Struggles of being a freelancer in Bangladesh

[Swopon]

Freelancing is an exciting and growing career path that is gaining more and more popularity in Bangladesh. The term means lending your talents, skills ‍and time in exchange for a payment.

It is a work environment where you are your boss; you work as much or as little as you like, and you work from where you feel comfortable. But it is not all coffee and cakes, especially for freelancers living in a third-world country like Bangladesh.

Social perceptions

A freelancer's pursuit of success meets with an unsupportive family, society's erroneous attitude, discouraging financial conditions, frauds, unendurable working conditions, risks of physical, mental afflictions and much more.


Hardships begin the moment a person decides to become a freelancer and the struggle follows them throughout their career. There is an ill-founded belief in the Bangladeshi society that working from a computer and earning from it is no more than a hoax. The society's favouritism for 9-5 jobs has always been an obstacle for freelancers who are just starting. "My father did not believe it was possible to work from a computer and earn money until I gave him 8 thousand takas from one of my very early freelance jobs," says Khaled Saif, a freelance graphic designer and instructor.

Kashim Uddin Masum, a graphic designer and founder of Sofol Freelancer, a popular digital skills learning platform, says that people around freelancers often make it harder for them to go on. "My neighbours would tell my dad that I watched pornography on my computer all night but when the wheels turned and I started making good money, they became my admirers, " he said.

Becoming a freelancer

The first thing a freelancer has to decide is what skills he has to learn and that puzzles almost everybody venturing in the freelancing world. There are multitudes of opportunities such as writing/editing, graphic design, web design and development, video editing, marketing, legal consultation and almost anything one might need help with. A freelancer has to choose one or just a few from these available options.

Masum found himself jumping from course to course as he did not know which course suited him best. In his words, "I'd have never taken up graphic design at the beginning if I knew about the steep hardware requirements. I could not afford a powerful pc back then". This lack of knowledge and guidance can be a career killer.

To learn his desired skills, a freelancer has to get into a training institution or purchase online courses. Most institutional and online courses that are of good quality are priced very highly. Besides, countless fraudulent training institutions make false claims and lure students in only to suck money from them.

Masum once got himself admitted into a web development course. After a few days in, the institution asked him to buy a domain and hosting services to continue the classes that were not mentioned before. He became frustrated and left the course. He added, "There are very few training institutions outside of Dhaka, and they are not that good". These frauds need to be stopped to preserve freelancers' motivation.

A difficult path

Joining the workforce is just the beginning of the sufferings that lay ahead. A freelancer might need to wait for months to land his first job. When he does, he might need to work according to his client's time zone, who lives on the other side of the world. In Bangladesh's context, the better-paying jobs are mostly from western countries such as the USA, UK, Canada, etc. Most freelancers here have to decide between getting a good night's sleep and working for less money or sacrificing eyesight and earn more along with headache and numbness.

Freelancing is often more demanding than a 9-5 job. Ahamed Nobi Ahan is a top-rated Virtual Support Representative at Upwork who works three jobs but tries to manage them well so that he can sleep at night. He says, "I know many freelancers who work 24/7". This, consequently, may lead to long-term health problems.

A freelancer has to stay active and respond quickly to clients' messages if he wants to keep a top search result ranking once he establishes a good position in freelancing marketplaces. This leaves little to no time for personal care and jumbles up eating and sleeping schedules.

According to Mr Ahan, giving time to the family is even more challenging. This can lead to depression and cause severe harm both mentally and physically. He suggests freelancers use the "Vacation" feature that many marketplaces offer, allowing freelancers to have some free time.

Lack of infrastructure

Two major problems that cripple a freelancer's workflow in Bangladesh are its painfully slow internet connection and frequent power cuts. Masum currently lives in Qatar, and to continue working when he visited Bangladesh, he has spent a fortune to get a broadband internet connection. He is still not satisfied with the connection speed. Although load-shedding almost a thing of the past in the major cities, it is still a concern in the rural areas.

The unavailability of Paypal, the most prominent global online payment service provider, is another significant disadvantage for freelancers. Mr Masum is a regular user of Paypal, and he cannot use it while in Bangladesh. Paypal is so crucial in the online payment sector that it has become a need, not a privilege. All of whom we interviewed for this article, urged the Government and Bangladesh Bank to try and strike up a deal with Paypal, making it much easier for the freelancers and the general people to make global payments.

Employers' perceptions

At the other end of the spectrum, working with freelancers from Bangladesh has been a mixed experience for Asikur Rahman, Creative Officer at Ad Hostage, who hires freelancers for digital needs. He often encounters freelancers who lack the skills they boast, cannot meet deadlines and cannot communicate very well. He says, "We now look at their portfolios carefully and try to find the best match for our needs".

According to the ICT Division of the Bangladesh Government, There are 650,000 freelancers in Bangladesh, of which 500,000 are actively working. Bangladesh also ranked 8th In the 2019 Global Gig-Economy Index published by Payoneer. Freelancers in the country are bringing in 850 crore takas annually, and still, freelancing is not given its due respect and attention.

In Ahan's words, "A government job with a BDT 20,000-30,00 salary is worth more to the people of our country than a freelancing job with earnings up to 2-3 lakhs. We even have to go to lengths to verify our earnings when dealing with banks".

The way forward

The government has expressed its will to provide more facilities for freelancers and recently started issuing freelancer ID cards. These cards are meant for helping them get bank loans quickly and solve the identity crisis problem, but there are reports of incidents where these ID cards were not being valued at all.

Being a freelancer in Bangladesh is not easy and the ones doing it are brilliant and valuable people. The government and concerned bodies should get to the bottom of the problems they face, and our society should be more open and accepting of new forms of work and technologies.

Source- https://www.thedailystar.net/toggle/news/struggles-being-freelancer-bangladesh-2078253

[1714730379]

1714730379

[iamsheikhadil]

Many of the struggles you mentioned are also applicable in my country, India. The thing is, we are trapped in a very bad education system, which means to study for years in a school, then go to college, get a job and marry, have kids and then die. This is viewed as the "normal" life by many, and hence in this part of the world, anyone who thinks out of the box are frowned upon. With the Modi government going more digital, things have eased a lot, in terms of payment systems like PayPal etc. But I think it's not the infrastructure lacking or something, it's the mindset of the people, see our countries have been ruled by British empires for hundreds of years and they have colonized and created a education system through which they can create "slaves" or in polite terms, employers that will work for the government. All the school, education, degrees means only to get a "job". The early generations are used to it and sees it as the holy jackpot, and that's why they insist on getting a 9-5 job which makes no sense. I am optimistic and am sure with change of generations, these societal taboos and myths will vanish, and one day we will also be as broad-minded as the west in terms of ways of living and productivity.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Not to mention that people will judge you because you don't have a job per se and a lot of cultures have an ingrained disdain to people who aren't pulling their weight to contribute. Hopefully, you will become successful when it comes to freelancing in your country because I feel like this is the peak of working, you can choose when and where you work.

[sunsilk]

There really are struggles for most freelancers but it's sad that in certain regions, they're experiencing more than the struggle that we can think of.

These cards are meant for helping them get bank loans quickly and solve the identity crisis problem, but there are reports of incidents where these ID cards were not being valued at all.

The government should give caution to those establishments that don't deal fair with the freelancers who do or don't have the ID. But for the freelancing sector to grow and be more progressive, the government has to focus first in the infrastructures which is the most important thing for freelancers, internet.

[ultrloa]

Not to mention that people will judge you because you don't have a job per se and a lot of cultures have an ingrained disdain to people who aren't pulling their weight to contribute. Hopefully, you will become successful when it comes to freelancing in your country because I feel like this is the peak of working, you can choose when and where you work.

Just ignore those people and don't let them get into your nerves, just focus achieving your goals by working on your jobs since sooner or later once they seeing you improving they will give a huge respect to you and ask you on how you earn your fortune. I experience that before especially by using bitcoin they just laugh at it and when they know I'm earning and the price of it became more bigger thwy became curious and ask what to do and how to earn.

[Oceat]

Not to mention that people will judge you because you don't have a job per se and a lot of cultures have an ingrained disdain to people who aren't pulling their weight to contribute. Hopefully, you will become successful when it comes to freelancing in your country because I feel like this is the peak of working, you can choose when and where you work.

Just ignore those people and don't let them get into your nerves, just focus achieving your goals by working on your jobs since sooner or later once they seeing you improving they will give a huge respect to you and ask you on how you earn your fortune. I experience that before especially by using bitcoin they just laugh at it and when they know I'm earning and the price of it became more bigger thwy became curious and ask what to do and how to earn.

It's 2021 and yet people are still shaming each other because of what they reached or what they have done. They never know the "minding your own business" because it's their lives and let them live their lives. There's nothing wrong of being a freelancer or even a janitor or the lowest rank of job it's still a job and it's decent. As long as you never step someone whether you are the CEO or the Janitor in a company you should stay humble because no one is permanent in this world.

[AicecreaME]

If being a freelancer is so hard in your country, then think of something else. Do not let yourself trap in just one door, there's a lot of opportunities outside of it, go out in your comfort zone because that is where you'll grow. I'm also a freelancer photographer, but I'm not from Bangladesh, at first, it was really hard because I had no portfolio, no experience, but my photography is really good, but I did lack on self-confidence that time until I started to be proud of my skills and made my way to introduce my skills on clients, so on and so forth.

My tip is that don't listen to others opinion, just do your thing, do what makes you happy and in no time, you'll achieve your dreams because you listened to your heart's desire. You're the only one who knows what's the best for you and what's the best thing to do, so don't stop just because it's hard.

[bekti3]

to be honest, the citizens of Bangladesh are people who have a high enough imagination. any job, they always have an innovative innovation that amazes us. In some videos we always like to watch how they do things, make some tools from waste materials and much more. only one problem there is the uncontrolled level of cleanliness. The holy river Ganges has begun to be polluted by the remains of the cremated ashes of the corpses, the factory waste that has increasingly overflowed. so the level of health there is very worrying.

[Ibrahim60]

In Bangladesh, Most of the citizens don't know about What is Freelancing? Some people think that Freelancing is not legit. A freelancer can't show any identity in his society. Most of the people of his (a freelancer) society think that he (the freelancer) use computer and earn money from it. They have no clear concept and ideas about freelancing. But the government make decisions to give freelancer identity card to all the freelancer. This is really a good decision. I think if anyone want to be a freelancer or be a freelancer for a long time then don't think about people opinion. Just do his/her duty and earn money.

[kolbalish]

In Bangladesh, Most of the citizens don't know What is Freelancing? Some people think that Freelancing is not legit. A freelancer can't show any identity in his society. Most of the people of his (a freelancer) society think that he (the freelancer) uses a computer and earns money from it. They have no clear concept and ideas about freelancing. But the government make decisions to give freelancer identity card to all the freelancer. This is a good decision. I think if anyone wants to be a freelancer or be a freelancer for a long time then don't think about people's opinions. Just do his/her duty and earn money.

I agree with you with great attention. Because there are very limited people in Bangladesh who understand what freelancing is. And most people do not understand what it is and what it performs. The funny aspect is that many do not even know its name. It is very problematic to survive in such a dilemma. They think it's not after any profession. That's why no one attends to freelancing. Let the government take a favorable step in this regard so that everyone can know and understand. And don't underestimate those who are freelancers.

[dothebeats]

I've been into freelancing for about 3 years and most of the employers really look down on some of the freelancers that came from Southeast Asia and South Asia. Probably because there are a lot of freelancers undercutting other people to get the job and delivering half-assed results. But for the most part, it's just that they believe Westerners are better in terms of skills and work ethic compared to their Asian counterparts. I started with $5/hr on oDesk, and managed to make it grow to $40/hr and learned lots of skills that I am applying to my permanent position right now.

In freelancing, you really have to market yourself in a way that employers won't care about which country you belong to so long as you deliver great results and your skills are top-notch. It's hard to start without experience and that is very true, although there are several avenues to which you can hone your skills and be better at what you're doing. Afterwards you'll just see employers sending you invites for a job and you'll make money in no time.

[el kaka22]

I have to say being a freelancer has problems in other nations as well. Think about it this way, you do not have social security, which means when you retire... well you can't retire, you do not have a social security that will allow government to take care of you, in my country there are things where you pay a certain tax which will later in life means you will be getting free money from government when you retire, why? Because you paid that specific tax, that is why, and for freelancers there is nothing like that.

I am a freelancer from another nation and I can tell you that it is really not easy for me neither, it is really difficult and I have been financially well enough thanks to crypto, but that was thanks to crypto, if I worked for fiat I would have been in horrible condition, this is why I would not suggest anyone else to become a freelancer, I like it, but it is really hard.

[Ryker1]

Well, these struggles are being experienced by almost 90% of freelancers. Being a freelancer is not really easy. You had to make sure to have your character stay on the ground. Unless you don’t really care about your job. From an employer’s perspective. It is really hard to hire freelancers that became freelancers because they were lazy. Like they have all the time in the world to finish their projects but they never meet their requirements before the deadline due to procrastination. And that is a poor work ethic er work attitude. If you want to be successful you have to be punctual. If not --do not expect to win. You are a loser.

[eaLiTy]

After reading all the responses it is a struggle to be a freelancer in all parts of the world and hopefully we need a massive change in that aspect. The situation in Bangladesh is a different thing altogether compared to the west as you mentioned that you are not able to use PayPal to accept payments but what about other options and i think Rocket pay is widely used and i am aware that BTCitcoin trading is termed illegal by the government and you have to take into consideration those risk as well.

[just_Alice]

Seriously? I was shocked by the statement that freelancing isn't considered serious and is perceived as a joke by society. They must have really old-fashioned standards then. IMO think it's all vice versa. In today's world, anyone who is something, who is good at (or at least wants to be good at) something has a desire for self-development and doesn't feel like working for some boss will eventually switch to freelancing.
Once again, it's a good example of why you shouldn't listen to someone else's opinion. Having a steady job and simply taking orders from someone is an easy way, a safe way, but it leads to nowhere. At most, you can get a promotion, but you'll never have something of your own. So I say yes to freelancing and to anyone who is brave enough to do it.

[davis196]

I tried being a freelancer during the last few years and it was a rat race.
You don't have any consistent income and the competition is insane.
You have to work for demanding and low paying customers and you have to struggle to find new customers at the same time.
If you are happy being a freelancer,that's great.
Do I wanna stay in the freelance business?No thanks,I will try to find a 9/5 job.

[Kittygalore]

I tried being a freelancer during the last few years and it was a rat race.
You don't have any consistent income and the competition is insane.
You have to work for demanding and low paying customers and you have to struggle to find new customers at the same time.
If you are happy being a freelancer,that's great.
Do I wanna stay in the freelance business?No thanks,I will try to find a 9/5 job.

That is another problem, you always have to be on top of your game because there are a lot of freelancers that can do the job and this also spawns the problem of abusive clients who exploit the idea of competition by giving lower rates since there are more people that are going to replace the freelancer if they did not accept the offer.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Not to mention that people will judge you because you don't have a job per se and a lot of cultures have an ingrained disdain to people who aren't pulling their weight to contribute. Hopefully, you will become successful when it comes to freelancing in your country because I feel like this is the peak of working, you can choose when and where you work.

Just ignore those people and don't let them get into your nerves, just focus achieving your goals by working on your jobs since sooner or later once they seeing you improving they will give a huge respect to you and ask you on how you earn your fortune. I experience that before especially by using bitcoin they just laugh at it and when they know I'm earning and the price of it became more bigger thwy became curious and ask what to do and how to earn.

I am not talking about personal experience but I know the gossip culture of my country and the stigma that for someone to be successful, they have to have a job which is bullshit because you will only be successful if you are not working but you are still earning money. I also like to mention that the people who do this gossip shit are your local drunkard and scum of society.

[cheezcarls]

This reminds me of my early struggles in freelancing way back in 2009. I was trying to earn extra money for myself because I am not happy of my $10 weekly allowance as a college student (sometimes even less if I am doing something stupid). I was happy enough to earn $50 to $100 extra every week, but my parents are so concerned that I may not be focusing on my studies anymore (but I did manage my time both freelance work and study).

When I have graduated in college, they are expecting me to land a stable office work, however I choose to defy them and start loving my freelancing career. Eventually, they didn’t like my path and keep doing “sermon” sessions with me for years. For several years, I struggled to earn decently with my freelance jobs, but they keep pushing me to pass the civil service examination and get a stable office work or just simply work in the government rather than being “free”.

There was a time that I experienced having the “worst of the worst” sermons because my parents showed me their money in front of me (probably 6 figures in Philippine peso), where they asked me about my savings and I just kept silent, because I have little money left. There come a time that I was scammed and left me with almost -$2,000 in my Paypal, and it was one of the worst and stressful events of my life. But I kept fighting instead of whining and crying until I finally paid it off, and my dad and I aren’t on the same page too.

Then I started exploring cryptocurrency silently. I started learning how to trade, participate in ICOs, joining airdrops and bounty programs, etc., and I didn’t expect that it turned my life around. I started expanding my skills by becoming a local keynote speaker in various communities, become a part of multiple projects, traveling every month both local and overseas, and now as a small Youtube influencer doing project reviews and exclusive interviews.

The main thing is that if you want to become a full time freelancer, you should strengthen your portfolio first. I endured that for years by building up my portfolio, and it finally paid off. If your portfolio isn’t strong yet or you are still new, it’s better that you should find a 9-5 work (whether office or remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and do freelance gig on the side until your portfolio is strong enough to give you a much stable income while you are free.

[macson]

snip

well, i think cases like this are not only happening in Bangladesh but all over the world who are still not open-minded.  freelance is a term for those who earn money on their own, do not depend on the salary of others and will only get money if they work.

advice for freelancers, you must continue to persevere with your desire to become financially independent.  they may sound good because they get paid regularly by other people but psychologically, they actually feel pressured by the routine they do every day.  freelance is not an easy thing, ups and downs of income will definitely happen but being financially independent is really joyful.