If you’re unemployed and seeking a full-time job, you could intentionally approach freelancing as if it were an alternative to the interview process.

This can be effective, because every hiring manager has too many problems and too little time. They are, often, toiling away at work that doesn’t add leverage for them (nor does it fit their expertise), but is required. At the same time, while they have budgets to spend, they don’t have permission to hire more people. If their problem happens to be in your realm of expertise, you can help solve the problem by scoping a project out and offering to work with the hiring manager as a freelancer (or independent contractor or part-time).

If you’re not employed, and you’re feeling the pressure to earn, freelancing helps alleviate some of that financial pressure. 

The downside is that it’s not a guaranteed outcome, not the same way an interview certainly leads to a job if your application is successful. However, freelancing is a useful way to start a working relationship. It could lead to a stronger job application, a literal job offer, or a referral to a different good team or company.

Once you start adding value, the hiring manager and team will want to keep you around one way or another.

I’ve personally experienced this: when I was freelance writing and working as an independent marketing consultant early in my career, clients would frequently ask if I was available for full-time work. Two years before I joined FGX as a full-time director of marketing, I was hired as an independent consultant. 

A more prominent example comes to mind, also: Figma’s CTO, Kris Rasmussen, first started as a part-time contractor working two days per week.