Freelancing without a Mentor

♦ March 30, 2014 ♦ Leave a comment

My cousin is a graphic designer/artist/pin-up model who lives in L.A., so I lucked out with being able to ask a few questions about my career choices: should I continue; advice getting into the game industry; know what to expect; etc.

It was assuring to know that when I told her of my plans of trying to get into the video game industry, she told me that, as long as it’s my dream, I should absolutely pursue it. Yet, it wasn’t very assuring to be told that most of her friends in the game industry had little to know knowledge of designing games, and still obtained a game design position. Her friends were the perfect examples of: “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”

Since they all live in California, though, I’m not as peeved about it. After all, their chances of running into anyone in the game industry are 90% higher than compared to where I live. That just means that I have to put a ton of effort into what I plan to do.

I asked a few questions about how she went about her academic decisions and a little bit about her job. My cousin was able to help calm my nerves on a few aspects I worried about — except for one.

This was something I just couldn’t bring myself to ask.

One of my habits is becoming a bad habit now, because of how it interferes with my life professionally. Being home schooled throughout most of junior high, and being the only one of my friends to maintain a 3.5+ GPA throughout high school and college, I learned to study and work independently. I’d ask questions when I was completely stuck, but other than that, if I felt I could resolve it on my own, I’d do it myself. 

The thing I couldn’t bring myself to ask of anyone was to ask for more guidance. Maybe be given the chance to stay under their wing, even temporarily. Everyone I knew was rather busy with their career and other people; I just never brought myself to speak up.

I know I shouldn’t feel that way with my cousin — she’s my cousin, after all — but since she lives in another state and has a lot on her plate, I didn’t want to be an addition on her ever-growing “to-do” list. 

‘Course, she probably wouldn’t think of my request as such, but… I suppose I’m also enveloped in pride. I kind of want to try and figure things out for myself without getting too many hand-outs from relatives — as well as other, personal reasons.

Since I can’t even ask my own cousin, you could probably imagine the difficulty I have even considering asking someone else for advice. By someone else, I’m mostly speaking of other freelancers, whether successful or even barely starting out.

There’s always the fact you can exchange helpful advice from one freelancer to another, but that’s not quite what I’m looking for.

Though, I have tried contacting some others before in the past. Some appeared friendly in their blog posts, which was what kept me around once their similar interests and advice lured me in. When I’d email them, I’d make sure that it was an email they said they were able to access; I didn’t ask the obvious; I wouldn’t be rude; I wouldn’t ask for freebies; and generally would abide by everything they mentioned in their guidelines for contacting.

I never got lucky: I either emailed people who rarely/never got online; I made a tiny mistake in my email (that I wasn’t aware of?); or they’d completely ignore me — I’m assuming.

After many failed attempts at reaching out, that convinced me to stop asking for help altogether. 

Honestly, I’d be satisfied with having only one mentor. The mentor I speak of will, surely, be knowledgeable of what they do (they don’t need to be experts, just good at what they do), as well as be easy to talk to. They’ll be willing to offer advice and are patient. 

The problem is, I’m not sure how to go about finding one that can help me with my interests. 

There’s also the issue of finances. I know that mentors — if they decide to teach — do so at a price. But I’m being hopeful with finding someone who doesn’t require any payment. I feel this way because I know those people exist; some just aren’t the type to jump from the crowd screaming: “I’ll help!”

Usually, they get swarmed by too many people that they either give up or decide to limit their guidance to a handful of people.

This might also be wishful thinking, but I don’t feel like mentors and students that are treated as employer and client develop a deep enough connection. I’m not saying that they should become “besties for life” or remove the professional relations altogether.

When there’s no money involved, there’s a chance to be friendly and possibly stay friendly for a long time. You’ll be able to count on each other as more than simply networking opportunities, but won’t need to worry about sharing how your godmother’s wedding went last night. 

When money is involved, the relationship usually ends or is limited to FarmVille spam once the contract ends.

What I really wanted to say with this: I’m lacking in professional companionship. I hope I can eventually find that person that is willing to help out and isn’t bothered doing so. But also be able to ask how their day was once in a while without being weird. 

I’m not sure who would consider doing this for free. I doubt that anyone that does would openly share that they would. But here’s to lots of hopes sprinkled over the massive amount of effort I’m about to put in to do this.

I have a website that I want to improve, as well as my writing ability. I want to be able to write video game entries that will interest readers, whether they’re fans or not. (That’d be a nifty challenge: getting a non-gamer interested in your gaming article.) 

While I do that, I’ll be on the lookout for someone that can offer their help and if they did I’d definitely promote them and buy them gifts when my skills make me successful.

There was more I wanted to write out, but I write too much anyway. I told myself I’d slowly limit myself to shorter posts, to help anyone that happens to have a short attention span. But I can’t help write out all my thoughts that just end up being longer than they should be. Oh, feelings..

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