Of Gigs & Fits — An Interesting Question Gets Us Thinking & Sharing
Since joining Twitter, I’ve been getting into the free-flowing online “jobs” discussion. I recently followed an interesting thread about whether the new workforce generation will move to a model of 40 jobs in 40 years.
Whether or not a Gen Y professional will actually racks up that number of jobs isn’t the key point I took away (though a greater majority than we think may end up falling into the serial category) – what was more interesting to me was the idea that it was 40 “jobs” as the qualifier.
As ALUMRISE readies to move beyond its technology launch into go-loud (yes, we’re officially moved into our new office in Plano, we’re inking contracts, re-doing the site for user input, readying press releases), we’ve also been honing in on what makes us unique so that we better communicate that to new introductions and existing members like you.
Why I found the discussion above particularly interesting? It’s because our team here at ALUMRISE believes our mission is creating a unique space that supports jobs of all shapes and sizes – connecting and achieving better fit for professionals to employers of all shapes and sizes. The traditional career job hasn’t gone away, it’s still very important as a stabilization center for entities - but it’s role in each of our individual lives, may well have permanently shrunk. A confluence of technology, globalization, shifting employer practices and a renewed focus on broadly relevant cross-industry skills, means we’re going to be about gigs & fits.
What does that mean? It means I believe we may well be moving to a world in which we well may well have 40 gigs in 40 years.
Some gigs will continue as part of each day or week – long term gigs. (p.s.: I think parenting or elder care fall into this category – they will always take a certain part of our day and should be acknowledged as such). Others will be short term – volunteering; internships or returnships; mentoring; or coaching. Some will be fixed (3 years, full time). Others more lenient (such as: when I need you, for the next 5 months at $120/hour).
At ALUMRISE we believe our task as professionals will be to figure out two things:
- Our income needs
- The total available time or capacity we have to generate it
We should each plan to among these variables to get to right gigs & fits equation - including our unpaid gigs! And as employers of professionals, we should recognize that this is an emerging factor in the equation for where a professional will want to work.
What do you think? Agree or disagree, I hope you consider this a point of debate - do share your comments or reactions.
Join the marketplace! http://www.alumrise.com/alumsignup.aspx
Ps: Stay in touch with us by signing up for our RSS feed and newsletter so we can share some new tools ALUMRISE is developing as part of the launch of our social presence (we can’t help it, we’re watchers and analyzers … we take our time to trigger things like a Facebook fan presence). Our hope is that new tools we introduce will help you make fit happen, whether you’re a professional seeking a job of any shape or size, or an employer figuring out how to find the best fitting professional for your work need.
Tags: consulting, employment, Gen Y, jobs, layoffs, professionals, work fit, work life fit, workforce trends