8m, published October 25, 2026
A client laid me off, so I tested the job market again in 2026. My React Native searches came back almost empty. So I rebranded with Claude: dropped CTO from my title, went AI Engineer, and turned my resume into an ATS-friendly one. Within a week of hunting seriously, I landed a client on OnlineJobs. Paid weekly.
10 years of my GitHub, before vs after AI9mOne email when the first course opens. Nothing else.
Get notifiedFreelance or corporate? Same job. The paycheck just runs bigger on the freelance side because you get the full salary. You cover your own tax, your own government contributions, your own HMO. In corporate that's all handled. 3 years in corporate taught me the ceiling is real. 6 years in freelance says the potential isn't. A title won't feed the family. A bigger paycheck will.
Say I want $50 an hour: I ask for $60. When the client comes back with a $45 to $55 budget, I negotiate them up to $55. I also never say my number first. I ask for the budget for the role, because if you say 100k and they had 200k, you just lost 100k. The proof on my website is what makes a high ask believable. Good luck sa job hunting, mga boss.
Where I find my clients, after 9 years in tech. In 2020 OnlineJobs started me at $12/hour, and two weeks of it paid what a whole month of my full-time job did. Later I asked for ₱120k with a thick face and got ₱110k. My ranking today: 1 LinkedIn, where recruiters come to me, 2 OnlineJobs, 3 Upwork, because the fees and paid connects eat your pay.
Mas simple na ang resume ko ngayon. I compare it with my older layouts, then show the prompt I send to ChatGPT: ATS-friendly formatting, keywords based on my actual work, and a check for improvements. Sent na ang request; the review is still pending in this clip. Save this for your next resume review.
