Traditionally a stable career invariably implied a full-time job with one employer. While this continues to be the norm even today, it no longer captures the full spectrum of the active workforce. Increasingly, a large section of the workforce is building stable careers that depend on not one but multiple income streams. Enter ‘Generation Z’ and the traditional norms of a stable job is further set to turn on its head. Arun Sundararajan, a management professor at New York University and author of The Sharing Economy, says “this is the work arrangement for the future.” The new normal will be freelance work. “Twenty years from now, I don’t think a typical college graduate is going to expect that full-time employment is their path to building a career,” Sundararajan says.
According to a Study by McKinsey, 20 to 30 percent of the working-age population in the United States and the EU, or up to 162 million individuals, engage in independent work. This, however, doesn’t imply that all of them exclusively depend on independent work. According to the study, approximately 50% of these workers are exclusively dependent on independent works. The rest 50% of the workers take up impendent work to supplement their regular or primary earning. Most experts are unanimous that this emerging trend is secular and irreversible due to a number of factors driving this change.
Tomorrow’s Workplace May look completely different from Today’s Workplace:
As the economies evolve with a rapidly changing technology landscape, dependence on one primary income is increasingly looking like a risky proposition. Rapid advancement in technology is leading to rapid churn in the workplaces globally. Massive adoption of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IOT, blockchain etc. is transforming the way companies use human resources for various functions.
This uncertainty surrounding the future of the job market is here to stay. According to a study, the changes are so rapid that about 50 percent of the S&P 500 will be replaced over the next 10 years. Workers with jobs in higher wages are more likely to have their services contracted out than jobs associated with lower wages, according to another recent study.
The best way to de-risk oneself is to be better prepared for any such eventuality. Adding independent work to your primary job will make you less susceptible to any future employment shock that might come due to technological and policy changes.
Corporate are preferring independent workers:
More and more companies are turning to independent workers. This trend which started in developed countries is fast gaining momentum at Global scale. Further, this trend is no longer limited only the blue collar jobs or technology skills, it is acquiring much wider acceptance across sectors. Technologies are changing rapidly and the shelf life of specific technical skills is becoming shorter and shorter. As a result, it has become extremely difficult to predict the longevity of any specific skill set in the job market. In such an environment companies do not want to take a very long-term call w.r.t. human resources and prefer the flexibility of short-term projects based hiring.
This year at Google, contract workers outnumbered direct employees for the first time in the company’s 20-year history. According to Workforce Survey 2020 by Oxford Economics, 83 percent of executives say they will be increasing the use of contingent, intermittent, or consultant employees while 41 percent of executives say their firm is increasingly using contingent workers. More than half of the jobs created in the European Union since 2010 have been through temporary contracts.
With the writing on the wall, it makes sense to be better prepared to benefit from the changing dynamics than be caught off-guard.
Independent Work Offer Handsome Earning Opportunities:
The fact that they are driven by free market forces of demand and supply, independent work opportunities tend to pay much higher. For a person with demonstrated expertise in one’s field, the averages pay is upwards of $ 150/Hr. This rate, however, is not indicative rate for all kind of skill sets and experience levels. While the rates will naturally vary basis skill and experience level required, the rates for a freelance work will be 30-50% higher than what a full-time employee in the same skill and experience category will get paid. According to a survey by Upwork, “This year, 31% earned $75,000 or more and 69% earned less than $75,000.”
Point to note here is that a certain number of hours per week of independent work on top of your full-time job has the potential to seriously boost your monthly earning. It not only makes you financially more secure but also gives you better-negotiating leverage while negotiating pay-raise with your full-time employer.
Independent Work means faster learning & diverse experience:
Unlike a full-time job, where most often one would be working on repetitive jobs using single technology, independent work gives one opportunity to work on a diverse set of projects and use newer technologies. This enables one to not only gain richer experience from diverse projects but also helps build a portfolio of technical skills. The nature of working on a variety of contracts means that one has been able to gain a broad range of experience in different industry sectors and for numerous different types of projects.
Such experiences make one more versatile and better equipped to successfully handle a different kind of work and project complexities. It’s also a good de-risking strategy from a career point of view as people having diverse skills sets and experience are in a much better position to withstand downturns and poor employment scenarios.
It’s easier to find independent Work now:
Unlike previous years where marketplaces were largely focussed on blue collar jobs, the new marketplaces are increasingly entering white-collar territory with customized workflows for different jobs. Platforms like Clora (focussed on life sciences), Paro (targeting financial professionals), Catalant (catering to business consultants) or gigHub (focussing on trainers, consultants & remote developers) are solving problems unique to the white collar industry. These platforms are designed to handle complex and diverse forms of work where decision w.r.t. quality of work often times has significant subjectivity. The success of these platforms is a demonstrative example of the fact that more and more employers are now inclined to outsource white-collar work. Still, these are early days and one can expect that in coming times white-collar professionals will be spoilt for choice when it comes to finding remunerative independent work of one’s choice.
Well, there is no need to rush though. A successful outing as independent work requires a well thought through strategy and thorough planning. Do check out this article for some valuable tips “5 things you need to launch your freelance consulting career” before you start planning.
All the Best!