Landing the Gig Despite Your Youth

When I was first starting out as a freelance writer, I remember talking to a friend I knew who owned his own business. I asked him what he'd look for if he wanted to hire a freelancer, and he told me one thing: experience. It made sense--why would you hire an outside contractor who had no demonstrable experience?--but it also made me worry. Not because I was just starting out and didn't have decades of experience in the field, but because of something more personal--and less easy to fake.

The thing is, even if you're just starting out as a freelancer, you can fake experience. You can write up your own portfolio of samples, and you can even put them into a graphic design program and make them look like real advertising pieces. You can leverage your experience in a different career as the specialist qualification that separates you from other writers. In the vast majority of my client cases, I don't get asked for a list of my prior clients or even for a resume. If your samples are strong, experience is assumed.

However, I had something working against me that I didn't think I could help: I look young. Depending on what I'm wearing, I can look like I'm in my early-to-mid twenties (I'm actually a little older than that) or I can look like a high school student. The way I looked gave me an instant disadvantage: it was hard for people who met me personally to assume experience, the way they might if they were looking at someone who looks the part. They'd look at me and think, "how could this kid know more than me about how to reach my audience? She's barely out of college."

You can get around this and land the job--but you may have to work a little harder to prove yourself first. Here are a few things I've learned about how to get around it.

There's a positive side to being perceived as young. Not all youth prejudices and preconceptions are bad--some can work in your favor. For example, because I'm young it's usually assumed that I'm pretty technically capable. I'm not a programmer or web designer, but I'm familiar with basic SEO, social marketing, blogging, and other things that are very valuable skills to the right clients--and because I'm young-looking, my facility with these things is often assumed. It's part of the reason I drifted into writing web copy--it's an area where my youth won't hurt me as much, and may actually help. Be aware of the positive preconceptions that exist about young people--for example, we're technically savvy and familiar with cutting-edge marketing techniques--and try to capitalize on that.

Good camouflage is key. Dressing the part is more important than you'd think. If you're meeting a client in person, you want to look like their perception of a professional. That means a nice suit, nice shoes, professional-looking hair and makeup and jewelry for women, and ties for guys. Even if you're young, try to look like them and they'll be more likely to assume you're one of them.

Give concrete examples of your skills. When clients ask you about why they should work for you, do the best you can to emphasize your past experience. Tell them about the effects your writing has had in other projects--did your landing page increase someone's click-through rate? Did your article library put someone at the top of the SERPs for relevant keywords? Emphasize the effects your writing has had in the past, and you'll get your clients to see you as someone who gets results--regardless of age.

Get your former clients to plug for you. Building credibility is crucial for any writer, but it's especially important if you look younger--because credibility isn't always assumed on first meeting. If you can, get some former clients to write you testimonials. Don't have a former client? Then volunteer to write for your current employer, a nonprofit you're interested in or an organization you belong to. Ask whoever supervised the project to write you a testimonial giving specific results--for example, I wrote a donation letter for a choir I joined that increased donations over the previous year's, and I used that testimonial for ages.

The most important part about getting around your age--or your percieved age--is to keep the emphasis on your skills, not your age. With strong writing samples and plenty of confidence, it shouldn't be too difficult to prove you can do the job.