It all started with a trip to a genetics lab and I got bitten by a spider…
Nope. Sorry. Not that kind of origin story. No hero rising from the ashes, no super cool lasso and sword or animated suit. Just little ol’ me.
It’s also not a story about how the world was made a better place when I arrived it.
If you have been following me on social media, you will be aware that I have been self-employed since February 2019. Working at client side in Wapping, East London. But how did I get here?
I graduated from my Masters degree in Computer Animation from the University of Bradford in 2007. I entered the market wide-eyed and expecting to be picked up by Pixar and work on the latest and greatest movies. As you can guess that never actually happened but instead came the recession.
Long story short, I had to do lots of job hopping to keep a roof over my head and food on the table as well as the odd freelance creative job that came along. I enjoyed working from home on these jobs instead of directing traffic in freezing temperatures or boxing online orders in a sweaty basement of a well known high end store. However, it wasn’t earning me any money. Mostly due to my lack of getting out there and finding more work, I was still expecting the work to come to me. I was very naive in my youth.
I did eventually get offered permanent work at a IT company creating videos for their clients for internal training. I did well and ended up as Manager after 3 years on the job.
After a total of 5 and bit years I felt I was stagnating. I was fed up with being constantly monitored to ensure I was completing my 8 hours, fed up with not being given flexible working, fed up with having to justify everything, as well as being severely underpaid. I knew I wanted to move on, and had taken re-consideration to working as a freelancer or contractor as well as a different permanent role. But being cosy in a 9-6 job meant I had little or no motivation to move on.
I needed a kick in the butt.
That kick came at 8pm on January 2nd 2019. A phone call to say the company had gone into administration and I no longer had a job.
A lot of options went through my head. So, I started applying for both freelance and permanent roles. I was emailing companies offering my services as a permanent or freelancer and got a few positive responses. I did want to go freelance and luckily my previous CEO had recommended myself and one other to work on a project as contractors. One we would have worked on if the company hadn’t go into administration. Contract signed and started working in February (After getting all the boring VAT, business insurance etc. done)
What I found odd was I was struggling to get out of the permanent employment mindset. I had become institutionalised in having to ask permission to work from home and having to explain why, the process of requesting leave was different too. The attitude was completely different, and eventually i felt comfortable enough to request working from home. It was an amazing change.
I did take a break from job searching for a while to relax into the new role. And again started getting comfortable. Which is a bad sign especially if you don’t know when the contract will end. So I slapped myself back into shape and started pushing things to social media, planning personal development and blogging.
I started using social media more to my advantage, started building a brand to sell and started seeking help and advice from others who had been through this process. Connecting with more people, digitally (still working on the physical) and I have seen an improvement in interaction and interest in what I do. I started blogging more regularly, and can see the stats improve.
I hope to remain self-employed as I like the flexibility of it and still be able to work on my own personal projects. But another positive about doing this is I am more confident in myself.
Self-employed is an option that is increasingly popular. And everyone has their reasons for doing it. And with Brexit and IR35 on the horizon it could become more difficult to get work despite the fact it brings in innovation and money to the economy
And that, dear reader, is my humble story of how I became self-employed.
My current contract expires in October. So if you have a question or would like to discuss a project then please get in contact.
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