8.

Embrace Being a Freelancer

Corporate loyalty is becoming less and less common. Employers can't afford to care about your long-term needs. No matter how much your boss may like you; no matter how many awards, raises, and great performance reviews you've received; no matter how long you've worked there; you are expendable. And it can happen at any time—often due to factors beyond your control and despite the great job you've been doing. Don't get too comfortable.

Even if you have a full-time job, you—all of us—are a freelancer now and for the foreseeable future. A freelancer is “someone who sells his or her services without a long-term commitment to an employer.” (Freelancing is also known as contract work, project work, temp work, or “as needed” work.) The downturn in full-time jobs with benefits makes it imperative that you start thinking of yourself as a freelancer—sort of a discount version of a free agent in professional sports. You need to learn how to sell yourself and the services, expertise, and experience you offer.

Welcome to the 21st century. It's not fun. Get used to having two concurrent jobs: your actual job and a second job that involves marketing yourself for future work. This is what musicians and people in motion picture and television production have been doing for decades. It's now spread to virtually every other industry. The people who are the most successful are the ones who are good at the marketing job. As the expression goes, “You can't know where you're going until you know where you are.” So now that you have some sense of the employment landscape, let's look at how you can successfully navigate it.