My Scary Crazy Career Change – now and then
Nearly five years ago I jumped out of the corporate career after 15-years. Out of a career path that guaranteed progressive growth, a secure salary payment, nearly guaranteed bonuses and great corporate benefits. But I had come to a point that I had to learn more, see more and experience more. I wanted to challenge myself further than the secure corporate world ever could offer. The signs of People & Culture profession changing and evolving were already in the air and the term gig economy had been coined. I made a huge leap of faith. Took a risk and made a scary, crazy career move. I became a self-employed HR consultant.
And now, with the 5-year mark coming up, what is it that I have learned? Apart from the massive professional self-growth there are few learnings that I did not anticipate to learn.
What did I not expect to learn?
Freedom is fantastic. As a self-employed consultant I have been able to choose my own clients, to seek companies that inspire me and companies where it has been easy to identify how my expertise could benefit them. I have had longer, even 1 year contracts but mainly shorter gigs where I have done HR reviews and recommendations, strategies and operational re-vamps. I have coached leadership teams in their international growth journeys. I have done targeted hiring, headhunting for few companies that I know well. I have worked full-time, over-time, and non-stop. I have also worked part-time, not at all and 6 months remotelyfrom Malaga and Dubai. I have learned to love my freedom.
Gig economy is still not understood. Hence many, especially more seasoned leaders in the business world, have had difficulty understanding the concept of self-employed consultancy. I recently spoke to a very seasoned international headhunter who had not yet heard of gig economy. So yes, plenty of prejudice against self-employed consultants that are not attached to the ‘big 4’ consultancies. Companies choose to hire people for temporary assignments and pay ALL the employer fees rather than considering someone who is working as a self-employed freelance and will willingly and happily pay for their own medical, insurance, employer taxes as well as take unpaid sick days as a default and accrue no vacation time. Yes. Really. The lack of understanding is still ripe and prejudice prevails business sense. Prejudice to the extent that I now carefully select to whom I even try and explain what I do. On the other hand, I have spoken and helped many HR colleagues to understand the realities what it is like to be self-employed consultant. Some have decided to take the leap and some have not – in both cases, I salute you! Gig economy is here to stay, it is the right choice for some but not for all. So I have learned the hard way that not everyone appreciates my bold career move. Being a self employed consultant gives you freedom but it does not give you security.
Being truly agile and embracing flexibility is critical to success. This is not always easy. Before becoming a self-employed consultant I was a corporate HR leader for over 12 years. So you can imagine the change from having a big team to not having anyone but myself was HUGE. At the beginning I suffered from lack of self confidence and chose couple of wrong gigs – I soon learned to evaluate if working with a company was beneficial for both of us and started to vet clients more carefully. But timetables, mergers, organizational changes evolve and move ; dates change and projects change, people change. As a HR consultant, being agile is key to success. I have learned to love the unknown and the faster than fast moves, jumping to a team and situation running is a critical competence.
I have finally learned to really plan my down-timeand take care of myself. There is a big difference between HR consultants who are self-employed and those who work for a consultancy company. First of, as a self employed I have no back-up. No back-up for sick days nor do I get paid when I am sick. I also don’t have back-up to cover for me if I want to take an impromptu vacation – there is just me. This has really forced me to understand what keeps me motivated and how do I ensure that I stay healthy, motivated and positive.
I have really learned to challenge the status quo and to do it without relying on my position of power.As a corporate VP of HR selling an idea to my management team was not always easy but I often was able to argue it or at least bring the topic to the table through the power that my in-house position gave me. As a consultant, I have none of that power. I am not in the position of given power, my HR solutions need to be rounded, very well researched, well thought and extremely clearly articulated. This is something that I have learned, especially whilst working with many start-ups and SMEs where the management teams often lack the understanding of human resources as a rounded, strategic support function. I have learned to argue and state my case (= HR case) in much more coherent way. And that is something I celebrate.
On the other hand, what I have also learned is the importance of valuing HR as a profession with professional qualifications. It has been interesting to notice how many senior leaders are more open to a consultant challenging them than they are for their own HR to do. Interesting phenomena in many companies, yet the cause of it varies from company to the company. What I have taken from it, is that HR needs to be better and better aligned with business, needs to firmly sit in the Leadership Team, have a seat in the table (It is surprising how many possible clients I have declined to work with only because in their organization HR STILL reports to Finance!) and HR needs to be regulated, measured with real professional criterias. HR is a profession, not a pit stop for those ‘who like to work with people’. People and Culture leaders – get certified, get that HR degree and postgrad qualifications and be part of the profession!
My passion is developing people and business long-term, and I like to belong to a team. This has been by far my biggest learning. As much as I have enjoyed the freedom, I have also realised that I really miss and value beyond anything a team to belong to.
There are two teams that I have missed being part of. Firstly, the leadership team, being part of the long-term strategic decisions. I really miss that opportunity to be part of the senior leadership team and to share the responsibility, to be the one that brings people and culture improvements to the table, takes the HR seat (and the HR stand when needed) and makes sure that people stay at the focus and at the center of the business.
The other team of course is my own team, the HR team. I have had teams that challenge me, I have had teams that I have challenged, but nothing is greater than seeing your own team to succeed and deliver meaningful HR solutions to the company, to contribute to the business success, to make a difference to the bottom line. I love developing people, it is what really drives me. And that is a big learning, an important learning that shapes the understanding who I am as a person.
And it is this self actualisation that moves me towards the next thing. My need to belong will decide my next career move. I want to move from self-employed consultant back to an in-house HR role. I want a team to call my own, I want to be part of a tribe and to be able to work together with a team on long-term, permanent bases. That is my most recent learning and one that will shape my future for now.
This week I am closing an HR digitalisation project that has been a fantastic change project to lead and with the fun, dedicated project team has contributed plenty to my decision to move back to in-house HR role. I am tremendously grateful for my scary, crazy career move and the professional growth as well as self actualisation it has enabled. I have met amazing people, worked with great companies with varying maturity and hence, I want to continue to give back.So if you are wondering about the possibility of being a (self-employed) HR consultant – please get in touch! I will try and help you to make that decision, promise to really dwell deeply into the pro’s and con’s and assist in making that career choice.
Many of times, it is those career moves that don’t make sense that actually end up making the most sense long-term.
Get in touch, lots of love, 😊 Pirki
