Over the weekend I kept seeing this new Best Buy commercial. Normally I do my best to ignore commercials, but this one had some dialogue that forced me to pay attention. Have you seen it? If not, watch it and you’ll see what I’m talking about:
Mini transcript in case you can’t watch/hear it: “This is Ann. She just graduated…and got a freelance gig. It’s not going very well. Time for a technology makeover.”
For most people this is nothing more than another vapid attempt to sell technology, but for me it was a telling commentary on the future of work.
What This Best Buy Commercial Tells Us About The Freelance Life
1. Instead of falling back on freelancing when a “real job” disappears, college graduates are becoming freelancers right out of the gate.
News flash: no one wants to spend 40 years in a cubicle anymore, and even if you do, those conventional 9 – 5 jobs are increasingly hard to find. Today’s college graduates have grown up in the Internet Age. For them, silicon valley startups founded by college drop outs have always existed. They want jobs that are cool, fun, and flexible. They want to be independent, and choose the projects that interest them and the companies that can enhance their own skill set. Freelancing has become the norm, an expected element of career building, not just a polite way of saying you’re between jobs.
2. Although freelancing has become “normal”, it still lacks a supportive infrastructure and the laws/policies needed to make it fair, safe, and profitable.
In their new book, The Rise of the Naked Economy, the co-founders of NextSpace coworking estimate that 40 percent of the American workforce will be freelancing by the end of the decade. That’s 60 million people. But unless things change, they’ll all be in the same boat as poor Ann: paying out of pocket for functional equipment, software, and workspace; bearing double the tax burden of W2 employees, and operating without affordable health insurance or legal recourse if a client decides not to pay. The workforce is changing, and we need these old institutions to change with it. We need new laws that support, rather than marginalize the independent worker.
What does this commercial tell YOU about the future of work? Share your thoughts in a comment.
workers were first outsourced, now large corporations cant pay people in india nor china a steady wage, so its back to the USA. Second, unless the person is very good, they will not be pitching ideas to any company unless they spend a few years developing a product or service that gets recognition. If Ann is in PR, to go up against established firms, the clients have to want to see her, not anyone new. I seen TAs in college being told the only job they could get are intern jobs. They don’t warp job at the top just by buying the latest tech, so its a bit of both. I have a macbook with the coolest stuff on it, no one wants to talk to me, after decades of programming, I was offered a few jobs in web design.
It takes time, that’s for sure. Joining a coworking space is a huge step in the right direction. Newbs can just redirect their latte budget to a coworking membership and get all the help and support they need to be successful from people who’ve been there already. As for overselling–I dunno. That’s what I have in my arsenal! 🙂
also she is oversold, a tablet and laptop and smart phone all do the same job, dont know why she would need all three. Overkill.