In the tough job market of today, it’s the creative and resourceful bird that gets the juiciest worm. In fact, it’s those that make the most of what’s around them and are capable of bending their job expectations a bit that succeed the most.
In a Reuters article, Chris Mok discussed his nine month search for another job after he lost his position as a marketing agent with Macy’s in 2009. For that stretch of time he was working with his wife helping her run her San Francisco floral shop. The shop was particularly busy in the early-summer, as it always is, and Wok suggested that his wife should use a site that allows for people to post small jobs that others can pick up at their leisure. The jobs can range anywhere from fixing a leaky faucet or running a small errand.
After finding much success with the small job bids, Wok decided to start picking up job bids for himself. He figured that if he couldn’t find a steady job doing what he wanted to do and what he was used to doing, he would make the most of his situation and take any kind of job he could get. In fact, he was working seven days a week taking multiple jobs. “I hit the ground running and have been working almost seven days a week since July.” From no job to several jobs, it seems as though Mok was creative in his job search and rather than focus on one specific job title, he took many. According to the article, Mok is earning about $3,500 a month picking up various job bids online. “It feels great to be your own boss and to pick and choose the jobs you take on,” said Mok.
These kinds of job bids are called peer-to-peer jobs and have offered many people a source of income as their job searches continue to be fruitless. “We’re enabling people to invest in and engage with folks in their community in a way that I think we’ve forgotten,” says Leah Brusque, a programmer that founded one of these peer-to-peer sites called Task Rabbit. “We’ve done that by turning them into micro-entrepreneurs.” Brusque makes a great point. In the past, people relied more on other people to get certain jobs done. You didn’t necessarily have to go to a flooring company to get your floors installed, but rather could find someone you knew to do it for you at a possible smaller cost.
“We are changing the way people think about doing business with the people around them. We’re making it possible to ask for and get anything, in real time, from the people around you.” If these kinds of job bids find national and eventually global success then the entire idea of what a job is could completely change.
Rather than view a job as an occupation with a single job title performing the same kinds of tasks for a set company, a job can be what you want it to be. While it can be very difficult for a person to make a living off of accepting job bids that pay close to $100 each, Mok is a testimony that it is possible. Rather than continue to search for a job he was comfortable with and used to, he instead branched out and made the best of his situation. Much like the other triumphant job success stories of today, Mok had to bend his idea of a what he wanted in a job in order to find something that worked for him. By being creative and resourceful, he was able to find a source of income that satisfied his budget. Not to say that everyone should follow Mok’s route, but if your job search continues to be fruitless, it may be time to find a creative, new way.
SOURCE: Reuters
IMAGE: Courtesy of Preston Bailey
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