Why You Should Never Work for Free

Make-up artists(MUAs), photographers, writers, stylists and so on and so forth are always asking the question "Should I work for free?" My answer? Never.

I, myself, have gone through plenty of  TFP(trade for pictures) and apprenticeships when starting out as a MUA and still did when the shoot had a too-awesome concept or when it was for a publication.  But truth of the matter is, I never did any of this for free. Sure, I didn't get paid. And when I was given product vouchers / certificates(Magazines love to do these! Yay, free stuff!) or food / transportation allowance, I consider these gifts, not payment. 

Rewind back to the beginning. Why did I want to do TFP and apprenticeships to begin with? 

To learn. 

To widen my portfolio. 

To get publicised. 

Sounds pretty much self-benefiting to me! Plenty of people think success in the industry strongly relies on having strong connections to begin with. I never knew anyone from the industry but by working as an apprentice, I was shoulder-to-shoulder with people I needed to know and would never had any working relation with in any other circumstances. So you don't have current connections? Then make connections. Prove yourself. TFP and apprenticeship is the perfect way to do this! Getting publicised is an awesome deal. Ever since my name started to get printed on magazines, I've received streams of bookings, compliments and word-of-mouth with the sorts of "I know this MUA who was does work for ***** magazine! Let me hook you up." That, my dear, is priceless PR. 

You can decide to stop doing TFP if the work is redundant to you. But whenever you find yourself asking should you accept another TFP, ask yourself if the project will benefit you in any way. 

Is the concept something you really want to do? 

Will it be in a different publication where you can tap into a different market? 

Will I be working with someone who's got great techniques for me to pick-up?

or even as basic as: Will I have fun?

My only exception where I could say that I really will work for free is when it's for a good cause I believe in. For example, me and some colleagues did a confidence-boosting seminar for young rape victims. The photos isn't any unique addition to my portfolio nor did I learn any new trade techniques. However, I did go home with a warm fuzzy feeling which is pretty priceless! 

As Avenue Q goes "When you help someone, you can't help helping yourself". All of the circumstances of which I've worked as an apprentice or for TFP was beneficial to me(Hail to evolution's mutualism!). Kick out the "I'm getting ripped off" mentality. This mentality is the poison of your work. I've seen this happen to many times. 

Artist thinks it's work for free.

Artist slacks off, not taking it seriously.

Results of project crappy.

Artist unhappy, can't use project in portfolio.

Artist curses working for free.

Approach every project, regardless of paid or not, as you would professionally. Arrange pegs, research the concept, clean your products and so on and so forth. If you can't bring yourself up to do it, then don't even bother. Nobody wants to work with a sad sack!

Also, here's an awesome Should-I-Work-For-Free chart who does the deciding for you! (by Jessica Hische)

Click here for the full-size no-need-for-mutant-eyes-to-be-able-to-read image!

Sydney International Student, Banana English and Lucky Breaks

When I decided to come over Sydney as an international student, I had unmatchable excitement and optimism.  I was excited to start in a new school which was pretty well-known for the course I was taking then (Pre-press and Graphic Arts) and believed the mix of my fashion, arts, corporate and leadership background and experience was a great head start for a career in a country reputably so full of fresh opportunities.

A lot of optimism there was definitely let down.

Firstly, a lot of my experience came from freelance work. 

As a lot of make-up artists, stylists, writers or events organiser could say for themselves too. Freelance barely counts for anything in this country, or when moving to another country, for that matter. Freelance cannot be credited as official skills in most systems, some people whom I handed my resume to gave me a "Bull shit, yea right." face while skimming, and most of all, nobody can refer you to anybody as nobody knows you at all.

Secondly, "school" was horribly disappointing. 

I don't know how it got to this point, but because Australia offers a huge doorway for immigrants (compared to other first-world dream destination countries such as US of A, UK) it has a huge influx of international students, a lot with hopes  of being eventually absorbed as citizens. This resulted into schools lowering their standards of acceptance so they can accomodate more international students. Why? Simple: it's a multi-billion-dollar industry. For plenty of universities / colleges, the money they get from international students covers 20-90% of their total revenue. I can say I have not seen a single Aussie citizen in class for both schools I've been in.

A basic example of what taints the quality is the acceptance level of English fluency. The Department of Immigration and most schools require an IELTS exam result of their specified minimum score. However, if an applicant's English level (pardon the language as I believe it is the best word to use) sucks, they can alternatively take a short English course which the school itself will offer or has an affiliate school who does the English classes.

I have passed by a few of these classes and for what I can say, picture a teacher holding a banana with BANANA written on the blackboard then repetitively saying "Ba-na-na. Ba-na-na. Ba-na-na." Thus said, your chances of learning proper, or even just grasp an understanding of, English is not much farther as it is if you eat an entire copy of Merriam-Webster's latest dictionary edition.

School lessons over a span of a week, you can learn within 2 hours on your own time if you have a working understanding of English. This is my case with schools who simplify things. On the other hand, some schools will teach as they will, and let those who can't understand flow like seeds in the wind. I have met too plenty undergraduate students on their graduating year and still has no idea what they have just studied for the past years.

Lastly(for now), I cannot seem to get a break.

Without local experience in my desired occupations, it appears that nobody wants to give me a go. Every interview always asks about local experience, local experience and local experience. (Seriously though, how will I get any local experience if everybody wants local experience?) I am even very willing to work for free in internships to get a grasp of an Australian working experience and learn a lot from within the industry. However, most of the decent ones want you to be in a graduating year from a chosen few(and expensive) universities. Then, once in a while, I get some false hope in getting a better position with start-up business guys but the case happens is that I feel like I was doing the teaching than learning. Also, being on a student visa restricts your working hours and flexibility, making most employers put you in the bottom of the picking.

I have heard too many stories such as some guy from the UK coming here and claiming to be DJ (but actually has no experience of being one at all) and now has an awesome DJ career or the girl who worked as a kitchen hand then in one occasion had a conversation with some company big gun, wowed him, then got a great job offer. I think these are exaggerated versions of people who got some break in a career, worked hard in it, and are now in a good position. (Not that I don't believe these stories. They could be very true!) 

The point is not that I am hoping for a CEO position offer(not that I would turn one down), but all we need is a break. A break to prove how hard we can work and show what an asset we can be rather than being reduced to doing dead-end jobs when we have more to offer.