I recently met Kara, a freelance virtual assistant who talks about not getting as many job offerings as she used to. I feel for her. Today, there’s a growing industry of website outsourcing. For freelancers, that means competition. The booming information technology industry and the growing number of high-speed internet connections worldwide offer seemingly endless job openings that any freelancers can pursue.

Clients who need virtual assistants are opting to contact outsourcing companies instead of hiring direct workers in order to keep away from scammers and unskilled staff. And freelancers now find it tough to get an honest client over the internet.

But Kara is generally relaxed with her job. She likes freelance work. Although she recognizes such problems come with her job as a freelancer, the issue is too small to cause panic and go back to office employment. And if she wants to switch careers, she can. After all, virtual assistance is only one of the many opportunities that are offered over the web.

As a young mother to a 2-year-old girl, Kara’s attraction to freelance work is her ability to control time from home. Unlike in an office setting, freelancers like her can set their own working hours as long as work is done within the established time frame. Kara just sees to it that she submits high quality output before the set deadline. Otherwise, she will lose employers because of poor performance.

Another benefit of going freelance is the ability to choose what type of job to undertake. Kara graduated from  university with a degree in business management, but her interest in information technology is evident in the many website skills that she’s mastered and the many blog sites that she’s created. The moment she decided to resign from work as a store manager, she already knew she would become a virtual assistant.

Kara’s advice for those who want to do freelance work is to take on projects that they are competent with. Freelancers should not promise their employers they have skills that they really do not possess. If you’re lacking knowledge in systems administration, then you better not respond to a job that is looking for systems administrator. Getting hired to do a job that you lack knowledge of is detrimental to both parties. Chances are, you’ll mess up your employer’s website instead of improving it, and the result will likely be that the employer won’t pay for your services and, even worse, may leave negative feedback about you on the web or freelancing websites.

When it comes to unfamiliar tasks that you have relevant skills for, Kara suggests taking on the tasks as long as the employer concedes to doing it and is aware of your lack of experience. This will provide an avenue for you to expand your knowledge and resume, and offer more services in the future.

However, Kara warns that freelance work is not for everyone, especially for those who can’t manage their time effectively. Becoming a freelancer usually involves long hours spent in front of a computer alone. Thus, people who are not used to working alone may get lonely while on the job. It is very important that a freelancer remains motivated and focused on the objectives that she had set. Otherwise, she will lose enthusiasm to work and her output will be affected.

My encounter with freelancer Kara has made me realize that there are really no lowly or lonely jobs in the world, only grumpy and lonely people who cannot see the blessings that come with their jobs.

Then the famous line from my favorite poem comes to mind: “Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.”