Thriv - Future of Work

In this blog post, we give you concrete tips on how to leverage your agency and enhance your entrepreneurial career as a freelance tech talent.

So, you decided to venture into freelancing somewhere along your path paved with code and vast technical experience, and you discovered agencies that match IT professionals with companies for both short- and long-term projects. Tech talent agencies sometimes receive criticism, often due to misunderstandings about their true value.

However, when approached correctly, a tech talent agency can offer significant advantages for tech freelancers. We've witnessed firsthand how freelancers can benefit from tailored support and resources. Here’s how you can maximise your agency experience and enhance your entrepreneurial career.

1. Assistance in crafting a CV that sells

Your CV serves as your introduction to potential clients. A well-crafted CV can highlight your strengths and set you apart in a competitive market. Have you updated your CV recently? Many professionals hesitate to spend time crafting personalised CVs for each opportunity, which can make them less relevant to hiring managers and reduce their chances of securing projects or employment.

A tech talent agency that represents you as a freelancer typically provides assistance in creating a standout CV. This not only saves valuable time but also increases your chances of being noticed more frequently and initiating more initial conversations with potential clients.

At Thriv, we review your experience and help you craft personalised CVs, relieving you of the stress of staying updated on CV standards, rules, and other nuances that shouldn't distract from your daily work focus. However, having a solid understanding of CV composition and best practices remains crucial in today’s competitive landscape. If you wish to read more, here’s our post on how to create a CV that sells.

2. Help in personal branding

In the competitive landscape of freelance tech, standing out from the crowd is more important than ever. Personal branding has become a crucial aspect of a freelancer's success, helping them attract clients, negotiate higher rates, and build a lasting reputation. Ultimately, this positions you as a freelance professional who can be trusted and opens doors to better opportunities with prestigious companies, creative projects, and higher rates.

A successful freelancing career begins with a deep understanding of your skills, strengths, preferences, and areas for improvement. Tech talent agents at Thriv prioritize identifying your technical competencies, soft skills, and professional aspirations to match you with projects that foster productive and positive collaborations for both you and their clients.

At Thriv, we guide you on leveraging your personal brand as an entrepreneur, helping you promote your unique self. Over time, this enhances your visibility as a freelance professional, making it easier to secure projects quickly and effectively.

3. Negotiating rates and tasks

How much is your time worth? This is a good question with no precise answer. Organizations typically make offers based on their subjective budgets and their perception of the value they can receive in exchange. As you can see, there’s nothing objective in such an evaluation, which means your freelancing reward can be quite flexible. While your rate depends on many objective factors, such as your work experience and education, there are also subjective factors that might be harder to evaluate without a wider perspective:

What is a good rate today for this type of work?
Should I accept this offer or can I still negotiate?
Is it enough to compensate for what they ask me to do?

This is where a good freelancing agency comes in handy. They guide you through the process, providing industry insights and recommendations to help freelancers better understand their worth and available opportunities in the current market.

4. Leveraging freelance tech community

When you partner with a freelance agency, you automatically become part of a community that supports your long-term growth, both professionally and personally. Agencies often provide you with unique access to a pool of like-minded people. This can include anything from online chat groups, webinars, and community platforms to offline gatherings, events, and group activities.

Let’s face it: your network is your net worth. People with similar interests and expertise often find opportunities to collaborate and eventually increase their income. Working with an agency includes you in a pool of people who can help each other by sharing experiences in the freelance world, getting peer support, and having fun together!

We at Thriv are quite famous for our Summer and Christmas parties, where we invite all freelancers from our network, over 1,000 talented techies, to spend time together in a relaxed setting. We especially enjoy playing games, having BBQs, and engaging in fantastic discussions. This is just one example of our community gatherings, which can range from closed informative sessions to larger celebrations and networking events.

Ask agencies about their network, activities they offer, and how they promote collaboration and information exchange. This is likely one of the most important benefits that partnering with an agency provides. Everything we discussed above in this article can, in theory, be done without help from an agency, although the results are often not as great as they could be. Leveraging an existing network of tech developers built by an agency is a unique value driver that cannot practically be obtained on your own.

5. Getting access to exclusive benefits

Lastly, tech talent agencies might also offer exclusive perks for their network. These perks might include various discounts on products and services that can support your freelance career. It can be anything from accounting services to massages and afterwork activities. All of them pursue the same goal: to make your work life easier. We At Thriv also offer plenty of benefits for the freelancers in our network, from hotel discounts to affordable accounting services, and much more.

Get the most out of your freelancing career

Being represented by a tech talent agency can be incredibly beneficial when its potential is fully understood and utilised. Working with a tech talent agency offers numerous long-term advantages from the start. To fully leverage these benefits, it's essential to be proactive and ask what services and opportunities the agencies provide.

By focusing on crafting a professional CV, contributing to your personal brand awareness, honing negotiation skills, understanding the industry, and engaging with a supportive community, you can significantly enhance your freelance career. We at Thriv are ready to help you with all of these tasks and ensure that you get the most out of your freelancing career.

Ready to achieve new levels of success? Contact us today and let’s have a chat!