Most would agree that the old “jobs for life” attitude is no longer based in reality, and that the “psychological contract” between employer and employee is changing. Neil Conway from the School of Management and Organisational Psychology at Birkbeck College, London says in the Guardian, “The explicit deal, the one that says I’ll work X number of hours for you each week and you’ll pay me Y number of pounds, is underpinned by a kind of implicit deal in which the employee also expects job security, respect, career opportunities, that kind of thing. Job insecurity makes people examine that a lot more closely.”

But some people have always taken charge of their own careers, rather than expecting an employer to take on that responsibility. Those who for one reason or another have never really fit into a conventional corporate environment, have needed certain attributes to succeed – even in times of recession.

Here are some of these attributes, which are as useful for job seekers as they are for the self-employed.

1. Differentiate yourself from others
It’s only when you work out what makes you special – a star performer – that you can hope to pitch yourself to a prospective employer. You need to know how your background or your blend of skills and experience make you valuable. What can you do to solve company problems or make positive changes?

When you start analysing your strengths, it helps to think about what you’re good at doing – really good at doing. Can you speak another language fluently? Can you develop for the i-phone? Finding your niche, or being a big fish in a small pond is one way to ensure you’ll always be in demand somewhere.

2. Use your contacts
Contacts are the lifeblood of freelancers. Happy clients pass on the freelancer’s name to their contacts, and these referrals bring extra business. The greater the number of clients, the more recession-proof a freelancer or independent contractor becomes.

Having a network of contacts is just as important for job seekers. The more you have, the greater your reach. Your contacts can help you get an “in” to a company, and help you find out about opportunities before they’re advertised – saving the company time and money if you’re a good fit for the role.

Whether formalised as employee referral programmes, or as informal as word of mouth recommendations, personal contacts work for both employer and candidate. Being in the right place at the right time becomes less a question of luck when you know people who are in a position to help you. Social networking tools – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums etc – now make it much easier to develop and stay in touch with your contacts, to tell people you’re looking for openings, and to pass on leads to others.

3. Resourcefulness
If you’re graduating this summer, the future might be looking bleak. With huge competition for jobs, not having any real experience is a serious obstacle. Work placements aren’t always paid, and not everyone can afford to work for free. Getting your foot on the first rung of the career ladder has never been easy, but apart from internships, paid or otherwise, there are other options.

If you’ve exhausted your network of contacts, and those of friends, family or colleagues, start listening to people around you. Is there a need you can fill in your community of neighbours and local businesses? Can you provide a service, or produce something of value to people around you? Can you work on a project which will use your skills and get you the experience you need for your chosen career?

If you can set something up from scratch and fill a gap in the market, your initiative pays off. It may lead you to another similar project, or it may be the experience you need – the missing element in a job application.

4. Be flexible
Not every job is going to be a stepping stone in your career. Some jobs are fillers to help pay the bills, while others you do because you’re waiting for a better one to come along. That’s not to say they aren’t valuable in their own right. If you learn something, it can generally be put to good use on your resume /CV. But because many projects and jobs lead on to others, it pays to take opportunities as they arise. Accept temporary or part-time work, maternity leave cover etc, just to get an “in”. Once you become known inside a company and start building your reputation, you’ll be considered for internal vacancies and promotions.

5. Take 100% responsibility for yourself
Training budgets are often the first expense to go when a company cuts costs. But there are lots of cheap / free options to keep your skills and knowledge up to date. Get qualified – letters after your name can make the difference – and make sure you’re familiar with computer / internet technologies.

Developing your skills will give you a wider choice of jobs, but don’t neglect transferable skills that you can pick up in your personal life. Organising events, counselling, sitting on committees all help to beef up your portfolio.

Taking responsibility also involves being vigilant and protective of your reputation. Assume that companies will research you just as much as you research them. Your reputation is important, so make sure your image is clean – online as well as offline.

Photo credit: TOKY Branding and Design

Obviously, it’s in everyone’s best professional interests to make sure that the sort of information that surfaces puts that person in the best possible light. There are plenty of stories of people losing their jobs because they boasted about pulling a sickie, or posted questionable content about themselves.

But almost as damaging as dodgy photos or bravado comments of fiddling company expenses, is not having any internet presence at all. What thoughts would run through a hiring manager’s mind if she could find no trace of you? No LinkedIn profile, no comments on industry-related blogs, no twitter account – nothing? Possibly that you’ve never used the internet before, or worse, that you have no interest at all in your particular field.

And the same is true if you’re a freelancer applying for your next project. If you haven’t helped people out on a forum, or contributed to a discussion in your area of expertise, there’s no clear or objective evidence to show a potential client that you’ve got the skills and experience to do a job.

If, on the other hand, someone researches you on Google and a whole series of links comes up showing your involvement in your sphere of professional activity, you demonstrate interest in your career, as well as personal expertise. In short, by making yourself visible, you’ll be putting yourself ahead of the pack.

Here are seven tips for increasing your professional visibility:

1. Join LinkedIn if you haven’t already.
Create a full profile, and keep it updated with your most recent work details. Then, find LinkedIn groups focussing on your specialist area, and contribute to their discussions.

2. Join Twitter and follow people who may be able to help you in your career.
Make sure you create a profile, and put in a url to your blog or site, or your LinkedIn profile, to allow people to find out more information about you.

3. Consider setting up a blog that will showcase your expertise.
Blogs are hard work, so you’ll need to commit yourself to updating it regularly. If you don’t have the time to do this, your blog may appear “abandoned”, even leading visitors to think you’re the sort of person who can’t commit to something in the long-term.

4. Contribute regularly to other forums and blogs
If you don’t have the time or interest in launching your own, make sure you’re visible on others. Participate in discussions, or answer questions others may have. Enhance your image by making sure your contributions are in standard English, with correct punctuation, spelling and grammar. Don’t write negative, angry or sarcastic comments, as they can be easily misunderstood and end up harming your image.

5. If you’re actively looking for work, get your CV in as many places as you can.
As well as uploading your CV to job boards, also consider creating a multimedia CV on Visual CV. Visual CV is free, and allows you to create your own page, where you can add documents (word, excel, powerpoint, pdf), images (charts, photos, graphics), video, audio and links. You can then email it to recruiters, save it as a PDF, or forward the URL.

6. Get a Google profile
Launched in April 2009, Google profiles are personal profiles which appear at the bottom of the page when you put in a name search. They’re useful not only if you share the same name as someone else (so helping you to avoid a case of mistaken identity) but also because you can upload your photo, bio, contact information (if you include it) and links to your blog and profiles on other sites.

See some sample profiles here.

7. Separate the professional from the personal
If you use Facebook to keep in contact with friends and family, consider changing the profile and search settings so that your page is only visible and accessible to friends. Obviously, this means that you won’t be accessible to recruiters, so you’ll need to decide whether you need this level of privacy, or whether it’s more useful for you to be visible everywhere online.

Photo credit: pdbreen

I’m not talking about clients who have unrealistic expectations about project times and complexity. You can often put them right on these, and by so doing, build a useful dialogue. But cheap clients are only motivated by cost. So if you’ve already given your “best price” you can only negotiate this downwards, as there’s nothing else to shave off in terms of extras or quicker delivery times.

Here are some warning signs that a cheap client is going to try to drive down the cost:

- they tell you they can get the service cheaper elsewhere
- they approach you out of the blue asking for your best price
- they say they’ve got bigger projects in the future
- they lie about making payments or bounce cheques
- they challenge you on every cost – even small
- they offer you equity instead of payment

The best advice for dealing with a cheap client: don’t accept the work. You might think that the project will be quick and easy, but it rarely turns out that way. Cheap clients want a lot in terms of work or hours, but at such low cost that the project is no longer cost-efficient. You’re better off looking for a client who will pay you your true worth.

Photo credit: Esdras Calderan

1. Is the gap that important?

Not many people have a completely linear career, where each job marks a different step up the career ladder. People lose their jobs, get ill, go travelling, take time out to look after parents or children, or simply decide not to work for an employer for a while and do something else instead. If you’ve only had a few months out of employment, you might not need to do any “explaining”. But if your gaps are more frequent, or for longer periods of time, or if you’re applying for a job where continuity is prized, then you’ll need to think about how to deal with the gaps.

2. Don’t try to hide the gaps

Some hiring managers and recruiters hate functional resumes/ CVs, as they believe that by grouping experience into skills areas and not including work dates means a candidate is trying to conceal gaps in work history. To avoid giving the impression that you have something to hide, consider writing either a chronological CV or a hybrid CV, where you still organise your skills into groups but then add dates and titles held in a Professional Experience section afterwards.

3. Work the gaps to your advantage.

You might not have been behind a desk eight hours a day, but what else did you do with your time? Within reason, pretty much anything can be portrayed in such a way that it highlights the sort of skills and experiences that employers like to see.

Did you learn something? (Have you got certificates to prove it?)
Did you research anything? (How has it made you more knowledgeable in your field or for the job you are applying for?)
Did you perfect your skills doing something? (What did you do and how will it be useful?)
Did you do any voluntary work? (And how was your contribution important to the overall goal?)
Did you freelance or do any consulting work? (What were your particular accomplishments in these projects?)

As with everything you put on your CV / resume, make sure that what you write is targeted towards the particular job you are applying for.

4. Don’t feel you have to explain everything.

Given that your CV should not extend to more than two pages (some people say that one page is optimum) and that you have on average ten to twenty seconds to make an impression, you don’t need to include absolutely everything. Leaving out small employment gaps is fine, as you can always explain them in the interview. Likewise, if your employment gaps were some time ago, potential employers are unlikely to be concerned if you can show a subsequently consistent work history.

Photo credit: Image by Kevin Dooley under Creative Commons license.

Although the offer comes at a good time for him, and it gives him stability for at least the next twelve months, I’m not so sure I’d be tempted. These are some of the issues that I’d be concerned about:

1. Wide spread of clients = less risk
Putting all your eggs into one basket is something most freelancers tend to avoid. If you have multiple income streams from multiple clients, you’re less likely to hurt too badly if you lose one of them. With the current economic situation in seemingly unstoppable freefall, how do you know that your new employer won’t also go to the wall?

2. Uncertain future
Nothing moves faster than a hungry job seeker after a job. If my friend gives up his freelance clients now, the chances are he’s going to find it hard to pick them up again if his job ends after 12 months. Will he be able to get new ones? How long will it take him to build up his network to at least its present level?

3. Lack of freedom
By work freedom I don’t mean the “I don’t want to get out of bed this morning so won’t go to work” myth but “I can’t choose projects where I’m going to develop my experience and skills”. Is he stalling his potential career by not being able to choose new learning experiences in this new job?

4. Adapting to being an employee
Regular hours, regular pay – these are obviously appealing aspects of paid employment. But there are also downsides that need to be weighed up. Some people are just not suited to company work, and find offices and office culture oppressive.

5. Doing it for the security only
The job isn’t exactly what my friend wants at the moment, although he’s hoping his responsibilities might expand into something more interesting. It’s a risk though. In my experience, boredom on the job ends up as real unhappiness after a few months. If your heart isn’t in it, is the risk worth taking?

Photo credit: demi-brooke

When the job market is so tight, and opportunities so limited, it makes sense to do something for yourself. It doesn’t need to be revolutionary or even “new”. The ideas he suggests are hardly earth-shattering: sell coffee, start a news-stand, deliver birthday cakes. But you might make money at it, and you’ll certainly have the motivation to make a success of it. Of course, as he points out, if you’re good at it, someone might hire you.

Some steps to going it alone

1. Work out what you’re good at doing, and what you enjoy doing.
Are you a “people person”, a “stickler for detail” or a “big thinker”? These character traits will often draw you to certain types of jobs, and therefore to new, potentially interesting areas.

2. Think laterally about your skills – and how they could fit market opportunities.
I know I don’t have the skills to be a computer programmer, but I have language skills and I could translate for foreign dignitaries who visit my town. I could also run tours in the countries where I speak the language. It helps if you make a list of all your skills, and the potential spin-offs, then strike them off the list if they’re too impractical or need too much capital to get off the ground.

3. Get support from friends and family.
Ask for their feedback and opinions, and ask for their help in getting the word out.

4. Accept risks.
This is difficult to quantify, as we all have different levels of risk-aversion. Going it alone certainly involves a risk – perhaps defined as the risk of moving outside your “comfort zone”, where you don’t have the security of a monthly salary, travel expenses and so on. You could also argue that if you’re not currently in paid employment, the lack of security is something you’re already living with. Risking a new idea is perhaps the first of many risks you’ll take, but the more small successes you have, the more willing you become to try something new.

5. Don’t be afraid of failure.
Not everything will work or make you lots of money. But if you start small, give yourself a reasonable deadline and set realistic targets, you’re already half-way there to making a success.