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No 21 April 2004
Free-lancing Might Be the Key to a CareerFrom "The College Journal" Website" Our ancestors might have a good laugh if they could watch us try to adapt ourselves to today's workplace. If you look at your family tree, you're likely to see you're descended from self-employed people who earned their living as contractors, tradespeople, craftspeople and small-business owners. When the concept of full-time employment working for someone else became widespread with industrialization, many of our forefathers thought it was a crazy idea. It's ironic, though, that this kind of work situation is one that we've become highly dependent on and have great difficulty withdrawing from, now that it is in decline. When we look at how most people earn a living, the 20th century, in retrospect, was the century of the full-time, permanent job. For an increasing number of people, the 21st century will be a century of self-employment. Depending on the industry, 25% to 40% of the work force is employed in nontraditional roles -- as temps, part-timers, contract workers or self-employed consultants. And their numbers are growing. In California, 66% of the work force is now employed in nontraditional roles, according to a study by the University of San Francisco. What this means for job seekers is that it makes more sense to look for work rather than a full-time job. But because our society is still centered on the full-time job, most people don't know how to pursue this new free-lance strategy. Many are psychologically unwilling to accept the notion of earning a living outside of the traditional full-time, permanent-job model that's prevailed for about 100 years. Building your career from part-time work or consulting positions is more challenging than looking for a job. Because most people don't understand this when they're in the job market, they pursue a job search just as people did 10 or 20 years ago. They don't understand that even if their ultimate goal is a full-time conventional job, one of the most effective ways to do that is first to find temp, part-time or consulting work. College and university grads need to understand that the workplace of their parents and grandparents -- work full time and follow a career path -- largely is gone, and it probably won't come back regardless of what happens in the economy. Senior administrators and career counselors in colleges and universities need to understand this, too. They need to help graduates take a much more entrepreneurial and sales-oriented approach to finding employment. Many university career-counseling departments aren't equipped to teach the skills grads need to successfully pursue this new, more independent world of work. They may not be able to help students who need practical advice on how to find employment in today's workplace and manage their careers so they don't depend on full-time employment. Most of employment opportunities are found in small companies. But if you approach these companies with the mindset that you'll accept only a full-time job, you might be shooting yourself in the foot. The company may be able to use the skills you have but be unable to commit to hiring you on a permanent basis. If you're looking for job security, that's something the business owner and staff may not be able to provide because they may have orders for their products and services for only the next several months. Focus on the Future The first challenge for people who are approaching potential employers is to communicate to them that they know something about their business and their problems and that they have skills that can address those problems. The traditional resume is absolutely the wrong tool to get that message across to employers. The general theme of most resumes is, "Here's what I did yesterday." To be effective in workplace, the theme has to be, "Here's how I can help you today." In yesterday's world you could get by with a fairly passive approach to looking for work. Generic resumes and cover letters were perfectly acceptable to the human-resources department that typically processed them. Today, there's a good chance that there won't be a personnel or human-resources department in the small company you're applying to. The application-screening function often is handled by the business owner or a senior manager. Your communication has to focus on their needs and how you can help them. Decision makers are most interested in what this applicant can do for my business today. They're not interested in what position you held in your sorority or fraternity or what your title was in your last job. Most people looking for work are uncomfortable selling themselves and they rarely understand what effective selling is. While potential employers won't be swayed by a slick sales presentation, you must be able to describe in a businesslike, persuasive manner what you can do and how that will benefit them. Good communication skills are more important than ever. A New Paradigm The workplace is going through some of the most significant changes to occur in the past 100 years. There is work available, but a lot of it is not packaged in the form of a full-time job as we traditionally understand that term. Sometimes people who are looking for work need to create their own opportunities. Those who are unable or unwilling to adapt to these new employment realities will find themselves competing for a dwindling number of conventional full-time jobs. People who aren't afraid of a free-lance career, who can adapt their job-search strategies and market themselves effectively, will have more options, offer more value to employers and best position themselves for 21st century success. -- Ron McGowan has operated Executives For Rent, www.efrcanada.com, a consulting company in Vancouver, Canada, for the past eight years. He is also the author of "How to Find Work in the 21st Century" (Trafford Publishing, 2000) and offers seminars at colleges and universities on this topic. The Rise of the Older Worker - Bring it On!An article by Bruce Ansley appeared in the "New Zealand Listener" of April 3-9 2004, page 18. That relates the experiences of some of the older workers in our society and how they are sought after by some employers, the tide having turned from being thrown out in the name of restructuring. An interesting article in the light of the changing work force and the attitude of participants. It's worth a read. The NEWORKer can be viewed online at the Work & Age Website
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