How working for free can benefit your career
Throughout the past few decades, “traditional” jobs have often required applicants to have experience within a field of expertise. However, with experience being increasingly hard to find, there is a simple solution: work for free.
People work hard for many reasons but in the commercial world of business, the biggest motivator is undoubtedly money. Not a surprising fact since we all need it to survive. But why should you work for free? The simple answer is that it’s a great way to strategically achieve your goals and make new connections. Whether you like it or not, there are people in the world which have the same skillset as you, that would be willing to do the job for a lower price. It’s a simple issue of supply and demand.
Now, of course, you may feel as if you want to be compensated for your time. However, it’s often the case that you get paid down the road in some other form. You may want to work for free in order to build a valuable relationship with another person. For example, you offer your graphic design skills for free for a famous artist – and they end up recommending you to several wealthy producers that are happy to pay for your work. At the end of the day, “working for free” is often just a strategic chess move within one’s career to help progress their knowledge and experience. Simple!
The basic gist of my point is that by having a strategy to get exposure, working for free will often allow you to make large amounts of money down the road. After all, if more people see how good you are at your craft, there’s a higher chance that you’ll have more business leads.
But let’s get to some practical examples. After all, the aim of this article is to help you understand why working for free can be a potentially amazing idea for your music career. If you are a singer, you could easily work for free in a local recording studio in exchange for studio time to record your new single/album. Likewise, if you are a DJ, and you need exposure, send an email out to the 50 best clubs in your city/state offering to play for free on their quietest night. Sure, the gig might not be amazing. But once you’ve played at multiple large venues, that instantly gives you more leverage to charge a higher fee in the future. You either have time, or you have money. Pick one.
We now live in a totally new world to the one that was before us decades ago. Technological advances and economic changes have (mostly) allowed us to be a more connected society. So I invite you to evaluate your position in this world. Out of the billions of people out there, is there someone who can do what you can? I would happily bet that there is. So take a long look at yourself, and figure out an effective roadmap to achieve your ambitions. Quite often, working for free is the quickest way to get there.
