Ensuring income while still being a "dairy dad"
In the morning, when many people rush out of their homes, struggling to get through the traffic jams, pollution, and dust in Hanoi to get to work, Nguyen Viet Dung leisurely makes a cup of coffee and sits down to enjoy it. He takes the opportunity to review the product introduction video that his collaborators sent him last night before sending it to his customers in China.
Around 8am, when his daughter woke up and his wife went to work, Viet Dung quickly took on the role of a diaper dad. After cleaning his daughter, the young father fed her breakfast, then the two of them went down to the apartment lobby to let her play and sunbathe.
At noon, when his daughter is sleeping, he spends time on work, handling customer requests from domestic and foreign companies.
For the past 5 years, Nguyen Viet Dung, 32 years old, in Hanoi has maintained an income of 20-50 million VND/month while still having plenty of time for his family.
In particular, when the couple had small children, Dung took on the responsibility of staying home to take care of the children so that his wife could have the opportunity to advance. Dung's income remained stable every month thanks to his choice to work as a freelancer (an independent worker).
Being freelance, Viet Dung has a lot of time for his family.
Dung originally studied banking at Thang Long University, Hanoi. However, from his third year, he realized that he liked marketing (promotion and communication activities to bring goods or services to consumers) more, so he learned about this field and started working part-time.
Thanks to his early experience, Dung took on the position of marketing manager of a medium-sized study abroad company. His income at that time (2016) was quite good, about 15 million VND/month.
Having a job he loves, a caring leader, and a friendly working environment, however, many mornings when he wakes up, Viet Dung feels "afraid to go to work".
He said: "I live in Ha Dong but work in Hoang Cau, nearly 10km from home. Every morning, I usually spend an hour traveling on the road. When I get to the office, it usually takes me half an hour to wake up, hang around for a while, then have lunch with colleagues, rest for a few hours and then it's afternoon. The road home is always congested, which haunts me. Many days I don't get home until 7-8pm."
In addition to the difficulty of commuting, Viet Dung found that administrative management for some positions in the office was not really effective.
"At that time, I wanted to be able to go to work at 10-11am, but come home late, and work with concentration," Dung said.
After nearly 2 years working at a study abroad company, Dung decided to quit his job to open a website and do online business.
Thanks to his strengths in website building and marketing, Viet Dung had a pretty good start. But in the long run, balancing finances and importing goods… made it difficult for him.
Profits were not making a breakthrough, Dung decided to close the website. The period of operation of more than 6 months helped him realize the advantages of being his own boss, mastering his time.
Viet Dung's home office space.
Before deciding to become a freelancer, Viet Dung lived and worked in China for a year and a half. He said: "In 2018, my wife went to China to work for a game company. I also applied to work for a software application company. Thanks to that, when we returned to Vietnam, we had more relationships to support our current work."
In 2020, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic and his wife's pregnancy, Viet Dung decided to choose to become a freelancer.
After his wife gave birth, realizing that her chances of promotion were better, Mr. Dung encouraged his wife to go back to work on time. He could both work to ensure income and stay home to take care of the children.
Young father accompanies his child in the first years of life.
Every day, Viet Dung fulfills the duties of a father from feeding his child, putting him to sleep, playing with him, taking care of his personal hygiene... During the first 3 years when his child was not yet in school, he prioritized handling work when his child was sleeping, at noon or in the evening.
When his child was sick and had to be hospitalized, he would take his computer to the hospital to look after his child and work without having to ask for time off or pay attention to his boss's attitude.
Escape the dust but see more than just pink
Viet Dung's job is to produce content (content, messages conveyed through forms such as articles, videos, images), run ads, create websites, provide marketing training... The jobs come from domestic and Chinese companies.
After five years of "sitting at home working for a foreign company", the young father realized the many benefits of being a freelancer.
He shared that Hanoi is increasingly polluted. Especially in recent days, Hanoi has always been in the top of the most polluted cities in the world . Therefore, not having to travel on the road every morning helps him save 1-2 hours, his mind is not stressed when driving, his health is protected because of the limitation of vehicle exhaust, fine dust...
He has time to accompany his children, raise them the way he wants, and have time to be close to his family. Mr. Dung's wife is a product manager of a foreign company with a branch in Vietnam, so sometimes when she has urgent work to handle, Mr. Dung can support from afar.
"The biggest advantage is probably that I don't work too much, only about 4-5 hours a day, but I still have the same income as many people who work directly at companies," Viet Dung said.
Thanks to these advantages, more and more young people choose to freelance. However, according to Viet Dung, everything has two sides. Being a freelancer is not all rosy.
Specifically, the income of a freelancer will not be stable. The time may sound flexible but in many cases, freelancers do not have days off due to urgent requests from customers or when they need to return products in a short time.
Because they contribute their efforts silently and almost "hidden", freelancers will find it difficult to create a good profile or a series of promotions in their career.
"Being a freelancer like me will make my parents feel insecure because they always see that their children have no career, lack stability, and will not have a pension in the future...", Viet Dung said.
In particular, he believes that if a freelancer lacks discipline, easily compromises with himself when he wants to rest, wants to choose easy jobs... it will be difficult to maintain long-term, and the income will be inconsistent and not even enough to live on.
Inexperienced people may also face being "ripped off" when delivering products but not being paid by customers.
"I often use software to manage the dateline (work and product delivery deadline), collaborate with other freelancers to cross-check progress, work based on relationships or through intermediaries (if choosing to work through online marketplaces)...", the young father said.
Viet Dung also often seeks to maintain working relationships such as increasing interaction with customers on platforms and providing free consultation to old customers.
He also buys insurance and uses part of his income to buy investment fund certificates to have money for the future.
From his own experience, the young father gives advice to those who are wondering between working for a company and working freelance at home: "Each choice has its pros and cons. Before deciding, each person should calculate clearly, consider the field they work in, their personality...
There are people who are suitable to work at home but there are people who have to go to the office environment, if they work alone, they will get depressed or not be able to maximize their capacity...".
Photo: Character provided
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/doi-song/ha-noi-ong-bo-lam-viec-o-nha-luong-nghin-usd-van-ranh-cham-con-20241115152446463.htm
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