"Working as a Contractor Can Be Career Killer" - Observation on Blind

Skill Stagnation and Much Other Professional Damage

Freelancing is being celebrated. In this award-winning podcast I position and package that approach to making a living as a solution for the over-50. Pro Publica documents that the majority of the over-50 will be forced out of their jobs.

But, as this thread on professional anonymous Blind points out, freelancing or contracting can result in the premature end of what had been a successful career. A comment explicitly indicates:

“Working as a contractor can be career killer.”

The primary reason for that is the lack of professional development which is mandated in full-time positions. Another Blind comment puts it this way about the professional who had contracted for two decades and now can't land a job:

" ... if he was working as a contractor there probably was not much professional development and further was ... doing the same task for 20 years and did not learn new skills, he clearly was stagnant in a specific skillset."

Observers of the career of Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp attribute some of his rapid success to the close mentoring inside the law firm by seasoned litigators.

Okay, some employees might groan about all the change, training, scrutiny and evaluation imposed on them. That, for example, might include learning how to assess AI products for possible use by the corporation or how to pivot from being a sole producer to managing projects and people. But, even if eventually laid off, that equips them to have an edge competing for the Next.

Sure, it’s understandable that contractors would become one-dimensional in the menu of services. After all, that brings in the current revenue. In addition, they usually also handle the marketing and sales. Nagging them could be the need to get up to speed with fresh knowledge, skills and contacts. However, they usually default into primarily following the money. The bills have to be paid.

Once they, no longer marketable, recognize the pickle that they’re in the nightmare isn't necessarily over. They could be so out of touch with the law of supply and demand that they depend on what the supposed experts preach or half-baked rumors. Among the comments on Bind is this brutal reality:

"Everyone is learning AI - it’s no longer a niche. Focus on strengths and not what others say is hot"

There has to be hands-on experimenting with what leverages the current background and strengths, clues in what's marketable and what training, certifications and licensing could be useful in some way. Meanwhile, they have to get work, any work, to rebuild confidence. Sitting around in isolation applying for a job usually doesn't get you a job. As the old-line cliche screams: Nothing gets you a job like having a job.

After 9/11, my industry collapsed. With it went my lucrative contracting assignments. I lost my boutique, my nest egg and my mind. About the latter: Cognitive therapist Amy Karnilowitz, based in West Hartford, Connecticut, insisted I get a job, any job.

That was as a security guard in an inner city big box. My new employer loved me. I was offered a supervisory position. I could have built a career in loss prevention and in the evening have invested in a degree in that field. But, the retooled me launched a new career path contracting in digital communications - a skill I picked up because I intuitively sensed it was not the future but the present. My success as a security guard had also restored my business instincts.

Freelancing may be among the few ways to earn a living for not only the aging but also the young who can't land an entry-level position. However, there's another old-line cliche: Nothing fails like success.

The total focus on so successfully generating income through contracting assignments frequently prevents developing new knowledge, skills and contacts. The current patron saint for freelancers is Paul Chaney. Paul is on your side. Follow him on LinkedIn.