Bianca is a 20-year-old undergraduate student from Long Beach, California who used the freelance platform WorkGenius to support the household of her single mother and three siblings. Since joining WorkGenius (formerly MylittleJob) two years ago, she has taken on a variety of jobs. Building on her major in English Education, Bianca enjoyed writing SE optimized product descriptions for several companies (e.g.,wish.com and mypostcard). Read the story of this true WorkGenius!
J: Bianca, as an undergraduate student, can you apply the knowledge from your college courses to your WorkGenius jobs or do you discover totally new aspects of work?
B: The jobs that I take are definitely based on what I’m learning right now. I really enjoyed the writing aspects of some of the WorkGenius jobs, but I was also interested in learning about new topics, like Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I first learned about SEO through WorkGenius, and I did my own research because I wanted to learn even more about it. Today I feel better knowing one more aspect of writing that I didn’t know before.
J: One of the reasons you first took jobs on WorkGenius was to support your mother – what was the situation for you back then?
B: My family is actually a single-parent household. My father passed away when I was young. We used to live in the Philippines, and when I was in fourth grade, we moved to America. Seeing my mom work as a single mother, especially in a new country and learning English as a second language, I felt that it was only fair for me to do my part and help contribute to the family. When I was 18 and entered college, I was looking for as many jobs as possible and did a lot of research on what kind of online jobs I could do. WorkGenius happened to be one of those platforms I could use whenever I wanted. College life is really stressful, but with WorkGenius I was able to take on jobs at random hours of the day, and I didn’t need to go into an office. I could do the jobs on my own time, and that really helped me accumulate a good amount of money so I could help pay for groceries and utilities around the house.
J: Several studies show that it is much harder for people with an immigrant background to find decent, well-paid work. For you as the daughter of a single mother coming from the Philippines, do you think that freelance platforms can enable people with an immigrant background to find good work?
B: I definitely think they do, especially online platforms for remote work like WorkGenius. For what I can say about my household, I am super busy a lot of the time and I can’t really be everywhere at once. Online platforms give me the chance to get extra income to support my family while I am doing a lot of other things in ‘real life.’ I also think that I find less discrimination on these platforms than I do in other settings. When I’m in ‘real life’ I have to present myself in a certain way, so that people take me seriously. But online they really just care about your skill, which I really appreciate.
“I can pick up a WorkGenius job whenever I want.”
J: What would you say is different about WorkGenius in the freelance platform space? What is the advantage of freelance work for you personally?
B: I’ve stuck with WorkGenius for so long mainly because of two reasons. First, that it’s all remote jobs and I could definitely pick and choose ones that fit best. It’s really helpful that you get to see what the jobs entails, what they are paying exactly, and how much work is going to go into the job. It’s really useful in that aspect because everything is laid out in front of you versus jobs where you don’t really know what you are expected to do each time.
Second, it’s very convenient for a student that wants to pursue a degree and still get good grades. I really appreciate that I can pick up a WorkGenius job whenever I want. Sometimes I’ll be at school sitting in classes and I will pick up a job really fast. It will be 3 in the morning and I’ll just do a random job. You can’t do that in a regular office job.
J: What are your plans for the future? Did the WorkGenius jobs help you to find out what you want to do after your degree?
B: Even though I’m not going into SEO work in the future, I do want to become a professor. At the same time, it has definitely taught me aspects and skills that I would not have learned otherwise. I would have to take a class at school or do research on my own, but because I’m able to implement these skills in a real-world setting, doing these jobs for real companies, I definitely think that I gained a lot of professional experience that I’ll use towards my future.
J: Do you want to go on taking jobs on WorkGenius in the future?
B: Absolutely! Students and professionals worldwide have the knowledge and desire to work independently. Bianca’s success shows how freelancing platforms give them the chance to utilize their talent and gain relevant work experience. A sophisticated AI matching-algorithm allows WorkGenius to judge people by their performance and the skills that matter. The WorkGenius platform gives independent people the chance to work in meaningful jobs. This is how we see the the future of work.
