Are you new to freelancing and looking forward to your first online job interview? A freelance job interview is a bit different from an employee-based interview because freelancers ultimately sell their services, not their experience.
Because of this difference, the job interview questions will heavily focus on the quality of work and the ability to meet deadlines.
If you are preparing for a freelance job interview, check out these common interview questions below.
1. Tell me about yourself. Why should I hire you?
When asked this question, do not dwell so much on personal issues. State or provide your best qualifications for the job. The interviewer is trying to find out about you, try to show that you meet the employer's expectations. Be specific and include examples to support your statements.
2. Why do you freelance?
Freelancing requires a real hustler mentality and a whole lot of love for what you do. The interviewer wants a freelancer who’s doing it because they want to work on projects they’re passionate about or with people they enjoy working with.
What the he or she doesn’t want is someone who’s freelancing because they don’t want to work with people or on teams. That would mean that you might not be easy to work with.
3. What do other people say about working with you?
When asked this question in the interview, be honest and provide positive examples of how you work with others. It would be so useful to provide a few recommendations from the clients or any other freelancers you have worked with in the past.
4. What type of projects have you worked on?
The interviewer has likely already reviewed your portfolio and he or she is familiar with what you have worked on. What he or she wants here is to listen to you describing yourself. What you’re focusing on? Results achieved? The team you’ve worked with? He or she wants to get a good sense of whether or not they’ll be happy working with you.
5. Can I see your work samples?
You should always be prepared with a portfolio of your best and most relevant work for each specific freelance project. When you show the work samples to the interviewer, consider providing additional ideas that would be better suited for the project.
6. Are you able to meet the deadline?
If the client asks whether you can meet the deadline, the project is probably time sensitive. Answer clearly with a “yes” or a “no,” and provide reasons as to why you cannot meet the deadline.
7. Has any of your clients ended a relationship abruptly – if so, why?
The interviewer wants to get a sense of the relationships that didn’t work out for you. What he or she wants is to look at how you explain the situation and if you have learned any lessons from it, thus meaning that the interviewer is looking for someone who’s always able to take a lesson or action item from an experience. So, when asked this question, please be honest.
8. What else are you passionate about outside of work?
The interviewer is going to be working with you for a given amount of time, so you should both enjoy working as a team. Having common or complementary interests makes this easier. The interviewer wants to know what makes you happy, what you enjoy doing and how you spend your time outside of work. He or she would love to hire someone who has a healthy sense of work-life balance so that you don’t burnout and have to quit.
9. What are your weaknesses?
Never give an indication of any weaknesses you have. Turn you weaknesses into strengths by working it to the interviewer’s advantage. For example you can say;
“I never like to leave work until I have everything finished completely. Sometimes this bothers me but I feel inside that it is important.”
I hope this post helps make your freelance interview easier. If you are a freelancer, let me know one interview question you were asked and how you handled it.
