Beyond traditional work

Approximately ten months ago I graduated college, and already I've heard several stories of people my age who, fed up with a lack of opportunities to do work that makes them passionate, have decided to make their own job from scratch. For some this is a radical approach, fraught with hard work coupled with much uncertainty. For others, it's an opportunity to figure out how to earn a living while doing something they love. Why settle for work you hate, they argue, if you can devise a way of converting your passion into a career?

This is an important issue, and one that may affect ever more people in the coming years. As Sara Horowitz has argued in The Atlantic, the labor market of the future may require a majority of us to embrace some form of non-traditional and/or freelance work to make ends meet. Others see much of the same, and suggest this may not be bad thing.

The declining availability of traditional work (a stable, 9-5 job held over the course of decades) may require us to make some difficult choices. Earning a living under such circumstances could prove a challenging endeavor, particularly if you're simultaneously attending school, paying off debt, and/or raising a family. There seems little use in suggesting it would be otherwise. But as we discussed in an earlier post, challenging circumstances are also opportunities-by-another-perspective; difficulty is uncomfortable, but it needn't be unprofitable as well.

In her article from above, Ms. Horowitz states that while many people during the recession took up freelancing and entrepreneurship by necessity, others chose it "because of greater flexibility that lets them skip the dreary office environment and focus on more personally fulfilling projects." It's not that everyone who left traditional work did so against their will; rather, some left because they wanted to do something more with their life than work a "dreary" job.

In short, current trends point not only to a decline in traditional work opportunities, but also to the growth of a class of workers who look beyond traditional work to pursue their passion. This is an interesting trend, and one that may do much good for the world. It is a path riddled with challenge and uncertainty, but also an increasingly-viable alternative to work traditionally understood. It's an opportunity to take something you enjoy and make it your life. If nothing else, it is something worth considering.

Happy Friday, friends :)

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