Does the Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC) program have an advantage in trying to find a job?

Forging my own path - freelancing instead of a day job!

• After starting a new office job, I've realised the large office work environment really isn't for me. I'm finding 9-5 work with a long commute at either end of the day stressful, unfulfilling and unsatisfying. I'd like to use the talents and skills I've developed over a varied career in media and IT to go freelance, and create a sustainable life for myself rather than hopping from job-to-job. Where can I go to make this happen for myself - particularly in my key skill areas of copywriting and IT work - and what should I know before and after taking the plunge? I'm in the UK. Basically, I think I'd like to shift away from standard-hours office work and go freelance, picking up work where I can and working for various different people rather than one employer. (Initially, I think I'd be looking to work part-time and freelance the rest of the time.) There are a number of reasons for wanting to make this change, not least that I'm just not suited to this kind of work. It's not an environment I can see myself thriving in, or even tolerating for much longer. I'm a talented person, but I am not ambitious in the sense of 'rising through the company / up the career ladder,' I just want to do as good a job for people as I can. To me, 9-5 office work feels like something of an artifice. I'm really tired of coming into an office first thing in the morning and trying to fill my day with something that feels like productive work - there just isn't enough work to do in each day. It seems really, really inefficient. People seem to spend their days talking about work, building little empires within the company, playing politics, organising each other, engaging in conflicts, having meetings and generally doing just about everything except work. People seem to compete in order to simply try and keep their job, their power, their responsibilities, their team in order to climb the ladder and earn more money. This might be a good life for some people and I'm judging no-one, but I know it's not for me. I want to be paid for the work I do, not by the hours I happen to spend sitting in a certain room, trying to fill time. I am exhausted, from doing nothing. I've always been a really independent-minded person (to the point where I actively resist any attempt to control where I am, what I do, how I live) and I feel that I'd do a lot better as a person in an environment I create myself, rather than one that's created around me like a company. I don't feel like this is an environment that's particularly conducive to me becoming a successful, fulfilled person in my personal or professional life - I just about tolerate office life, but that's it. This is something I want to do at this stage of my life rather than waiting as right now, I don't have any dependents, no partner or kids, I live a relatively cheap lifestyle in a low-cost area and I'm debt-free. On the negative side, I have no financial support (eg. from a partner) while I get on my feet and my savings are fairly paltry. I've done a lot of thinking about the pros and cons, and here's what I've come up with already on the positive side: - Lack of reliance on one employer for everything; in the past when an employer has gone bust or let me go, it's been a financial disaster. If I'm working freelance for a few different people, it's less of a crisis - Being busier! If I'm working for myself, I'm going to have a lot more work to do, and it's going to be a lot more varied. I like being busy. - Having time to do non-work things. I'm not talking days at the beach, but more along the lines of training and educational opportunities that I don't have when I'm spending all day at the office. Long-term I want to re-train as a nursery teacher or similar, and I don't have that opportunity right now as I spend every day sitting in an office. - I'm not on the gender binary, and most conventional office workplaces aren't conducive to this, particularly where I live; working for myself would give me a bit more freedom in that respect But on the negative side: - No work equals no money! At least now, when my employer is going through a fallow period, I'm still getting a salary. - Networking and contacts are not my strong suit; I'm a friendly and professional person, but not great at business-style networking, 'selling myself,' 'personal branding' and similar. - Tax and insurance and other financial stuff. In the UK, if you work for an employer your taxes are done for you. However, there are no problems with health insurance as we have national healthcare. So, to my actual question! There are a number of things I've done in my career that I think would make potentially sustainable freelance work. Before I started this job, I spent ten years in local/regional radio where one of the things I enjoyed most was copywriting for adverts, promos, news, features and so on. Where could a copywriter with some experience go to find a bit of freelance copywriting work online (in the UK)? The other thing I have marketable skills in (but don't enjoy so much) is IT work, particularly Linux administration. That's what I do now for a job, and I'm good at it but not especially passionate about it. But if it pays the bills and I am actually doing Linux administration work rather than sitting on MeFi and avoiding office politics, then I'd like to! So again, where would I look to find that sort of work that I can do on a contract/freelance basis? The world is full of people who have forged their own path in life rather than following the well-trodden road of school, university, career. I'm inspired and encouraged by the stories of those who work and live for themselves, not to get rich, but to form a fulfilling and happy life for themselves. I know I can't keep living like I am, deeply unhappily, and I know where I want to be in five years' time. Help me get there, MeFi!

• Answer:

  The way that you feel about a workplace aka cubeville, I could have written word for word. I don't think I realized how bad that type of environment is/was until I left it. Some of your questions. Where could a copywriter with some experience go to find a bit of freelance copywriting work online (in the UK)? So again, where would I look to find that sort of work that I can do on a contract/freelance basis? So I am a freelancer and have been doing this for 5 years now. I can't speak specifically to your industry, but this is how I found clients over the years.I am typing this out because I am assuming/hope at least one or a a few of these things will translate to your business: • Contact your former coworkers who work with or have worked with freelancers. I did this with general queries about pay range, etc., but I was surprised that as soon as I told someone that I was considering freelancing, they promised (and subsequently gave me) tons of work. • Contact companies directly, phone or email or whatever works for you. So I found a PDF with a list of companies in my industry. I sent of brief emails (a few sentences/bullets max) explaining who you are and what you do. This usually = work immediately to a few years later. There are many places that you can find lists.If a google search doesn't work for you, check out linkedin (and search types of companies, or where people go to and come from), or business libraries even publish lists with tons of contact info. • You keep on getting work from the same clients that like you and mutually, you like. To be honest, if you have a few clients and they like your work? IT is a company? They can keep you very, very busy. Some of my clients I have had for years. Even if people leave a company, they can find you when they go to a new company. • LinkedIn. I cannot stress how much has come through this over the yrs. Make it detailed and list your unique skills and the types of projects you take on.Put contact info in so that they can easily find you (I put a link to my web page). To be honest, I rarely look for work at this point and when I did, it was a week or a few days of sending out emails. My one big suggestion for you is to find a niche that other people can't grab without training or something additional. I don't know your industry, but if there are billions of copywriters, then it will be challenging. However, maybe there is another niche within there (ie, combine it with technical writing if it combines)? Again, I don't know your industry, but the reason LinkedIn works for me is someone searches certain specialties and only a few people come back on that list. So find a niche that you can own and a limited number of people will grab. The more work you get in this area, the more specialization =even more work. In regards to some of your reservations: Networking and contacts are not my strong suit. Experiment and see what works for your skill set and your industry, but this might not matter. I am horrible at networking, small talk, etc. But I get work, and sometimes, more than I can handle. Over the years I have talked to other people who are successfully freelancing, and they have reported different ways of getting clients. Some people are great with writing blog posts and attract their type of clients; other people might write an article for a publication that their clients might read, and that generates work. Other people are great at gabbing on the phone, so they call companies = work. Do what works for your personality and as long as you have clients, work, it doesn't matter. In my experience, this has been hard to achieve, although I had the same vision when I started: - Having time to do non-work things. I'm not talking days at the beach, but more along the lines of training and educational opportunities that I don't have when I'm spending all day at the office. Long-term I want to re-train as a nursery teacher or similar, and I don't have that opportunity right now as I spend every day sitting in an office. You know how some of the busy work drives you crazy? So a typical cubefarm = 10 hours of meeting, 4 hours waiting for things that you need,5 hour =?? and 10 hours for the actual task, due 3 weeks later. If you freelance, and charge a normal rate and/or hourly, all the filler stuff is gone. So you will do the 10 hour task(all the other stuff/hours are gone) and it might be due 3 days from now (because no one at the company looked at it, until now, in fact, it might be due tomorrow). So you will have constant work and I would say the more challenging stuff, with tight deadlines. Constantly. Now I like and wanted the more challenging work (I also request types of projects), but ...I find it more tiring in some ways if it makes sense. Maybe if I put this in different words-I find it more intellectually challenging on a daily basis, but that makes reading other material tiring or other (going deep deep deep into topic X) tiring. It might be the type of work that I do. But I don't have the energy/time to do all the other stuff. But this might just be my experience. Before I forget, you don't have to socialize for pointless reasons at a workplace, so I do have more energy for that now. Maybe what I am trying to say is you will still be working, and it might be hard to predict how much and what type of energy you will have for other tasks. You were not asking our experiences/would we do this again, but ... I jumped ship (quit a job with one client lined up) and figured that it would be more efficient, as in there would be a fire underneath me to get clients. Highs and lows but I find it ten times better than the work environment that you describe, but that's me, I think some people prefer the cube or a fulltime job, or even socializing -I don't think you will know what you prefer until you try. Good luck.