At LawSikho & SkillArbitrage (both brands are owned by Addictive Learning Technology Limited), we have a formula for success that our students follow:
Skills/capability + Credibility/ track record + Outreach = success in anything
Most people remain stuck at the knowledge level, and assume the rest of it will happen automatically over time.
A lot of people do not develop any skills, which is very damaging. Skills are critical, knowledge is not enough.
Here is a list of 50 skills that you need to have to perform this work.
For our students, learning the skills is a 6-month journey. They start getting significant traction in 3-6 months as they learn 2 skills per week and build their track record and outreach.
Then, you must build your track record.
Here is what to do to build a track record:
- Build some initial track record by performing projects on Upwork and by working for international and domestic startups, and foreign privacy professionals. You can approach them through LinkedIn, email and Twitter.
- Create your Upwork and social media profile and build your track record by performing remote freelance work. Put up work samples.
- List privacy-related gigs on Fiverr as well. Learn how to craft amazing proposals on Upwork and gigs on Fiverr.
- Write articles on data protection and privacy compliance that you can share with potential clients
- Write engaging posts on your social media profile
- It is a great idea to clear the CIPP/CIPM/CIPT Exam sometime on your journey or get an ISO certification – our students prepare for the CIPP exam and clear it in 3-4 months (and later for other exams as well). Although you can start with Europe, you should ideally clear it for all 4 regions to have maximum opportunities.
- CIPP exams do not focus on practical work, so you need to focus on Europe, US and Canada so that you can work for a variety of clients.
The next step is to do outreach.
Here are a few examples to do outreach:
- Learn how to craft amazing proposals on Upwork and gigs on Fiverr
- Spend time everyday to apply for relevant projects on Upwork
- Reach out to foreign startup founders directly on Twitter and LinkedIn, and through email
- Reach out to foreign professionals and law firms, MNCs through directories and email – assist them to build their brand, write articles, post on their social media and assist them to get on top podcasts across the world
- Work on improving your Google search results
At the initial stage, earning money should not be the focus – you need to build relationships and clients who will vouch for you.
After you have obtained 3-4 testimonials, you can start charging for your services.
Once clients get a taste of your work and know that you deliver high value, you can start charging well – USD 10/hr or more. By this time you will have a decent track record to show, and you will also have testimonials from clients.
Those who are working remotely should be able to earn USD 1000-2500 per month, depending on how much time they invest.
Those who want to apply for jobs will have a few options at this stage:
- One of your international clients may be interested in converting your freelance position into a remote job (part-time or full-time) as they will have regular work and they want to ensure your availability for it.
- Imagine that one of the domestic startups you worked for has raised investment and is now expanding internationally. Who will they consider for handling their privacy work? Professionals in the US, Europe and Canada are too expensive, and will make their costs go very high. Amongst domestic talent, they trust your work.
- You can also apply for jobs in the Big Four, or with data protection firms, or with large corporations – the CIPP qualification + remote freelance experience will enable you to stand out from everyone else.
- If your employer is a foreigner, you may also have the option to secure in-person employment later, if you play your cards right.
- Some of you will be able to take up additional responsibility in your existing jobs, and put your career on a new growth track.
Here is a professional whom we helped in this area – he built a track record of remote work in privacy and then landed a full-time job as well!
Suvrat Jain, (July 2022), performed remote work with several international clients and earned a few lakhs.
He hadn’t even cleared the CIPP Exam until then.
His track record enabled him to land a job as a privacy analyst from a boutique privacy consulting firm.
After landing the job, he also cleared the CIPP/E.
Recently, he received a letter of intent from EY for the role of privacy consultant. He is soon going to receive an offer from them to join!
Here is someone who landed at job at a Big Four:
T R Shashank, (June 2023) a 2021 BE graduate of RNS Institute of Technology, Karnataka, secured a job as an associate consultant data privacy at KPMG India in February 2024.
If you are working full-time on this opportunity, once you reach the USD 2500 per month mark, you may also hire juniors from small cities and places where talent is more cheaply available and scale your remote work further.
You can pay your juniors 50K per month while you charge your clients 20 dollars per hour of work.
There are enough people who do not want the uncertainty of income or the responsibility to
do business development every month, and they will happily prefer to work with you.
They are not paid enough by employers in their city. You can hire them and work with them remotely, and pay better than their existing employers as you earn more from your clients owing to the benefit of talent arbitrage.
They are also likely to be more loyal and satisfied.
At LawSikho & SkillArbitrage we assist professionals to work on all 3 aspects of their career, including preparation for CIPM, CIPT exams and obtain ISO 27000 & ISO 27701 certifications to consolidate their track record and get access to even better opportunities.