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Goodbye corporate ladder

Elizabeth Garone

With today s roller coaster economy, many new graduates are eschewing the

corporate ladder in favour of temporary positions or the chance to be their own

boss.

The world of big business would have been the first port of call for ambitious

new graduates, wrote Maite Baron, chief executive officer at The Corporate

Escape, a London-based career-transition consultancy that helps disillusioned

employees become business owners.

Now, however, not only has the corporate sector far fewer jobs to offer, but

they also look increasingly unattractive tarnished as they are by bad

practice, and with salaries, pensions and perks that seem inadequate

compensation for the high stress and long hours required, Baron said.

In Europe, the numbers for self-employment are quite high: In the UK, roughly

15%of workers are self-employed while in Greece, that number jumps to 30%,

according to the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO). In the US, the

number is 6.6%, according to a recent report from CareerBuilder.

Striking out on your own

There are very few times in one s life or career when unconventional moves are

actually feasible. Right after college or grad school is one, wrote Bernd

Schoner, author of The Tech Entrepreneur s Survival Guide: How to Bootstrap

Your Startup, Lead Through Tough Times, and Cash In for Success.

There are a number of reasons why new graduates make great entrepreneurs,

according to Schoner. One of the big ones is the blessing of poverty, he

wrote. Students and graduates are used to a student lifestyle. [They]

typically don t have a large family to feed, they don t fly business class, and

they don t pay interest on mortgages.

Therefore, they can live on little or no salary and have financial flexibility

as a new business ramps up.

Another reason is what Schoner calls the innocent enthusiasm of new

graduates. Many a young graduate entrepreneur founds a company without too

much concern about how much work it will be, how long it will take to make it

successful or how risky it may be, he wrote. Sometimes it helps to just

stumble into a big undertaking like founding a tech company before you can

grasp the full implications of it.

Building a dream team

Just because you don t have all of the skills necessary for the new business

doesn t mean you shouldn t go for it, wrote The Corporate Escape s Baron. You

can make up for any shortfall in your skills and experience by around you

building a dream team of supporters, experts, mentors, and advisers who do

have the knowledge that s needed. Attract them to you through your enthusiasm,

passion and vision.

Baron suggested using freelance experts as one way to add to the skills base of

your business without breaking your budget.

Why stop with one?

Increasingly common are portfolio working graduates who gain their income

from several different sources, according to Bruce Woodcock, a careers adviser

at University of Kent in Canterbury, England.

If one job disappears, you still have another source of income, he wrote.

Graduates often embrace the freedom offered to them by short-term contracts,

changing employers and abandoning the linear career in favour of portfolio

working or combining employment with setting up their own business.

A test run

Ross Johnson, branch manager of staffing firm Addison Group s Healthcare

Practice in Dallas, Texas, wrote that he has seen an increase in millennials

leveraging temporary positions as opportunities to explore different fields,

companies and roles.

A majority don t know exactly what they want to do for a career, wrote

Johnson. Taking a temporary position is a great way to gain experience and get

a feel for the industry or specific company before making a firm commitment.

Just don t job hop too quickly, advised Johnson. Try to give the position at

least a year.

A year provides a candidate a good sense of what they liked and didn t like

about a position or company, and helps them better understand what to look for

in their next role, he wrote. It can also help recent graduates get in the

mindset of a real-world routine and corporate environment.