Here's A Job You Can Apply To... Freelancing

Three years ago, in pursuit of the dream of entrepreneurship, I stepped away for the first time from a full-time role at a great company. Without my realizing it at the time, this decision led my career on an unexpected trajectory - my transition to professional freelancer.

A Forbes article last October predicted that we're likely headed for a workforce that is 50% freelance by 2027. The prediction's largely based on an outsized increase in freelancers over the preceding 3-year period (8.1% growth, against just a 2.6% increase in full-time workers). These are statistics published by freelancing giant Upwork; I'd be curious as to how representative it is of the American workforce, since a significant percentage of freelancers on Upwork are international.

Regardless, freelancing is on the upswing. Perhaps some of this can be attributed to millennials' proclivity toward flexible workplaces; another factor could be easier access to self-serve healthcare benefits through the Healthcare Exchange. However, I believe that this revised economy requires professionals to think differently how to build and sustain a successful career. The following is written from the perspective of a technology professional, but most should apply universally.

• Learn to define and market your personal brand.  Simplistically, I like to define personal brand as the intersection of what I'm uniquely good at doing, and the problems that I can therefore uniquely solve. I believe that each of us needs to take responsibility for our own brand, and it starts with being disciplined about the simple things. I strongly advocate creating multiple resumes, each leading off with a different strength to your profile - I have 3 different resumes, which I revise every six months or so. It's also important to maintain a professional presence on social media - make sure you're at least responding to content on LinkedIn frequently. If you're a developer, maintain at least one public repo on GitHub - mine is a simple piece of code to flatten a nested array, that showcases the 7 precepts I live by as a developer. It's not rocket science!
• Relationships = money in the bank.  And no, I'm not talking about randomly asking to connect with me on LinkedIn. Too often, we make the mistake of focussing solely on title and compensation while assessing opportunities. I'll sometimes take a project solely to expand my network, and it's paid off. I'm not talking weeks without pay - you should always establish very clear boundaries around pro-bono work - but I personally allocate a buffer of around 10 hours to develop what I perceive as a "qualified lead" toward a meaningful connection. At a macro level, careers often break down as follows: the first decade is all down to the hard yards you put in to prove yourself; but beyond that, the strength of your network often is the single key indicator of how far you'll go.
• Pick a side - moonlighting won't work in the long run.  Ultimately, even if freelancing becomes the default, there will always be full-time opportunities. You can build a successful career on either side of the fence. But while it can absolutely work in short sprints, I believe it will be much harder to sustain a career of full-time employment, while freelancing solely in your spare time. You'll just leave behind a trail of broken commitments and sub-standard work.

Over the next few years, we're likely going to see a refinement of the freelancing industry. It will become increasingly impossible for the American workforce to compete on unfiltered platforms such as Upwork - there's constant pressure to trade higher quality for lower rates, in order to stay competitive with international talent. This is where I believe that exclusive, high-quality freelancing networks will ultimately win the day. Such networks feature only top-tier freelancers and attracts premium clientele, resulting in highly successful engagements for both the freelancer and the client.

Over the last three years, my emotional state has swung from "I never want to go back" to "This is the wild west, and I'm no cowboy". But looking back objectively, I wouldn't change a thing. I've worked on fun projects with phenomenal human beings, and have been able to create margins in terms of time and finance. Granted, it may not be for everyone. But you owe it to yourself to seriously consider freelancing as a career option before clocking in on yet another Monday.