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Freelancing: A trend amongst Youngsters

Alex Castle

28 March 2018

Freelancing: A trend amongst Youngsters

There goes a very old saying – “Age is just a number”. It very well applies to freelancing context. Freelancers literally range from millennial to veterans. The age spectrum is literally very vast. The majority of freelancers comprises of youngsters (18-34 years).

A quick snapshot of freelancers by age in USA demography can be easily depicted by the chart below:

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Apparently, youth want to be its own boss. Either they want to contribute to the startup ecosystem. Or work from the shacks while having a drink of their choice. Tempting! Isn’t it!?

Out of many reasons the most that attract youth to freelancing is the freedom and flexibility to work on own term. More than 45 percent millennial value flexibility over good pay. Be it designing, development or business-related work. You name it and you can find a freelancer in that particular domain. Full-time, permanent jobs with large organizations are quite possibly a thing of the past. Such jobs now attract far less amount of elite professionals. Independent or project-based work is the new booming parallel economy in itself.

The industry saw a major shift from millennial’s standpoint for freelance-based jobs. If we dig in further we can further explore this trend:

1. Youngsters are breaking free from the routine jobs. Either they start their entrepreneurial journey. Or decline 9-5 jobs to take freelancing as a serious career option. And they’re achieving a gratifying work/life balance. Here’s a testimonial of top 1% developer from one of the highly competitive platform HireCoder Inc.

2. Millennial don’t prefer too much traveling and like to work in a relaxed environment instead. So that they have a dedicated space to complete their tasks.

3. Most Startups and quite a few Big Corporate have begun to assign tasks, both light and heavy, to freelancers who work on a commission basis for specific assignments.

4. Internal meetings and corporate politics are major hurdles no millennial like to cross.

5. Lean management teams, hire and fire drive to cut down costs are also major factors.

According to research conducted by MBO Partners (which manages back-office infrastructure for independent workers) 16 million Americans are working as freelancers today. This figure is expected to grow to 20 million over the next 2 years.

Talented people are going freelance because they can choose what to work on, how much to work, where to work from and with whom to work.

The rise of millennial freelancers has the potential to help the broader economy and society as well as individuals and companies. Sadana of SanDisk says - “If there is that capability to quickly tap into a pool of talent that you can trust is high quality, it would help the entire industry”

NEW ALTERNATIVES TO MATCH TALENT WITH BUSINESSES

Technology is ever evolving. Its emergence opens more ways to work remotely than ever before. From handheld devices, apps, and other personal technology that allow us to seamlessly communicate with one another from virtually everywhere.

However, the larger picture is designing platforms to match companies with talent and vice versa. New online marketplaces (like Upwork, Freelancers, HireCoder and Toptal) are launching in a wide range of categories, helping talented freelancers to find jobs/assignments in their specialization.

Behind a freelancer economy, top two leading trends are talent-matching platforms and co-working spaces. Of course, the rise of freelance or independent work isn’t just a boon to freelancers either. Companies leverage more targeted and better-qualified talent to address their need. And this typically happens at lower costs. A win-win situation for Company is to hire a consultant who’s perfectly suited to a particular project. They want more flexibility than a traditional employee, and in many cases, they’re getting it.



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