HS: This may seems strange, and in fact, quite counterproductive to the entire effort of this blog, but I have decided to phase out my job search.
I have resolved that over the next six months, leading up to my 30th birthday, I will transition my energy and efforts to building my own [one-man] business, and spend less time looking for traditional employment. This is, of course, a huge decision, and one that shocks the very essence of my being. This isn’t a day-to-day decision, competing with the mundanity of whether I should wear a hoodie or a hat, but is a deep and far-reaching life choice more akin to whether or not I should attend university, or whether I should move to a new city.
As you have witnessed, my job search has yet to produce fruit. And while the efforts on my part have varied greatly depending on what short-term freelance and at-home independent work comes my way. But the root of this choice lays in the previous sentence you have just read — the variety and inconsistency of my not-chosen lifestyle has exhausted me. I simply can’t keep dividing my energies between a job search, freelance work, and building a business. Something’s gotta give.
This summer, I found myself in a role which was three days a week, but consistently. I ended up getting laid off because the role was eliminated, but it did stretch on for four months. The problem, though, was that I never got into a rhythm the entire time I was there. In fact, the stop-and-go nature of my schedule kept me exhausted throughout — even on the off days.
Sounds good, right? Work for myself. Lots of people do it. Build momentum, do some small projects, do some bigger projects, hire staff, live the life. In time, dear friends. But in the meantime, my practical side is rather worried. Even by the most modest of calculations, I need to pull down about $2500/month (just to earn the shabby salary of $30,000/year). I dunno about you, dear reader, but I haven’t yet reached the point where I can count on a multi-thousand dollar income every month.
Like all business-savvy designs of the 21st century, I’m going to try and diversify by adding some non-client work. Y’know the sort, offering downloads like wallpapers, selling fonts, printing posters, making frames (maybe?), writing an e-book, making one-off t-shirts and selling them on etsy, and so on and so on. That shit takes a lot of time, but perhaps with the job search out of my mind, I’ll be able to knuckle down and get some shit done.
This blog isn’t going to end overnight. I’m hoping I can still stir up a little action and some potential job leads (such as the networking thing I wrote about last week) and see if a full-time job happens to drop from the sky. So in conclusion, stay tuned for some wacky stuff that isn’t, necessarily, job-search related.
