Is My Portfolio or Reel Holding Me Back? Several Hundred Applications, Almost No Work in 3 Years
If anyone is willing to take a look at my reel or portfolio and give honest feedback, I’d really appreciate it. Give it to me straight. I need to solve my problem.
Portfolio: https://williamtpenningtonart.com/
I’ve been applying to jobs consistently for the past couple of years, likely several hundred applications total. I’ve had very little response and almost no freelance or full-time work during that time.
I have 11 years of experience in motion design. Early in my career, most of my instability came from layoffs due to acquisitions and companies shutting down, which pushed me into freelancing more than I planned. A few years ago I finally hit a strong point where I was making over $10k/month as a freelancer.
Over the past two years, my motion design income has dropped significantly and has been under $30k annually. Since then, I’ve had to pivot into construction work, landscaping, and side work like building and selling cedar garden beds just to stay afloat.
At this point, I’m trying to figure out what’s holding me back from getting back into consistent motion design work. I’m wondering if the issue is my portfolio/reel, my positioning, or something else I’m not seeing.