 Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Gunfrey Berra. You can call me Jet. I'm actually a senior Java developer for legal match Philippines. Our office is actually in Sibu, which is actually a U.S. company. Then I'm also a co-founder of Devkon Iluilo, both of us, Jingoy Dai, and the president of Flamenco Productions Incorporated. The focus of my talk is more on the fresh grad side, even though yes, some of the freelancers as well. Anyone who is a student pa, sino ma students dito? Very few, okay, there. Graduating or what year? Fourth year, so very good, okay. So from fresh grad to professional guide to choosing between freelance and employment in IT. This is a common mistake of some of the students jumping after graduating from IT course. They jump into a freelance career path. So why is it that I mentioned that is wrong for fresh grad to jump into a freelance career rather than employment? Okay, first let's define first freelance versus employed. So when you say freelance, you're doing multiple jobs with different clients at different time, which means, ikaw may hawak ng oras mo, usually sa freelance. So while in being employed, you work eight hours a day, okay. Then you have a boss sa freelance. You have a client, but you don't have a boss. So why is it that I mentioned that is wrong for fresh grad to jump their career into a freelancing rather than being employed. Number one mistake, how do you cost a project? Because common for in schools, because I've been in the academy for 12 years, nagturo ako sa academy for 12 years. Hindi nagturo or there are some courses or some maybe universities that teaches costing for a product or project, especially in the software engineering subject. Okay, common mistake. How are you going to cost your project as being a fresh grad? So anyone who you think you can tell you have any idea of how to cost your project. Then number two, standards. Are you very confident enough that what you learned in the four corners of the classroom are already standards that you could accept a project? So most common clients that I have met, especially local, so they think that they could get a cheaper project by assigning the project to fresh grad. And what happened is mostly it is a disaster. Number one, students don't know what standard is. Because that is not actually being taught in most of the schools. So that's number two. So that's the problem sa, sabi kong, I don't want students or, as I mentioned, that it is wrong for students to jump automatically from fresh grad going to a freelancing. So then why you should employ in the first place? Actually, I'm not talking about the salary here. Because the speaker before me is actually a freelancer. And the speaker before him also doing freelancing. So I'm not talking about the salary of being a freelancer and being employed. What I'm talking about here is gaining knowledge in a standard form of software development or engineering. So you cannot get that by just doing freelancing. Or maybe you could after several years, pero it will took you long to gain that knowledge. Unlike being employed, you have a supervisor, you have a team lead, you have a product manager, you have the architect, who will guide you in your experience in working for several projects. So that's actually my point. I'm not talking about salary because I am also doing freelancing since 2011, since until now. Even though I'm employed, when I actually, what do you call this? Nung nag-sign up ako as a speaker for WordCamp, I was actually a freelance. Right now, I'm employed. So just to make a clarification, I'm not actually referring to the salary here. I'm just actually referring to the knowledge that you will gain of being employed in a certain company. For example, if you work in a big company, IT or a tech company, you will have to learn a lot. Number one, those technology that was mentioned before, like the Jingo and the Mark. Those technology, you cannot learn them in schools. You cannot learn them in the forecourt. Mostly what being taught in classrooms are the basics only programming, basic programming 101, then web development, and everything are basics. So you cannot learn, like CICD, let's say technology, or learning tech like liquid base, something like that, into my database migration using liquid base. So mostly you cannot learn that in inside the classroom. That's why I would suggest, I prefer or I suggest that most fresh grad should employ first rather than being a freelance. Let's talk about the advantage of being a freelance and being employed. Of course being a freelance, you could work anywhere. But right now, because of the pandemic, being employed, you can work also anywhere. Diba? There are jobs, full-time employment that overwork from home. Or one example, if you're familiar with company Orange and Bronze, they don't call it as a work from home, but rather work from anywhere. So they provide you the laptop. They don't care if you're going to work in a internet cafe, in a co-working space, in hotel or your home, as long you get the job done. So therefore, the concept of being a freelance that you can work anywhere is not na, hindi na siya ganun ka different sa, what you call sa, being employed. Because for example ako, kami nila Mark, Jingo, we are all employed or certain companies, but we work from home or we can work anywhere. As long we have the internet, we have the laptop, we can work anywhere. So it doesn't necessarily that yung iba gusto mag freelance because they want to work anywhere or they want to work anytime they want. Okay, let's go to advantages of being a freelance work. Flexibility. Of course, this is one advantage of a freelance. You get to choose your own project. For example, may kausap ako ka kanina siya na, siya na yun. Rather than investing her time in mobile development, siya rather choose being a freelance of a certain technology. So you get to choose. When being employed, you don't have that, you don't have that luxury of choosing of a certain project. For example, you only want to focus on web development, but your company accepted a project that will cater mobile application development as well. So you will be forced to undergo training, all those stuff, to be able to work on that certain project. So in freelance, you could choose actually. So that's one advantage. High earning potentials. So being a freelance, you could work multiple clients at the same time. For example, if you have a client paying you 100,000 a month, then another client paying you 100,000 a month. So working with two clients, you are earning 200,000 a month. While being employed, you only have one source of income. That is your salary, 1530. Diverse experience, opportunity to work at various clients' projects, gaining exposure to different technologies and industries. Dito, you could actually, for example, you are working with, you are doing projects for WordPress. Then you want to learn, let's say, reactive. So you get to choose again another client that one of the requirements is reactive. Let's say, if you want to do Java programming, you could do so. That's one advantage of being a freelance as well. You could pick or you could have diverse experience with multiple technologies. Disadvantage. Income inconsistency. So you are too dependent with your clients. Let's say, before pandemic, you have all these clients, then when pandemic struck, all of your clients were gone. So what will happen to you? So you don't have any income. So, possible that you're earning six figures right now, the next month, you will be earning a little less. So, there is no inconsistency. Unlike being employed, you have a fixed salary 15 and 30. Lack of job security. Of course, your client can cut your service anytime they want. In being employed, you are protected by company rules and regulations. Or if you are employed in a local company in the Philippines, you are protected by Dole. One example. Soal responsibility. Freelancers are solely responsible for finding clients, managers and administrators. So, when doing freelancing, it's actually very the competition is very, very stiff. So you have to have a very, very good portfolio. In order for you to find a client. So, being a student, what kind of portfolio are you going to show a certain client if you are a fresh grad? So, the possibility for you of getting a client is slim rather than those freelancers who already have experience for several years. Now, let's go to employment. Advantages. Of course, as I mentioned, stable income. You have a fixed salary. Let's say you are earning 100,000 a month. So, 1530. So, minus all the taxes. So, you get at least 40,000 every 15,000 or every 30,000. So, paycheck to paycheck. Job security. At least the company cannot fire you sa big laan. Of course, unless if you are working with a U.S. company, you don't have a local company. You don't have a local office in the Philippines. So, tendency, there are certain U.S. companies who can fire you on the day mismo. Let's say may violations ka. So, pero when you say job security, at least there are certain companies naman that will give you notice period. For example, two weeks or one month or let's say there are certain rules and regulations within the company that let's say you can only get fired for a certain number of violations. So, in freelancing you cannot do that. So, professional development. Of course, there are certain companies who send their employees for trainings, especially when handling new projects. Or mostly, if you are under in a tech company who are actually outsourcing projects if you will be assigned to a new role usually the company will send you for trainings before you will be able to handle that kind of projects. Now, disadvantage of employment. Okay. Limited flexibility. What you earn as a being employed, that's it. Let's say if you are working in a government you are earning around, let's say, 20,000 a month. So, wala na. That's your salary. You only get 20,000 a month. Unlike being a freelance you could get multiple clients. So, limited earning potentials then last is the lack of autonomy lack of control over project choices and decision making process. As I mentioned sa being employed you cannot choose your project. Actually the boss chooses the project for you. So, you cannot decline if the boss tells you to work on a certain project na hindi mo sya what you call, di mo specialty. But as I mentioned disadvantages the company will send you to training before handling, before you will be able to handle that kind of project. Okay. But what is the best part of being a freelance or employed? Of course. Here. Your job pays the bill. Your business pays the lifestyle. What do you mean by this? Which means you can do this. You can do both. You can be employed and at the same time you can do freelance. So, your employment pays the bills and your freelancing actually pays for your lifestyle. What kind of lifestyle if you love to travel then let your freelancing do that for you. So, for example ako I'm employed with the legal as a senior Java developer but at the same time I'm also doing freelancing as an IT consultant. So, previous speakers, I'm not going to mention na lang but they are also doing freelancing. So, the focus actually of what I'm talking here this afternoon is actually this is just for the fresh grad guiding them that don't jump when you graduate in the in universities, in IT courses don't automatically look for a freelance job. As much as possible look for a tech company that will develop your skills. Then later on you can decide whether you like to be being employed or being a freelance but why choose when you can do both. Thank you.