My kid has been out of work for 14 months now. Lost his (creative field in business setting) job in a downsizing and then was among the first areas to shutdown for COVID, so for about 5 months nobody was working, period. Since he did not lose his job during the shutdown, he is not eligible for any of the “extra” benefits available.
He had very few interviews early on, with a few more lately. No job offers, but here’s the thing – 3 times now, he’s been offered contract work after the firm hires someone else for the posted position. Essentially, work for a cheaper rate (they always want to underpay) for a non specific length of time.
The first time he drew up some suggestions, which the company then ran off with as a punchlist for the guy they hired! Second place, the work was much less than what they first agreed upon, because they didn’t want to spend the money once it was underway. This time, he is extremely wary of either overpricing himself, or underpricing himself.
His wife is working full time and thank goodness they still have health insurance from her work. But is this the new thing? Working as bits and pieces? It doesn’t even constitute a gig , as he has zero leverage to set terms or prices at this point. I never imagined it would take so long to find full time work, and of course it is demoralizing for him at times. Probably more for me, to be honest.
So sorry for this dilemma and agony of the business.
Can he get more specific in his contract language to protect himself? Does he have himself set up professionally as “ready for a contract and work”? A webpage perhaps. Or blog about his projects. His LinkedIn fully updated and post updates to keep it active??
Actors- fantastic in human resources, sales.
Writers- corporate communications, corporate learning/training, marketing, advertising
Game designers- anyone moving a brick and mortar platform to virtual
Production- any traditional company now using Zoom et al for virtual work
What does he do and is there a more marketable/less exploitable version of his skills?
There are undoubtedly others in his field who gone before him into contract work. I would recommend reaching out, networking (virtually) and using linkedin to interview them for rates, contract language, recommendations. Who knows, could also lead to something more permanent or he could decide he likes it.
No advice, just sympathy. We know some young engineers, and a few old ones, who’ve only done contract work just because it’s so much cheaper and easier for employers. It makes financial planning tough for them. They had to learn not to splurge when money was coming in so they could pay rent and eat at other times.
I have seen ads from package delivery companies wanting to hire package handlers and such. Also, interestingly enough, an airport hiring ramp agents and others.
He has a complete portfolio that he updates regularly, an up to date LinkedIn profile for which he pays the premium to have float further up searches. Has had his resume professionally polished and took a course in analytics during the quarantine since it seemed like that was a piece people wanted. He has done a bunch of small jobs for various contacts he has networked, but the job he lost was his first, so he (and his contacts) don’t have much depth to their work life right now (lots of them lost their jobs too)
His degree is in film production w a minor in business. He is not quite in the marketing space, so social media positions go to others. Hopefully someone will convert these spec positions to something permanent when they see the value, but it does seem that the trend is towards these untethered commitments. And the skill sets they want seem ridiculously broad.
Someone suggested a better contract – he’s specifically afraid to demand much in the way of steady work for x weeks. I’m not sure it would be a deal breaker? It’'s fine for me to think he’s worth it, but I’m not trying to pay rent and he believes underpaid is better than not paid at all, and I get that.
Film production is great training for corporate learning/training-- the days of a standup instructor teaching a class of 50 middle managers are over- it’s ALL custom (i.e. video and online) learning and production now.
If he hasn’t been exploring Learning roles-- and there are two kinds- in-house for big companies (banks, insurance companies, consumer products, energy) AND the many vendors who produce custom content for their clients, he should. He can google to get a list of the top 20 vendors, and look on Learning industry sites to see a list of the award winners over the last few years (awards for creativity, for enhanced production techniques, etc.) It’s a great field which requires experience in production AND some business knowledge. But other people supply the content- he’d be in charge of figuring out better/higher impact ways of presenting the material.
Gamification is big in corporate Learning right now- how do you test people to make sure they’ve absorbed the material, how do you reward them before they advance to the next level. So some knowledge of the Game industry is really helpful.
Analytics training is great and bravo for him for keeping his skills fresh.
Without knowing precisely what he does, I can only share something my watercolor teacher is doing. She’s set up a Patreon account, and has 2 tiers for students, both are very reasonably priced. $6 a month provides students with longform video tutorials (they run from 1 to 2 hours each), but no new material (there are currently 40 available). $9 a month includes all the longform tutorials, as well as 2 new paint-alongs that run for 2 to 3 hours each, and are left up permanently for those who weren’t able to paint-along. She currently has 6,000(!) students (she’s in Australia, so the $9 works for me because I love having new material). She has a private Facebook page so students can share work and supplies there, and she pops in for FB Live videos and hangs out to answer questions and chat with us once a week.
My D has a yoga teacher that heard about my painting teacher, and so the yoga studio created a Patreon account for live yoga classes. It started slow for her (the one teacher my D follows) in late March, but she now has 60 students that meet over Zoom. She charges $35 a month for unlimited class attendance. Far less expensive than a month at the yoga studio ($85). Each teacher charges the same, but students aren’t able to crossover to other teachers. You’re basically buying time with that teacher VS the studio. They say they have 310 students - that’s good $ being generated and keeping students engaged/interested until they can resume in person classes.
A high school math/chess teacher (he combines them) also tutors now via Patreon (with the tutoring over Zoom) - he charges $50 a month for up to 4 group sessions (max 4 students per session). He’s got 26 students signed up. He says they come and go, but he advertises on Nextdoor in his area and has a lot of inquiries.
None of these people are getting rich doing what they’re doing (except perhaps my painting teacher!) but they’re all “working” and making an income during this down time.
If the son is creative, it’s time to think creatively!
@SactoMom21 - her name is Louise De Masi - she’s got some short form videos on YouTube, but her longform (through Patreon) is divine!
Initially when I would listen to her I wanted to pull my hair out. She’s a very soft spoken, methodical, and detailed painter. I wasn’t prepared for that at all! I’m used to tutorials where I have to constantly pause and rewind. After my first longform class with her, I was amazed at what I produced, how calming she was and I gladly pay my monthly fee (and I realize now I gave the wrong $ tiers…I pay $6 a month, which includes new material - go figure, it’s even less than I thought! I must have mixed her up with another that I tried, because I now see on her Patreon she “only” has 2,065 students ;)).
May be a bit late now, but would his skills be helpful to colleges, K-12 schools, churches, conferences, etc. with virtual classes, services, presentations, etc.?
Or he could make videos and try to get popular on social media so that people are impressed enough to want to hire him.
Most creatives are very adept at freelance work. When starting they build by often taking a variety of jobs. These lead to more work and often if the person is in demand, they will often be asked to join a company full time ( many do not), some do this during tough times (like now).
Since it sounds as though he is fairly new to his industry, I don’t think he should expect a contract. Usually the work speaks for itself and the demand is based on the level of work.
Many creatives and freelancers do very well. Some extremely well. For those who aren’t that interested in keeping up or adding skills all the time, a shift into a full time position might be a better fit.
We have lots of folks in our family that fit this mold. Some make quite a bit of money and some take it more easy doing repeat jobs with specific customers.
If he were my kid, I say take the contract work while you look for something else AND learn the best cutting edge skills in your field. There are NEVER enough people in the latest and greatest technologies. They change often. Part of the reason contractors are paid so well is they also have down time learning new things at no pay.
Yes, I think offers of contract work are more common. Also jobs that are provisional, no benefits until 3 or more months on the job.
I suspect that film degrees in film production have always been a tough sell for full time positions. It’s great he has the business minor and experience. Hopefully that will help him land a job he likes. The timing with Covid really rots … sorry for his struggles.
Agree with @colorado_mom . I would also add that when one has a very specific skill like in film production, the hourly rate/work rate can be very high. Hopefully, the OP’s son knows the going rate and once he has a baseline of experience can tap into the work that’s available. The high hourly rate for freelance workers balances against the lower rate for full-time work with benefits. Freelancers often find they’d prefer to find their own benefits and take the higher hourly.
There are also lots of online services where freelancers and companies can search for one another.
@JustaMom Thank you so much for sharing her info! I actually have a Skillshare premium membership so I’m going to check her out on there first and try a few and then maybe join her Patreon.
Going forward, he might be careful about being classified as an independent contractor when he is actually an employee according to the IRS. May not be relevant now but could be later.
Does he like teaching?
Does he have a master’s? Would returning to school make sense during COVID?
There are no IRS worries since all these small jobs are under the table. There is no contract, there’s just a much less formal “can you do X Y or Z and we’ll pay you X” . I know there is this idea that these people get paid a lot, but for 4 yrs he made $15/hr as a full time employee, and when times got financially rough, the company inexplicably decided a media presence was a luxury and cut all but 1 of the marketing staff, and a bunch of customer service people. This is a 500+ employees company with money for birthday parties, though…
He does not have a master’s. He and his wife have about 40K of her master’s loans to pay off, and that is a big strain that they are unwilling to add to and I can respect that. We offered to help, but they didn’t want to do that. I agree it is a good time to add to what he has, but he is pretty firm on the “no more debt”.
If the ACA is overturned in November, he will not be insurable. Separate issue, but part of why piecemeal work is so inadequate — they will need more income if they have to start being full pay for his medical care.
OP – because you were all so kind and helpful, I wanted to let you know that he had another interview, and didn’t get the job (the other person had a slightly different skill set) ---- but they liked him and his ideas so much, they gave him contract work to do for 1/2 his old salary, through the end of the year. Hopefully they will decide to keep him on, but regardless it was happy news.
