfulfilled hope
Let’s say you decided to
design your friend´s logo, put it into your portfolio and will charge money for
your future projects? I don´t think so… I would rather say your next projects
will be voluntary too, because why should
anybody pay you if you are famous for working for free?
Personal
development
You think you will
learn something valuable by volunteering? Something that should move you
forward? I am 100 % sure managers in Apple learn something new constantly and
they are still being paid for it. In most cases, the real development happens for
you only when working in a team on some big, difficult and interesting project,
which is usually paid.
Market
You can negatively
influence the market when you work for free. You most likely make poor quality
products (usually people put more effort into it when it’s paid) and take the job
of professionals. Since you don´t recieve any money you can´t put them into
circulation again – that hurts other entrepreneurs. In the end, volunteering
slows down economical growth.
Or does it? What do
you think? Do you agree?
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