The Growing Impact of the Free Agent Workforce

This excellent article in the Austin Statesman talks about the huge increase of free agent workers in the Austin area and also about the changing dynamics around the U.S. For example, since 2001 the free agent workforce in the U.S. has increased 14 percent and now accounts for 7.1 percent of the entire workforce.
An excerpt is below and the entire article can be found here.

Rise of the free-agent workforce
By Dan Zehr

Bernie Charland didn't exactly follow a traditional career path.

Over the course of his working life, he has lived in 10 different countries, moved almost 50 times and worked on an eclectic mix of projects — from Toronto's bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics to Dell's early social media efforts.

Yet, despite the diversity of his experience, Charland spent the first 20-plus years of his career in the most traditional of working relationships: as an employee, working for an employer.

Full article

Check out the All Free Agents Twitter page

You can follow All Free Agents (or AFA as the hipsters refer to it) right here: https://twitter.com/AllFreeAgents

Get Your Swagger On

Whether you are working for yourself or working toward a job interview, it's all about the presentation.
In the world of "Brand You" it's tough to make a sale if the smart, talented person you are doesn't show up.
Here's a very good piece on helping your prospective employer or client see the real you.

5 Ways to Get Your Swagger On 

So many people I know who once had major success in high profile positions now feel like they can’t get even get a phone call returned.  One former television executive just asked me, “Am I pathetic?”

When you question yourself in this way, you don’t show up, uncertainty does. You may think you’re fooling everyone with the right clothes and your game face, but your insecurity is all they see.  Full article here.

Impressive Job Qualities and the Golf Swing

As a free agent in the new world of work, your impressive resume isn't enough to seal the deal.  Here's a good article that lists twelve qualities of impressive job candidates.
The qualities that make a good job candidate are similar, in some ways, to the qualities of a good golf swing.  While it's important to know and practice all the steps, concentrate on only one or two at the moment of contact.  If your head is awash with all the right things to do, you'll never hit a good shot. Get comfortable before the interview running through all the points.  Pick out those essential stories that will be most relevant to the interviewer and will make you the logical choice. If you think about too much at once, it wrecks your rhythm and you'll miss your shot.

Impressive Job Candidate Qualities

Read the full article here.

The inevitable rise of the creative free agent

In this piece from imedia connection, the rise in free agents is predicted to grow fifty percent globally.  The article also discusses the classic dilemma facing professionals: stay stifled in a corporation or work without health insurance. There are no easy answers.

The inevitable rise of the creative free agent

The world is changing. Economies are reorganizing and dismantling institutional thinking. And as for employees? Countless polls have displayed the lack of stability they feel, and protests have shown who they blame: "The Man." Because of this, organizations like IDC Research and MBO Partners have predicted the double-digit percentage rise of the "free agent" over the next decade. Nowhere is this free-agent trend more obvious and potentially disruptive than in the marketing industry.
Read the full article here.

'Working From Home' Without Slacking Off

From monitored computers to weekly objectives, this Wall Street Journal article looks at different ways the telecommuting employee stays productive.

'Working From Home' Without Slacking Off

Amy Johnson works from her home in Dixon, Ill., talking with clients and filing reports for her job as a fingerprint technician. In one way, though, she might as well be sitting at a desk next to her boss in Chicago.

Read the full article here. 

Article: The Shift to a "Gig Economy"

Richard Greenwald, writer and historian of Work, published this blog entry on Huffington Post that makes an excellent point: while everyone is paying attention to the short term economy, almost no one is paying attention to a fundamental shift in the nature of work and the growing numbers of freelancers in the economy.  Check it out:

Contingent, Transient and at Risk: Modern Workers in a Gig Economy

 America is transforming before our eyes, and with our focus on the short-term economic crisis, we are blind to what might very well be the most fundamental economic shift of the past 50 years: the nine-to-five, 40-hour-week job with benefits and some security is fast going the way of the compact disc. It still exists, barely, but is more of an echo than a modern reality. According to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report...Continued here.