From Academic Researcher to Freelance Data Whisperer

Making a career change isn't always about what you're doing but how you're doing it. Corinna Zennig built a successful career as a scientist working in academic research and then in analytics for Deloitte, a top consulting firm. While she found the work fulfilling, the traditional career path didn't align with her personal goals.

Staying in her current field of work as an employee meant accepting a future without the work-life balance and flexibility that she wanted and getting paid less than what she knew her skills were worth. Corinna believed in herself and decided to risk it all by becoming a freelance data analyst on Upwork.

From academia to freelance

Corinna is a nomad at heart and doesn't believe that work can only be defined as starting at nine and ending at five. Working as a freelancer lets her split her time between where her friends and family are in Germany and the other places she calls home, like Singapore, Wisconsin, and Japan. The life she lives now wouldn't be possible if she had stayed on her original course.

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"I didn't understand why I had to commute instead of working from home. I didn't understand why everybody had to start and stop working at the same time, even though people are productive at different times of the day."

When Corinna no longer saw herself having a future in academia, she decided to research other options. She moved into consulting at Deloitte, but after a few years Corinna realized that if she wanted to make her own schedule and be able to travel, she would have to be the boss.

Freelancing seemed like the path toward freedom, but Corinna didn't know any independent professionals to guide her through the process. Corinna didn't have anyone to model her career after. Embarking on this journey meant starting from scratch and figuring it out as she went.

"It was a good year before I made the jump, just figuring out how I could work online. It was all still before the pandemic, so people weren't even talking about remote work yet. So I did a lot of research, and that's how I eventually found the Upwork platform. I just jumped in cold and thought I'm sure I can make it work somehow."

Fast forward seven years and Corinna's clients know her as the Data Whisperer. Corinna started on Upwork as a freelancer and now manages a team of talent under her Upwork agency, LazyAnalyst, a boutique data analytics consultancy. Since Corinna started this journey, she’s never looked back.

"For me, at the time, I imagined the worst-case scenario as having to go back to being an employee...not even failing or having to pivot away from data to something completely different. I was just like, I don't want to be employed again. I need this to work out. I'm going to push as long as I can before I have to pull the plug."

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Paving the road to success

Deciding to freelance was not a decision that Corinna took lightly. She knew it would be like starting over. Most of the work she had done in the past was sealed behind NDAs, meaning she wouldn't have many available work samples to show clients.

After researching, Corinna realized that her most transferable skill was data analysis. Many companies have more data than they know what to do with. They need someone to turn this data into insights. Corinna now automates data insights for her clients — taking all of the data they have and creating processes so they have easy-to-understand reports.

When Corinna began freelancing, she didn't know where to start. While she could use some of the same skills she did working in-house as a scientist and for Deloitte, she'd now have to find clients and actively look for work. This was uncharted territory with new challenges for her to overcome.

"So the first half year was really spent on figuring out what it meant to be a freelancer. Like what kind of framework did I need to put in place to actually not just get clients, but keep them happy?"

7 tips for new freelancers

Corinna is an Expert-Vetted freelancer with her own Upwork agency. She's been on both sides of the Talent Marketplace™ — as a client and as a freelancer. She can look back on her career as an independent professional and think about what she would do differently, knowing what she does now.

One of the biggest hurdles for Corinna was beginning with a blank slate. The accolades and experience she had while working as an academic researcher were hard to translate into her capabilities as a freelancer. During her time at Deloitte, she gained valuable experience working directly with clients but could not share many of these work samples in her portfolio.

Once Corinna got her foot in the door and met with clients during an interview, they were impressed by her confidence and skills. She decided to take on many smaller, lower-budget projects to slowly build her reputation with positive feedback so she could land more interviews.

Corinna reflects back on her career and gives her best tips for independent professionals beginning their Upwork journey:

1. Ask for testimonials

Corinna advises freelancers to take advantage of the testimonials feature. When you're new to the platform, you won't have public feedback until you start completing projects, which can make winning those first few jobs challenging. Testimonials from past employers can give potential clients that extra vote of confidence in your skills.

"Bring as many testimonials as you possibly can. For example, if you already have a few going on your LinkedIn profile, I would reach out to them and say, look can I just use the very same one here on Upwork? You're gonna get an email; just copy and paste it from what you previously wrote on LinkedIn.”

2. Gain honest feedback

Depending on your background and work history, you may not have past employers or clients who can leave you testimonials. Corinna didn’t have any testimonials that she could bring to Upwork. Instead, she set her prices lower than the market rate for her skills. This helped her win more projects and make it through her first year as a new freelancer.

“My strategy was to generate feedback by underpricing myself on the first couple of projects and letting the clients know that I was doing this for honest feedback.”

Clients can be wary of proposals that have low budgets that seem too good to be true. Letting clients know that you’re new to the platform and pricing yourself lower because you need feedback can be helpful. While feedback is always optional, you can ask your clients to leave a review and explain how they’re important for building your business on Upwork.

3. Stand out in your proposals

Corinna knew that she'd be at a disadvantage at first because she didn't have a portfolio of samples or reviews from clients yet to demonstrate her expertise and skills. Her strategy was creating proposals that stood out by showing off her personality.

She recommends adding a sentence or two at the beginning of each proposal to hook the client by being personable. Corinna would be honest with clients and explain that she was pricing herself lower than the competition because she was new to the platform and wanted to build her feedback. She'd even add a joke or two about how hard she'd work and that she knew hiring her was riskier but promised it would be worth it.

"Add something in your proposal that says, 'Hey, I'm not just like everyone else.' Show off your personality. Use one sentence to stand out and another that shows that you understand what the client needs and that this isn't just a copy-and-paste application."

That is what Corinna looks for when she's hiring for LazyAnalyst. She recommends being thoughtful and spending time on the questions that clients ask talent to fill out in their proposals. These questions are important and what the client reads first. Corinna has seen many proposals that skim over the questions, providing short and vague answers.

“As a client, you're actually going to read the answers to these questions first before you get to the resume. So if you don't like the answers or they're just saying, oh, please look at my resume, you might get skipped right away. So just nuances like that can be really important in how you structure your entire application.”

4. Spend time on your profile

One of the ways Corinna was able to differentiate herself was through her profile. She infused her personality into the title and overview, creating a profile that speaks directly to her client's pain points. Corinna starts by listing the potential problems her clients are having, then confidently explains in a conversational tone how she'll solve them.

"I'm like, here are the problems — do you see yourself in here? If yes, you’re most likely already hooked, and let me tell you how I solve them. "

As a client, Corinna has read through numerous profiles and proposals and noticed that many sound like resumes. Submitting a proposal on Upwork is different from applying for a position on a job site. Clients on Upwork have specific problems they need help solving and they’re searching for highly skilled independent professionals — that's why they're here.

"One of the first things I learned while figuring out how to get clients to look at you is that your profile should not read like a resume. You're not trying to get a job. You are trying to solve a problem."

Corinna also recommends adding a profile introduction video. This can be a great way for clients to get to know you and see your personality quickly. A friendly video that explains who you are and what you do can help you stand out from other freelancers.

5. Be strategic with your pricing

When just starting out, many freelancers charge less than their target hourly rate to help win more projects and gain reviews. You can see the hourly rates for popular skills in the Hourly Rates Guide.

While pricing your service as low as possible may seem like a strategy to win proposals, Corinna advises against it. If your rate is too far outside the average range, clients may not click on your proposals because they assume that the quality will not meet their standards.

"From the client's perspective, if I see the people pricing themselves very low, I automatically expect their quality to be low as well. I think, well, I'm paying a lot less, but I'm probably also getting a lot less."

Try starting at the lower end and work your way up as the demand for your services rises. If you have a Freelancer Plus account, you can see your competitors’ bid range to help strategize your proposal rates.

6. Manage expectations from the beginning

Before Corinna accepts a new client, she gives them her statement of work. This document outlines how clients will work with her, everything from what she will need to be successful to when they can contact her and expect a reply. She uses this to manage expectations before every contract.

Starting with a statement of work template that Corinna found online, she then added to this document based on her experiences as an independent professional. Corinna makes sure that she and the client are on the same page and sets herself up for success before every contract.

"So basically everything that went wrong on a project, I turned into new expectations and new rules," she shared. Having a statement of work that outlines when you'll be available for communication, the hours you typically work, and what you need from the client before you can start also helps Corinna set boundaries. Work-life balance is important, and having rules like not working on weekends is one of the ways she avoids burnout.

"If you set that expectation in the beginning with clients and tell them you're not here on the weekend, that's totally fine by them. It's a very normal thing to do. The more you manage expectations in advance, the less burnout you'll get because people don't expect things from you all the time, every time ASAP."

7. Know when to say no

Early in your career as a freelancer, sending proposals to every project that fits your skills and accepting every offer can be tempting. Being able to say no to projects that aren't the right fit or clients that may be too difficult to work with is important for your reputation and success.

Corinna recommends reading job descriptions and paying attention to anything that feels "off." Warning signs are easy to spot, but many freelancers ignore them because they want to work. You only want to accept jobs that you know you can complete successfully so you can maintain positive feedback.

"Some clients actually say in the project description, 'We need this urgently, like yesterday.' In my mind, you're already out because urgent clients are usually misaligned against expectations. In my experience, anytime something is 'urgent,' there's another problem going on, and the project will likely be stressful."  

4 tips for clients on Upwork

Starting her Upwork agency, LazyAnalyst, was a natural flow of events for Corinna. She found that her clients were frequently asking for additional skills on projects that fell outside the range of her specialty. At the same time, she had an increasingly steady demand for her skills, and if she wanted to get more done and work faster, she'd need help.

"There was just not enough time in my own day to cover all of the tasks that needed to be done simultaneously. I needed to be able to work on things faster. I decided to find other freelancers and have them follow my own processes so that the quality and the standard of what I deliver stay the same. It would all be under one umbrella."

An agency lets her fill these skill gaps, offer additional services to her clients, and take on more projects.

"The client could have hired their own individual contractors to fill all of these gaps, but having me manage them and having the processes in place to have a framework of good quality work just took a lot off their plates."

Being both a successful independent professional and an agency owner means that Corinna knows what it takes to build successful talent relationships and shares her tips with clients:

1. Start with the problem

When writing a job description on Upwork, Corinna suggests starting with the problem that you're trying to solve. This makes it easier for freelancers to evaluate whether the project is the right fit for their skills. Many clients use the job description to describe the type of talent they think they need rather than explaining why they need them in the first place.

"Many of the job descriptions I see are way too short, or they just list some random skills as if it was to fill a role, like a full-time employee position. They talk about how you need to have five years of experience in this and three years of experience in that. That is not telling me anything about what you actually need to get done."

When writing a job description on Upwork, remember that it's not the same as what you'd post on LinkedIn or Indeed for hiring an employee. Independent professionals on Upwork are problem-solvers with highly specialized skills. The more information you can give them, the more likely you are to find the right talent.

"You need to be very specific. What is your problem? You can even talk about why you can't solve it yourself. Do you not have the time? Do you not have the skills? Do you not want to hire an employee? Maybe you just don't know where to start on solving it. Describing what success looks like to you is so much more important than asking for specific years of experience."

2. Be realistic about your budget

Before hiring talent on Upwork, consider your budget and how much you can pay a freelancer. The budget should align with the level of expertise. As an independent professional, Corinna has seen job descriptions that don't match the budget — the client wants to hire expert talent but at a beginner rate.

When hiring talent herself, Corinna is willing to pay more for the skills she needs. As a freelancer herself, she knows the importance of paying someone what they’re worth. In her mind, premium skills cost premium prices — like the difference between a luxury handbag and one from the corner store. If you want a high-quality service, the price is likely going to be higher.

"I'd rather work with an expert for one week than work with a beginner for four weeks and then have to redo it anyway."

3. Create a strategy for evaluating proposals

After outlining your problem in the job description and setting your budget, the next step is to evaluate the proposals you receive from interested talent. In the proposal, the freelancer will add their rate (hourly or fixed-price) and cover letter and answer any questions that you add.

Depending on the project, you can receive many proposals from freelancers at different price points and skill levels. You may not have time to read through every one.

"I always look first for the highest-priced freelancers. I then check a few in the middle range because I think, well, of course, you can charge less. The quality may be lower, but I'll check out the portfolio. I will only interview the lowest-priced freelancers if they used something in their proposal that made them stand out. If so, I would always take the time to interview them to see what their actual skill level is.”

4. Be available

Corinna knows how important it is for clients to be available, especially in the beginning, to help with any roadblocks. Sometimes, a freelancer can end up stuck because they need permissions, access, feedback, or a document before they can move on to the next step. If you're not able to respond quickly and provide that feedback, it can affect deadlines.

"As a client, you need to be available to provide feedback and answer questions and potentially provide access if all of a sudden a new access is needed. The way projects work is that you shouldn't just give your freelancers a project at the beginning and then expect that you come back two months later and everything is done. It is a two-way street to work like a team, and you need to make time in your calendar to make that possible."

Working with talent should be a partnership. Clients want their problems solved quickly. They need freelancers to meet the agreed-upon deadlines and deliver the quality of work promised. Freelancers run their own businesses that rely heavily on positive feedback and successfully completing jobs. A bad review from a client can hurt their business.

How freelancing equaled flexibility

The biggest benefit of being a freelancer for Corinna is a good work-life balance. She finds that she can get more accomplished as a remote freelancer than she would at a traditional in-house job. She can schedule her work week around doctors’ appointments and errands, taking time off to travel between projects. As a digital nomad, Corinna may be working in a Tokyo cafe one week and then in Vietnam or Thailand the next.

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"This entire flexibility that comes with it in any way, shape, or form is what motivates me the most. It's working when I'm actually in the focus zone and doing other things I need to do without having to get permission from anyone. Freelancing also allowed me to work remotely early on. I can be at home, I don't have to go to a noisy office. I can sleep when I need sleep. I can prepare my own food."

Corinna has accomplished her goal of building a career without having to be an employee. She gets to call the shots and make her schedule; something that she once dreamed of is now her everyday life.

Building the life you want on Upwork

Corinna wasn't sure exactly where freelancing would lead her when she signed up for Upwork. She knew the type of life she wanted and was willing to take a risk to make it happen. The flexibility of working remotely and making her own schedule would only be possible if she were the boss, which today she is. Whether you want to build a career like Corinna or are just looking for a part-time gig, you can find jobs that fit your skill set on Upwork. Join the platform today and see which clients are looking for someone just like you right now.

If you need help making the most out of your data, you can hire Corinna or her Upwork agency, Lazy Analyst, to turn that data into valuable insights.