How I Quit My Full-Time Job to Pursue a Freelance Career As a Data Visualization Designer

I took this image on my last day (Aug 9, 2019) at my previous job. I cleaned up my desk and was ready to go. It was the biggest risk I took in my life.

It’s been four months since I quit my full-time job to pursue a career in data visualization (data viz) design. I thought I’d talk about what I’ve learned thus far so that others might learn something from my journey. Full disclaimer: everything I talk about in this article is specific to my situation. Consider what I’m advising and if it could work in your own context. My goal is to provide my story; I hope it might help if you are thinking about freelancing.

Why I Started Freelancing

I used to work as a Data Design Specialist at Kantar, a market research company in Toronto. I worked on PowerPoint reports, made sure all charts conformed to brand guidelines, were clear, and looked good. I worked at this job from 2017–2019 and it was my second job out of school. During my time there, I knew it wasn’t a place I wanted to stay for long. Don’t get me wrong, I had no issues with the company or the people, I learned a lot and the experience was amazing. I left because I wanted to move beyond PowerPoint and create projects that were a lot more ambitious. At this point I was stuck because I couldn’t find any jobs in Toronto that aligned with what I wanted to do. I wanted to work as a designer to create bespoke work, and more specifically, I wanted to work with…