This is true. In Asia, most of my friends and peers are pursuing self-employment, freelance work, and business ventures. While it's not easier than being employed and carries more risk, it outweighs the meager pay and mental health toll of maintaining an office job.
I find being a freelancer is less risky, because I all my eggs arent in one basket. If I lose a staff job, I have zero income. But as a freelancer, I am always juggling a portfolio of clients so even if most of them fall off at the same time (which happens) I still have a few that bring in something.
as an IT engineer with 30 years experience i can tell you you are nothing more than useful when they need you and they fire you when they dont. loyalty is what they ask from you, doesnt work other way round. start your own business and build your own dream. i am starting today doing just that.
I was laid off 3 months ago (my employer was considerate enough to give everyone a 2-months notice), and the job search has been brutal. What I have learned throughout this time is that I really don't want to return to corporate america. I had no true passion behind what I was doing (working for a large health insurance company), and I hadn't realized that life felt like a cloudy hole while I was working there. While being unemployed, I have been able to nourish my creative side and spend more time outside and with my community. That's the life I want to live. Although I'm still applying to corporate positions, I'm making more time for my candle and digital art small businesses. I pray those two take off soon so I never have to hear an MS Outlook or MS Teams chime again!
Shamel, They just used you on looking for a job. You just gave them free work submitting a Schimatic for a project. They ran with it. Don't ever give an employer knowledge of how to technically do a project.
Yeah, we're on the same page. The only caveat that I want to point out, is that being self employed is very likely more stressful than any job insecurity. Running a business, no matter how big or small, takes over your life completely. That isn't to say it completely negates your arguments! It doesn't. Just the stress part. But when you are running your own business you have a direct and genuine interest in seeing it succeed, which is different from being an employee. So what I'm saying is, you will be more stressed, and you will definitely work even more, but you will want to do it. You will enjoy it. People are wrong when they say they live for the weekend, that life is about the rest, fun and games. I think life is about finding a real purpose. Something you are passionate about. And as an employee, you are helping someone achieve that. While self employed you are the one chasing it.
I graduated in July 2023, and I've only just found a job in August 2024. The crazy part is how rare the entry level jobs i was applying for are. You almost never see them, and when they do pop on a Job search site they get bombarded with 400+ applications. I got hired from a total of 135 candidates, probably my biggest draw of luck.
I work in compliance for one of the big banks and as am writing this post they are training workers in India to take on a lot of our work. This is all about cost cutting to boost the stock price for shareholders meanwhile the biggest shareholders are the ceo and his team. This is the sad state of corporate America these days. People need to find a better path than getting degrees to get a job in the soul crushing corporate world.
my friend, I have 2 masters degrees in engineering, 47 years old in Germany. I am all the time taking courses and learning the latest stuff so I don't get kicked out.
The corporate employee will say they don't want the instability of working as an entrepreneur and then will be consistently concerned about losing their job.
Your diagnosis is correct. Your prognosis? _Ehhhh._ First up, as an entertainer, believe me when I say you only think society is rewarding entertainers because you see the lucky 0.1% who make it. Everyone else is either struggling or working a job and also doing their passion on the side, burning the candle at both ends. Also, economically speaking, not everyone can be a small business owner. Capitalism doesn't work without an oppressed underclass to do the excess work that isn't valued, so until we change the way we organize the economy, someone's always going to end up on the bottom, no matter what choices we make individually.
I am in the IT space in the US without about 7 years experience in the field got laid off in Dec. 2023. And I had a 2 month contract job but in between that 2 months and now it feels nearly impossible to even get a job that has lower salary and that I meet all qualifications for. I almost at the point where it feels like switching fields but I'm on track to finish my degree next spring and it all just feels pointless at this point. I lost my job to exactly what you said outsourcing and now I cant even get a equivalent to worse paying and skilled job.
When I was in kuwait, the work week was 6 days a week. They had a lot of holidays but otherwise it was 6 day weeks. Some of the other guys were saying it's like that in most of the Middle East.
I disagree with you (respectfully) in the next point: - you have a "talent" /knowledge. You have some "negotiation room" thanks to that; A LOT of people do not , for most of them is that or anything - even having a blue collar job requires some degree of knowledge you still need the money to go to a technician school, and companies that may train you are few. - AI is coming and the situation will get worse with the time - people that say money is not important or as important, do not understand how valuable for some is to at least hit the 40 hour of week just to keep "floating " I get (90%) what you are saying but again if you have the equipment to do RU-vid and the time to that you are fine. Most people cannot afford to do that.anthony bourdain have several quotes about THIS.
I appreciate very much the way you think, the way you narate all what you say, believe it or not i have been asking AI what are the jobs that will be in demamd and the ones that won't be taken by AI, the least I can say is I am scared for my future
Good video sir. I feel fortunate because my contract role pays pretty well and pays me for all overtime 1.5x pay rate for a salary job. I realize few jobs pay salary and overtime so I’m grateful for that. However there is basically no benefits and 401k. Tradeoffs!
being your onw boss is very difficult to achieve for many reasons. But yes, it's worthwhile the effort and we grow in the process regardless of results.
I've been doing temp jobs for the past 6 months. Not ideal but it puts food on the table. As bad as things seem now, I believe we're in for something really horrible in the next few years. Winter is coming.
You totally forgot about the unions and anti-trust laws, keeping employers in check. Both are on the decline, by design, since the late 70-ish. All being indepedent entrepeneurs is not the answer. We went on the hunt or were gathering food in groups. People are very selfish now, blame boomers!
Find a meaningful way to use your intelligence and skills and things will seem different . Also many places in US are super cheap .. no need to live in CA or expensive area with remote work. Otherwise there’s nothing surprising in what you’re observing and has been true since industrialization in late 1800s.. it’s not a tech thing.
4-5 hrs of overtime a week is one hour every day. Tech engineering is flooded with graduates, programmers who wants to work for big tech and sit behind the desk. I am in civil engineering and civil/construction engineering is always hiring.
Regarding the whole statement... Even sensible (not bad), but you don't understand- you live in a "pink world". In short- you have 10 years to earn and become an "owner" / join the richest (you have to own at least 5 properties). That's why I rejected prestigious job offers- they were too low-paid and uncertain, which is already visible (manager/ IT). A completely different world is coming and this is the "final showdown"
I have lost my job in Chennai, India on May 31st. I am angular developer with 3.3 years experience, and I am searching job for more than 1.5 months through Linkedin and Naukri, and only got 2-3 mail responses even Still no job
It's "beliefs had you" ;) Most (90- 95%) of the current IT employees... will be fired (successively/ over time - the best talents need to gain experience).
Its strange that people in the West, especially NA are so quick to judge Soviet Communist history and yet so blind to the obvious problems in a global "free" market that simply reached boiling point. The problems described are not new.. Please spend 3-5 minutes reading "A “Scientific” System of Sweating" by Lenin from 1913 (Yes its THAT old and perfectly relevant). Remember "Monopoly" game? Its a criticism intentionally created by a highly talented woman. Now obviously we DONT want to follow Soviet or CCP history but if we allowed just a tiny bit of the criticism to reach or mind you would not only realize how obvious the problem is but also how late in life you are learning the lesson. Why don't you think about yourself in 10-20 years wanting to spend time with your kid while competing against younger people able and willing to work overtime? How about trying to live off the savings in high inflation economy? You still have tough lessons to learn
