The Future of Work
What did you do wrong to not have a full-time job?
As I weigh what to do with the next chapter of my life, two distinct paths seem likely.
The default path would seem to be a single, full-time job; one that I would accept with the intent of staying for a long time. I emphasize seem, because this is the societal norm, but not necessarily the reality. Long-term, full-time jobs are seen as the practical, stable career path. So many essentials of life are built around this assumption: the health insurance industry is geared toward employer sponsored plans, mortgage lenders strongly prefer full-time employment, etc. Society looks at you askance if you’re not on this path. What did you do wrong to not have a full-time job?
The alternative path is a patchwork of short-term and/or part-time contracts. I’ve more or less walked this path for most of my dev career. It has a stigma attached, and it seems like the more wayward, riskier, and less responsible path. But this is quietly becoming the default path for many people. Even quote-unquote full-time jobs are turning secretly into salaried short-term engagements. My last job was. Companies hire while there is a heavy workload and then reduce headcount just as quickly when the numbers become unfavorable. This is disruptive and disorienting, but not for the reasons you might think.
It’s disorienting and disruptive when you think you’re taking a long-term position and then abruptly shown the door a few months later. It would be better if that was the agreement from the start.
I’m re-reading The Alchemist for the 3rd time. It’s always been a good read at a crossroads. One of the central ideas of the book is that “The greatest lie ever told is that you are not in control of your life.” I’ve been pondering that lately, as I think about my future. I think I thought about that nine years ago, when I decided to take the entrepreneurial path at the beginning of my dev career. And five years before that, when I got serious about getting into the Peace Corps.
Being honest, it’s what I truly want. I want to be in control of my days, and to use them to build something that’s mine. I want to know that when a particular project dries up and lets me go, I still have something left to hold on to (my own company). I want to always have options, the option to take on more work, to start a new project, to hang onto something part time (but not keep all my eggs there).
This is all a shift in mindset more than an actual decision. What’s new is the knowledge that long-term full-time employment may, more often than not, be a mirage. What’s changing is my expectation of what the job hunt will lead to. I think the best path forward is to cast a wide net, to choose all of the above, and never stop searching.