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Freelance Work: The Changing Face of EmploymentThe world sure is changing, and if you look at job employment you will see what I mean. Let's just go back to our grandparent's generation, even though I'm sure if we went back further we would see very different structures of work in the tribal periods of our history. Our grandparents usually found a skill, and then used that one skill to work for their whole career. An example is my grandfather who was a salesman for the same suit company for 44 years. There is nothing wrong with this. His job was secure; he knew there would be a superannuating fund when he retired, and that there would always be food on the table for his family. These days in the 21st century things have changed, and they are still changing rapidly as we speak. Nowadays it isn't strange for a person to have around five completely different career paths in their lifetime. You might think that job security is much lower, but there are new types of jobs emerging everyday with the advent of modern technology. Older people can go back to schools and be educated in totally new areas that are greatly desired in society. One of the greatest changes in recent times is the fact that a lot of people are now working for themselves as freelancers from home. Society is still getting all the necessary work done, but the structures in which individuals pursue their dreams and goals in their areas of interest have changed completely. If you are working at home for your own business, you sure don't have the old hierarchy of bosses watching over your every move, judging your worth, and threatening you with dismissal. People are now self-motivated as they know that if they don't get out there and share their skills and attributes with society, they simply might be forgotten. There is a new way of acquiring work these days that is so very different than the days of perusing the job-ads in the newspaper or going door-to-door asking for work. Surprise, surprise, its on the Internet! There are now on-line marketplaces for both employers to offer work and for potential freelance employees to show their portfolios. There are many, but an excellent example of one of these sites is www.guru.com. On Guru.com once you have registered your portfolio for free, you can then bid for jobs that prospective employers have advertised. On the other hand, if you are an employer, you can go to the category of work you need done (E.g.: Creative Writing) and search through a list of professionals that you can then contact to do the job. These professionals exhibit the amount that they charge per hour, how much they have already earned through the site and a portfolio of examples of their work. They are then given a rating that has been compiled by the employers who have used their services. It is quite unbelievable; they've got people and job types from a multitude of different areas, just about any type of freelance work you can imagine: E.g. Website design, marketing, writing, graphic design, legal, engineering, photography, finance-the list is quite extensive. So you see, "the times they are a-changin'" my friends. Imagine if you were frozen in time one hundred years ago and then thawed out today. All the basic human beliefs and emotions would be the same, but how would the world look to you? We've got to go with the flow and not get lost in the structures of old. What's your goal? Get on the Web! Jesse S. Somer |  | | | RELATED ARTICLES Career Transitions: Creating Complementary Careers in a Day Down-sized? Outsourced? Burned-out? Wizened up? That's what I said. Wizened up! Now is not the time to be depressed. 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Expose Lies on Resumes Purpose: Learn about the new Polygraph for management hires |
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