Do you consider yourself to be "employable"? And what does it actually mean?
Over the past few days, I’ve been following a heated discussion about how Marc Lou is selling parts of his body in some kind of simulation to promote products (ad placements in the form of virtual tattoos) and making a lot of money from it.
I swear, the whole thing has gone mainstream.
And, of course, some frustrated makers joined the conversation, saying they can work their asses off building tools and will never make that kind of money. Marc’s advice was to take a break from building and get a 9 – 5 job.
And then one person replied:
“I am unemployable.”
What does that mean?
Does the person not have enough skills?
Is he so autonomous that he doesn’t like having another authority figure (an employer)? – I reckon it was this.
And it made me think:
Once you are a builder – are you able to be in the position of an employee?
Since I started freelancing, I do not like the idea that I would belong to someone who would decide about my free time, vacation etc. or supervise whether I have other side jobs. Or is it just excuse for people who do not work more traditionally?
Replies
Scarlett.
I think it depends a lot on your situation.
If you’re making Marc-level money from almost everything you do, then of course it’s hard to imagine working for someone else unless you still have a lot of independence, ownership, and control.
But if you’re struggling to pay the bills, you suddenly become very employable. You probably won’t spend much time thinking about whether having a boss fits your identity.
The other part is the conditions. If the pay is good, you like the people (colleagues/projects), the culture is healthy, and you still have enough freedom, I don’t see anything wrong with being an employee.
Not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@byalexai agree, just that sentence from that one guy felt quite... :D it looked like it will be difficult to collab with that guy :D
@byalexai Absolutely agree with you. People don't know the difficulty being an entrepreneur. It is definitely not for everyone, just as not everyone is born to be a leader.
Softorino 💻📲
I am employed, so I am the control group here. Someone else owns the roadmap and I get to spend the day making the Mac apps I work on sound worth downloading. Unemployable usually means allergic to a boss, not short on skills.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@yelyzaveta_kibets So that guy was probably hard nut to crack :D
Hahaha! "I am unemployable" sounds like even self employable is off the table. No doubt! it's hard to start a new revenue stream so most financial advisors say only quit the employable job when your product starts bring you 3x your J.O.B. income. If you can build something for the world, in my opinion you're employable. You just need to find the team or work environment that offers you the same flexibility as building all by yourself.