Michael Castelein

Michael had just finished his master's at Erasmus and wanted a fully remote data science role. He was looking internationally, especially at US companies, because he wanted better opportunities without giving up the freedom to work between Europe, China, and wherever else he was based. Full-time globally remote roles were hard to find, so someone recommended freelancing.

At first, he assumed freelancing was only for hyper-specialized professionals. His own background felt broad, not narrow. Inside Data Freelancer, the branding work changed how he showed up. After optimizing his LinkedIn profile, he started the 30-day outreach sprint by connecting with CTOs. Before he had even sent a follow-up message, a CTO reached out and said they were looking for a freelance data scientist. One call later, Michael had his first client.

The original project was supposed to be a two-month predictive analytics build. Once he was inside the company, the scope expanded into dashboards, data quality checks, pipelines, and broader data engineering work. The client kept asking him to join full-time, and Michael eventually accepted on his own terms: his own hours, fully remote from anywhere in the world, a strong title and salary, and the freedom to keep doing outside client work.