Quirky points to ponder before you freelance

One fine day, after going through a roller coaster of an year in which I got promoted personally and professionally (for the curious ones, I have a boy), and after tipping the thought off with some near and dear ones, I called my ex-manager (lets just call him "Boss" here) and someone whom I consider to be my mentor.

This is how the conversation goes,

Me: I am thinking of taking a break from full time job and doing something on my own

Boss: Good thought.. What do you want to do?

Me: Blah.. blah.. blah. (not relevant for this blog :) )

Boss: Do one thing.. Start doing your freelancing in parallel for about 3 months, see how it goes, talk to senior management recruitment consultants to understand how the market acceptance would be if you decide to go back to full time job.. Ensure you have a corpus to sustain you for whatever time you want to try it out.. Then take a decision..

Me: Great points.. Will do.. Thank you...

After 3 days, I emailed him saying I have resigned...

So this is how I came into the world of freelancing.. It's been 8 months since I started freelancing and the experiences in this phase have leveled my experiences from corporate career..

Before we take the leap, every individual considering freelancing should / would think about lot of factors. I would like to put some into two buckets -

In this blog I am going to focus on the "Personal considerations" and talk oops.. write about them due to two main reasons:

1. I vowed myself this blog won't be more than a 5 min read

2. There are very few articles / blog I have come across which talks about what a freelancer should think about from a personal side

1. Objective of freelancing and long term plan:

It is very important to ask yourself and sort it out within yourself on why you are choosing freelancing and not a regular job. The reason is best known to you. People opt for freelancing due to various factors.

Why this is critical is, this would define

• kind of projects you would apply
• kind of business development you would do
• your pricing / quotation for an assignment
• time that you commit to a client

Sometimes when a great assignment comes our way, it would be very difficult to say no, however this underlying Objective of taking up freelancing should help us take that decision. Or sometimes two assignments would come our way and freelancers are limited by bandwidth. If long term plan is to set up own advisory practice, that would help us prioritize / strategize between competing assignments and choose accordingly.

2. Social Life:

Another important factor to consider is how to balance / maintain / get a social life. Freelancing is a different ball game. While at Corporate, you would have opportunity and maybe time to socialise and have that "cup of tea" with colleagues, while you are freelancing, depending on the nature of your assignment - (hourly fee / work from home) social activity in a professional sense could get crippled.

If you are someone who gets motivated by professional socialising or consider it to be an important part of your professional life, you may have to consciously create these scenarios.

3. Personality adaptation:

Though this is taken up third by me in the pecking order, but I think this of foremost importance.

What I mean by personality adaptation? It is good to ponder over the points discussed below and become self aware to best suit ourselves to swim in the freelancing ocean.. 

Winning position of strength: You might have held a senior position in corporate or a position of influence. People might listen to you or always look up to you. Support to you could have come naturally by the team. However, when you jump assignments in Freelancing you have to start all over each time. While some people might "love this thing" about freelancing, this might not be a natural inclination for others. It is very important for you to introspect and understand your personality type and make conscious changes to adapt to the need.

Working with people of diverse knowledge: This is another thing which I love about freelancing. You get to work with people from diverse background and knowledge. You client could be a college drop out in one assignment and ex-CXO of a large organisation in another. If you have handled cross-functional / cross-industry / cross-geography assignments, then you could be already exposed to this. You have to change your approach to an assignment or a project, without compromising on the quality to suit the client and their background and experience.

Make "Integrity" your individuality: As a consultant, you would get access to data and information mostly at the same magnitude as that of an employee of the organisation. Handling information and data goes beyond any NDA signed. While working with multiple clients (sometimes from similar industries), personal integrity takes pivotal importance. Employing high professional integrity and building and demonstrating trust would go a long way in creating a personal image.

Are you a self-starter? : As a freelancer, you generally don't have any supervisor or boss (I don't consider the client as a boss as the equations are certainly different). You are on your own, dealing with deadlines and managing expectations. And many times you could be dealing with senior folks in an organisation, so image management also becomes a crucial element. You should have abundant self-motivation to see you through every day..

That's it from me for today.. Very soon I will come back with my thoughts on the right side of the chart above..

Do share your comments and reach out if you want to talk more.... 

What do I tell a 12th Standard kid??

Well... This post is not about something that is radically new.. But, common people, I have Right of Speech and here I exercise..!! :P

One Saturday morning, I was asked to conduct a counselling session for 12th standard commerce students from underprivileged background  by Ernst and Young (organised by them..!!).. So there I am, with some 12 odd kids (Yeah.. I am old enough to call them kids.. :( ) .. Btw there was another CA too from a different team..

Now, when they ask us what should they study after 12th Std, I didnt have an answer... !!

I so want to tell that they should follow their heart, do what they want all that shit..
But having been in a similar position myself,
i. I know the level of exposure these kids would have had.. So how do one find what heart wants? As far as I know, all their heart wants now is, Maslow's basic needs without worry for their entire family throughout the year....
ii. Even if they manage to find out where their interest lies, the economic constraints their family is in, might not give these kids the time required for monetary success in non-conventional streams..
iii. Frankly, being a decade older than they are, when I am myself in search of answer for the question "what my heart wants", how do I tell them how to go about it..!!

By the time I was trying to come up with an answer, my colleague had started his sales pitch on CA (Chartered Accountancy)..

Had it been a few years back (when I was in a different level of awakening :P), I would be selling CA or ICWA or professional courses like these myself.. But, now, I know they are not end of life.. Not the only way to end all misery..

But how do i put it to these kids elegantly (if u are so vella, you can refer to side note on my opinion on professional courses :P ) - that u can look at these options, but its ok even if you find midway that, they are not for you and find other alternatives...

Wouldn't it amount to confusing them more?
It is something that my friends struggle to understand after trying for 7 years in vain to finish professional courses.. How do I communicate to these kids that, they should study, but look at the bigger picture too..
Wouldn't they feel pursuing it as a waste of time given their circumstances?  

Again only thoughts, and no tangible solution... :D

So, in effect, I could tell them to pursue the degree that will get them a job somewhere -- which I didnt want to do, as it will put them into a rat race, push them to accept mediocrity and create yet another generation of BPOers...

Finally, I ended up not talking much, but thinking a lot..!! :P Next, time when I attend such a session, I still do not have a solution to the question "What should I do next", but I will strive to find some... :))










Side note on my opinion on Professional courses:
Sure professional courses help.. I have personally benefited from them.. When I got my job after ICWA, my monthly salary was 150% more than my parents' monthly salary put together.. It was a great moment to see the content in your parents' face that there is going to be some financial respite
(the current state of their face after my MBA is a different issue though.. :P I will write a separate blog on "State of MBA Tambram single girl" ;) -- Btw this is called pre-launch promotion :P )


But, now, I think there is a risk in promoting professional courses for a group generically.. There are lot of things - emotional, psychological, financial, intellectual - that should fall in place for someone to pass them at a reasonable period of time.. And everyone's life is wired differently.. The problem with selling these courses is,

i. people get into the mode of thinking that, this is the only way to open up doors for numerous opportunities.. start thinking this is end of life

ii. after a few failed attemps, people tend to take it emotionally on their Ego to clear them come what may.. they fail to look at the bigger picture and tend to spend precious years of their youth running behind this ...

Mumbai Chapter 2

Hmmm second post on Mumbai... My first blog was on Mumbai !!!!!!!! It was the city that made me write.... and now I am back again with another post on the city of dreams for many including me, but a very smelly and dirty city... :)

Every city has its own character, culture, its pros and cons to it and same is the case with Mumbai....

My life experiences in Mumbai in the first month... -------

I am really amazed by the amount of people living in the city and the security u get even when u walk back home at 11pm in night....

Best way to Kill time after office - wait to get a taxi to go home... :) i wait for half an hour and still no one wants to come to Dadar East frm Dadar West... !!! and the situation worsens when it rains..

Best way to know how fast Mumbai is - Go out during rains and you should be lost (wont know where u r standing) and try to stop someone to check for routes.. :)

The thing which lightened my mood when I was lost during rain and had already walked some 3kms - water clogging on a flyover...!!! This is against science man.. if there is something above ground level, water shd flow down...

But the concern of cabbies is awesome - One cabbie was really concerned how am I gonna survive in the city without knowing the language and tried to test my hindi by talking to me continuously only in hindi during the travel and certified that I am understanding the language well and will start speaking hindi in 6mths time.. :)
While another cabbie wanted to know whether the person I am sharing my room with is a male or female friend as I am unmarried... and suggested I should go back to Chennai as there are good companies even there.. !! :)

Bandra, Carter Road Sea Face - A path half with sea face and half with bushes and woods so u dont see the sea, but u can experience a great smell.. :) A place which was suggested by many ppl as "must see" and it was a let down for me becoz frankly Marina beach walkway is much better.... :p
Then I realised, the ppl who create hype abt the place are either ppl frm that part of the country who hav seen water only in bottles :p or so called "youth" who has girl friend / boy friend and wants to just sit and get lost...

Well... Looking back, after close to an year here, all these get a smile in my face because these are experiences which probably no other city will offer as a package and I respect Mumbai for it..!!

And this is a city worth a Book and that's why may be there are so many books out there in the market on Mumbai.. Can't be covered in one blogpost.. That's why I have restricted this post to experience in the first month.. And may be will come up with another after I finish an year here.!!

Tricky Economies

When I looked nowhere through the windows of my 15th Floor office, I was taken to a different world by my thoughts. May be it is influenced by the task I was doing – listing down cosmetic products of different companies – suddenly I felt more informed on the various aspirational products that girls use and had a sense of elation that, now I wont be lost when I see these products in the stores and on the dressing table of girls.. But this was not the world I am talking of, the greater thought was, to think of the 100s of different products available in the market – yeah, for lesser mortals who are still in the state of ignorance in which I was, just to give an idea of product proliferation, I take eye make up as an example:

• Products - eye liner, kajal, mascara, eye shadow, brow pencil

• Effects (post application) – matt, illuminance, cream, wet, powder

• Time to stay – 12 hr, 24 hr, etc

• Solubility – water proof, soluble

• Colors – apart from this there are numerous colour options

So people who could compute permutations and combinations will know how many possibilities exist and what is the money available on table to be looted.. :p

But one amazing thing is, just with the basis of “we all like to look good”, how one huge industry has developed and how it is evolving to find new ways to excite people. We didn’t tell them we need a separate “day cream” and a “night cream”. This is a need created by the industry.

Anyway to continue last sentence, the greater thought was, this industry was not present to this extent may be 5 decades back. And I am sure girls looked good even then. So, to think of the 100s of products available in the market,

are they really doing any good? I don’t know. They might, they might not.

Are they cheating people? I cant say.

Are they doing any good for society? Hmmm…….. (guys might say yes, but I don’t know. :) )

Should we start a movement to close these industries? Huh….

But one thing is, though these might cause some harm in the long run on a personal effect, since there is a huge economy around this industry creating so many livelihoods, it is acceptable – if tobacco can survive for the same arguments, so can this.

But the purpose of me writing this is not about cosmetics industry.. when I was in this thinking process, I got answer for my long pending question – is marriage industry a waste of money? I don’t get the logic of spending so much for one day’s enjoyment which sometimes you don’t even know if it is going to sustain in the long run.. :p .. but, it is a huge industry in India creating so many livelihoods. And eureka !! people who afford spend and that way, it is a great redistribution of wealth..!!

The other side is always greener

Ok this is the time of the year when academecia comes to a close... I am pressed to publish this blog now.. :p


I made an observation about one striking habit of many ppl - to bull**** (yeah i still follow some protocols in my blog.. :p) about their alma mater. My school does not have a sport field, no resident faculty, students make arbit cp, it is too demanding, it is very competitive, the library is big (I am not kidding, a library being big was posed as a defect by a friend), etc. I understand it is human nature to always think the other side is greener or rather to find fault with something when you grow close to something (be it relationship with humans or institutions or country).

This is done either a person is inherently attuned to finding fault or it is the compulsive behaviour to derive / build a "connect" with another person (so if the person is from another school, in order to please a person you may start bi**hing about yours.....). Though in the short term or in the initial conversation it might help a little (I don't vouch for it, still assuming this), what we fail to recognise two things:

1. By doing this, we are putting at stake the credibility of our education, talent, degrees, whatever.... An institution can build reputation only through collective efforts of its alumni spreading its brand. if the collective efforts of bad mouthing exceeds the efforts of branding, then we are wiping our own efforts in terms of time & money invested on our education, and making it invaluable.

2. the person with whom we want to build a connect, might not be free of complaints about his own institution, but if he is keeping quiet, he is being smart. :)

I do understand there could be some real pressing issues about a country or a school or any institution, but being part of it, we have a responsibility to positively direct our complaints into any tangible steps which we could take, else i would say "Sh** up"..

After all aren't things more beautiful, amusing, interesting and 'fun to be with' with their faults??

P.S.: This blog is in now way connected with my opinion on ISB alumni because they are all matured and smart and don't b**ch about ISB. :)

Its All In the Mind !!!!

There is a story which I have listened when I was a kid. It goes something like this - Once, there was a wolf which wanted to eat grapes. It went to a grape yard, and as we all know since grapes are generally grown on high laid supports, it could not reach the grapes. It tried, tried and tried in vain jumping so many times to reach the grapes. Finally it told itself that these grapes are sour and not edible and returned from the yard without eating any.

Ok, now why am I taking up this story....!!!!!! Some recent experiences made me remember this story and I was surprised to know that, such deep rooted philosophies have been taught to us even when we were kids.....

Lets see another story....

Krish got into a data analytics job. But, he would have preferred a rotational programme which would provide him exposure to all dept.s in an organisation over a period. He tried his best to get into such a program but could not succeed. The analytics job is also not that bad in terms of compensation and exit options. During his endeavour in job search, I was attracted towards the way people train their mind in accepting / disliking things.......

When he initially got the data analytics job, he was very happy and looked at all the positive side of the job and used to say - "I will get to work in Canada, I will earn a hefty package, I can join a renowned consulting firm in another 2 years with this experience !! :) "

Then, later other companies started posting jobs and he started thinking if there were greener pastures..... So, his dialogue goes like this - "You know man............?? This is a donkey job.... For the long term, you need to get some hardcore industry experience, you can join these jobs anytime, but getting into industry is very essential at start of career...." and thats how quest for leadership programmes started.

But, there are some sincere efforts which don't get the fruits they deserve... :( .. same is the case with Krish's efforts.. so when he had to finally go ahead with the analytics job he got, I felt bad and was wondering if he would be able to accept it. But, I was wrong.... He said, "Always the other side is greener.... We always tend to demean things which we have.. This company is one of the best in the world in this field and there are lots of people who are feeling sad that they were not able to get through in the interviews. I will take what I have in hand and will design my life from here."

It was warming to see a person taking efforts to comfort himself and looking forward to live a happy life rather than bothering about what he didn't get and going on a self pity mode.

Not all of us get what we want. Some compromises have to be made in life.
I realised, mind is something which can be trained to think what we want it to think. So sub consciously we may still have some dis satisfactions (which is the very nature of human beings), but over time it can be overcome if we make a conscious concerted effort towards over writing thoughts... :p

But, my bigger thought was not exactly on this. I thought if the same rule can be applied for emotional impacts and if mind can be trained wrt emotional events. But, job is still materialistic (not all of us see job as something emotional generally), so the success of such concerted effort on emotional events is to be observed......

While I will do so (and hopefully will write a blog soon on its outcome), I just wanted to share this..

The great "Nose" Philosophy

Well.... Disclaimer first - This Blog is supposed to be a hard core philosophical one (and I am hard pressed to write this today, (simbly becas I will hav to go back to studies again tom :) )

Observe the below statements -

Mary: My husband doesn't let me go to beauty parlour to have an eyebrow trimming. He is such a nerd !!!!
Lucy: Why sweety?
Mary: He doesn't like me going.

Girl Friend: Pls sleep. Dont spoil your health by staying awake so late.
Boy Friend: But my favourite Arsenal is playing. I want to watch the match.
Girl Friend: If you dont sleep now, I am cancelling our date tomorrow.
Boy Friend: *********@@@@@@@####$$$$$$$$$$$

Okie, okie i guess the intro is enuf.. The above conversations are just for illustration and such conversation / situation might happen between parents and children, between sweet hearts :P and between friends as well.

One common feature among the two conversations stated above is, one party is trying to impose something on the other - it could be out of deep care, concern or simple wish and perception (without proper rationale).

While it might be natural for one person to want the other to behave, act and live as they would like them to be, I feel this could be a reason for frictions in the long run. If it is out of care and if the other person understands it, then things would be fine. But, it might be surprising to note that even care and concern might have to be within their limits..

While I accept, the fun in a relationship is in adjusting and compromising, how blissful life would be if one understands, every individual have their own private space and respect each others' space.

I would just like to conclude, by stating a principle which was told in a movie and which appealed to me. It goes something like this ... "while you are my very good friend, it would be good for the relationship if you don't cross beyond my nose..."

The challenge is finding the right balance between caring and overtly caring leading to controlling and the relationship beginning to leave a sour taste in the mouth.. :P