Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Contract jobs

I've been wondering if the current trend in working is more people working for themselves or more people working as employees. If the labour shortage is so bad, is that because everyone has given up corporate life for self-employment, or is it because everyone is taking jobs and there just aren't enough people left for the vacancies?

A recent article in the Globe and Mail caught my eye on this topic. It's all about the trend of contract work, where an agency places you in a company for a temporary, albeit full-time gig. The article talked mainly about finance, law, and tech contracts -- I know of only one agency in my area that deals in communications, my field, and it's mainly junior jobs or design work, not my thing. But it got me thinking.

Would a full-time, short term project be preferable to many clients? I guess it comes down to variety and flexibility. The nice thing about freelancing for many clients is that I can schedule my own time. Of course, the nice thing about a full time contract is the stability of income for a longer time period than freelancing, but would the client be as understanding if I wanted to take the morning off to go on a field trip with my kid's school?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would love the idea of project work instead of having lots of clients to juggle at one time. That reminds me too much of college and having to study for 5 finals at one time.