When you retire to bed, like a night shift bugger, some like yours
truly get down to the business of turning my machine into a hole in the wall,
say a cash cow. It’s like a gambit, though. When your schedule doesn't fit
into neat little boxes, it can require some special skills to keep everything
in order. And that is the world of freelancing. That is why I am working on having
a schedule center that can optimize where flexible tasks can fit because the
freelance world has constant uncertainty. Sometimes you find it hard to detach
yourself from work and recoup. Especially when you should task switch amid
overlapping objectives. Yet, it’s so much interesting and worth giving it a
try.
I don’t know whether to infer to myself as a recluse or just
another bugger who has opted to find some meaning into what life generally is. After
a year of working in the sales industry and making no proper in roads, I am now
into something less ‘ish ish’ than ever before, online data entry. I have a
love hate relationship with it. It’s kind of what I can call métier. For once,
I have a job where I am never worried where the work will come from, someone
else has to be worried about that.
That said, working online is not a bed of roses like I though.
There is constant uncertainty, you sometimes find that your memory and ability
to focus becomes impaired. During the working hours, you have to call in to see
if there is work. And that is the most interesting bid. It’s synonymous to
going to prospect for work in industrial area where the Indian banyans have
control over your financial status. Only that, working online is kind of a
surefire especially if you work for a growing institution with an organogram
that augurs towards progress and stability.
I freelance for a small company called Cloudfactory (the total
office space is a far cry from where I used to work from). It’s one of those
firms that offers work yet it takes more than just the ability to work to
withstand the work environment. This means that like any other institution,
there are a fair share of challenges. It means you have your own to do list.
Only that it is quieter and like liquid gas, quite combustible. And like
everything else, there is the good, the bad and the ugly side of this job.
While there is more money in the field of sales where I formerly
was, it can be lonely and not even a tinge of sparkle if all you are doing is
looking at everyone as offering an avenue for a sale. Which inadvertently
sometimes contributes towards a stupor of unhappiness. A world where you live
for others. Where rivalry, selfishness and a sales cycle awaits you. While it
strengthens your negotiation, communication and people skills, it can kill the
ethical bit which is never within the scope of law. You can decide to lie at
will, or worse still give empty promises in your customer interactions. That
said, it’s more interesting to work as a salesperson than an online freelance
data entry clerk in my opine if you can make it to be a success story in both.
The skills in sales make you a better person, while those in data entry make
you a better worker.
The reason why I had to call it a day in sales had everything to
do with stress, a job never aligning to my goals in life and constant worries.
The manager I was assigned to was the mechanical type who thought I deliberately
refused to work even though the support she provided was not up to standard.
Her sneer was enough to tell me that we could not gel because a salesperson is
concerned with making money at the expense of anything else. As such, I was in
constant worry of being laid off, pressure to perform to meet rising
expectations but with no increase in job satisfaction and finally due to low
motivation, I lost control of what I should do. Plus other exogenous variables,
I felt like the impact was contributing to my deteriorating physical and
emotional heath. I felt powerless. Yet there is a hotline which I never took
advantage of looking back. Would it have changed much?
If in any way the sales thingy would have generally been a cup of
tea, I would have done it for the rest of my life without much ado. But since
it became a tough to cruise without hitches, I thought that it was time to
pursue new exploits. Here, then is my parochial view of what it is like to work
as a freelancer for an online company.
I have always been yearning to make forays into the ‘make money
online’ thingy(sic). Just to quench my thirst for being able to attest to the
fact that you can be able to make money online. If not for the fact that I love
adventure, writing and finance industry through investments, I would have
looked for guys in the freelance industry to give me more roles, and worked meticulously
towards being a fulltime freelancer. Since I am still ish ish, I think I would
say I am in it for the money, adventure and what else, the aspect of killing
idleness.
Sometimes, I usually think that I should have focused on a career,
a fully-fledged one where I am sure of a constant stream of income and growth.
In sales, I saw people who had graduated, with more than five years’ worth of
experience but were content in the cocoon of serving as a salesperson. Then I
thought, ‘The growth trajectory I am to assume was that of being a good
salesperson, then a personal banker, probably a branch manager in a tiny branch
and the list is endless.’ Before you know it, you have this killed dream and
you cannot go back.
When I look back, I feel like I have not made much progress in
life, it’s like ‘I am still stuck in a rut’. Ideally, I own only what I need
like clothes, a pen, a note book, my shoes no phone, I even misplaced my
certificates and a laptop. I pay no rent given that I am housed by a relative.
I am carefree hoping one day things will happen out of the woods. Should I be
bothered about it? Hitherto I am yet to see real hardship in life. Still, I am
sure I will come out unscathed after the hustle.
Here is a gist. Sometimes when you take up low income jobs and
become used to them, you find it hard to even apply for a better job with a
better compensation package and an intellectually satiating thrill because of
the inadequate mentality you may have conjured. It’s like a slavish addiction
that is oscillatory and apprehending. You seem like a script cast in stone.
Then you wonder what went wrong. Going forward, you understand that life offers
more than just being a pessimist and a conformist. Many fear rejection, and
that is why we end up accepting our situations. You get tied to such situations
and think that they are what you were guaranteed. But when you take some risk,
perhaps you can achieve more than you did.
That was a by the way. Working online is like being an entrepreneur.
It has it upside and downside. Then again, the upside out surpasses the
drawbacks, there is contentment in a way when you are assured of a reliable
income. The best part is that you have your rota to stick to. You know when to tweak
it to align with your objectives and how you can achieve the most from it using
the time everyone else has. The pressure with working online is that it is
usually from within. Nothing is as rewarding as having the knowledge that you
are doing what you love and you make yourself do it without feeling guilty.
Another trivial reason why working online is enthusiastic has to
do with music. You can decide to listen to music while working and this makes
the monotonous work more enjoyable. It has become inseparable to the tasks that
I do. It is a work aphrodisiac. Music get the physical tasks juices flowing given
that the natural sounds improve my ability to concentrate and execute (sounds
sexual, nah). As such I listen to music I love and the result is that I have
been able to focus on the task at hand for long hours. And that is how I came
to learn of baroque classical music. It builds on the tempo. Sometimes there is
humming which is soothing, dulcet tones creating a wordless melody, something
to help you drift away to a reassuring state that even though you are
working, you are still having fun.
There is also the pleasure of deciding that you will work or not.
Let me put this straight up. We are human beings, we have feeling and moments in
life. There are those times when you never feel like working at all. When in an
eight to five job, nobody may understand that you need to have your me time. You
put up a brave face, force a fake smile and do what you need to do even though
you are suffering inside. When the moment ends, you return to reality, feeling
empty and move on because that is life. But with online work that is moderated,
forget about the other crowd sourcing platforms where you work with a nebulous
crowd that is may not be skilled for the task at hand, you can decide to work
when you are in the mood.
The fact that I work from the house is another advantage on my
side. It can be lonely though. And few think you have a proper job. None thinks
you get tired and consequently must relax. Guys want you to have the traditional
job where you have somewhere to go. Where you wake up, go to work and go back
to the house after work. When it comes to freelancing you can easily connect to
nature when you want. You can visit a friend and when it’s work time, you
unleash your workstation and you are good to go. You are never stressed because
you only need a laptop and internet and you are good to go. You can even go to
a coffee shop, order for one and do your thing there when you feel like. And
you get paid on a weekly basis. Sounds good, right.
When it comes to work, the more you become consistent and turn up
every day for the task, the more accurate and faster you become. That means
that you also earn more. While it becomes hard at the onset, after looking for
ways to ease it up, it becomes more interesting and fun. You perfect your skills
and become the type who is waiting for work to be dispensed. For those of us remaining
because the turnover rate was high, the zeal of eagerly awaiting for tasks is
unabated. It motivates when you share the same status in life with others. You
know that you are not alone.
The growth prospects are also many if opportunities arise. I have
already attended one interview for a conventional job and even though it never
amounted to much because chances are I was not well prepared for it. I felt
like it was a delectable opportunity even though it was kind of conducted in a
hurry. All in all, even being called for it was an exposure that was good. At
least, you can be called for an interview given the skills and knowledge you
have. Guess my unpredictability in the many jobs I have been in must have contributed
towards the rejection.
In terms of the setbacks, there is an avalanche. First, you need
to be trained and qualified for tasks. That is a rigorous kind of process
because it may be frustrating to go through the exercise if you don’t get it
right the first time and the second. You also need internet and a computer,
which you can get from a cyber café. But still you need a computer to make it
easy for you given that there is a custom-built web browser for the tasks. In
the event you don’t have a laptop, you may easily opt out a this becomes a
setback.
Again, there is no consistency in work availability. There are
times when you think you will find work then it is not availed. What do you do?
Many have given up because of the unpredictability. And that is not the major
reason. The income stream is quite low for a starter. Even for the more
established individuals, it’s not a very solid figure that is competitive. I
have a feeling that when you are told by an employer, ‘You pay is within your
disposal,’ you should think twice. You can be phenomenally very good, or a lackluster.
It all depends on the attitude they say. But the truth is that you are never
told that it also depends on other factors beyond your reach. So, with all due
respect, be very sagacious as it may not be what you bargained for.
Sometimes you may just be working for the money. To pay the bills,
and never to be an omba omba. This job is both physically and mentally
involving. You have to skim through a lot of data to be able to decide on the
right one to transcribe. That means that you have to be very thorough in your
checks. If not, your pay reduces and what else, your motivation. The workload
though not very much can be wearisome. You have to keep your eyes wide awake behind
a computer and if you don’t regulate the screen resolution, you may end up
having eye problems. No insurance is provided. Luckily, my glasses have
antiglare.
The monotony of the job is that you never become adventurous. In
sales, I used to determine where I worked from. I would visit many companies to
solicit for sales, make presentations and that was motivating. I met many
people, talked to many and even got new insights that I have documented on this
blog though they are mediocre.
What is more frustrating with this job is that sometimes the
goalpost shifts when not expected. For example, you may think that what you
were doing was right then it becomes the opposite. At some point, I got irked
and decided to go and sleep when my average pay started plummeting instead of
descending. But because I am looking at the bigger picture, I regain some stamina
and decided to learn from the mistakes. Chances are, I was having emotional
disturbance.
My final verdict. Nothing is ever rosy. You might think that you
will get it conducive somewhere else but it becomes challenging where you are
heading to also. But learning on the skills and never giving up hope counts a lot.
Your peanuts maybe another’s plenty. At the end of the day, I have realized
that the pay does not matter. But a pay with a good working environment matters
a lot. Most of all, loving what you do counts a lot.
Hasta la vista baby.
PS: During those no jobs moments, I discovered
#DigitalSkillsAfrica and decided to pursue their online course on online
marketing. I finished it within a day and realized that I don’t know what I will
do with the certificate in terms of job hunting. But then again with the
knowledge, this blog came to mind. Once I am stable, I will buy it a domain
name, sort a profession web design interface and use the knowledge got to
improve its visibility and it reciprocates by bringing in some income. I think
that that course is intellectually stimulating but still not thorough for a guy
who loves challenges.
[Picture Source: Google Images I redid]
