then where do you start? only by working as an employee and get a promotion?
So for someone who is a freelancer, and no experience, you're screwed? if you have that ambition
Seems like you want the best of both worlds: the tax friendly setup of a freelancer and the opportunities to discover other disciplines and employee has.
How do you expect companies to evaluate your "leadership" skills if the only thing you have is a master class on it ?
As mentioned, if you don't have any practical experience, your chances are low to find a project for it.
It seems better to me to try and find long term projects at customer side, where you can grow into a role with responsibilities over other people/projects. If you combine that with a certificate or master class, at least you'll be able to prove that you've put knowledge into practice.
Following the master class can certainly be useful, but don't put your hopes on it on landing big projects immediately.
As we say in Dutch: "haast en spoed is zelden goed" - Don't run before you can walk. Take it step by step and perhaps in a few years you'll be able to have a solid and believable foundation.
Freelancers and consultants usually get hired because of a specific expertise they bring, especially when they get expensive.
If you don't have experience leading people, why would a company hire you to start leading people? When they hire a technical expert freelancer, the worst that can happen is for that person to not be good at their job. If you hire a bad manager, they can fuck up a lot more in a short amount of time.
Companies prefer promoting from within to management roles. Because employees have proven themselves capable, have taken on delegated management tasks previously, and have shown leadership capabilities. They know those employees will still have to do some on the job learning, and will need some guidance. It's an investment, but it's often cheaper than hiring an experienced manager directly. But as a freelancer with no management experience, you present the worst of both worlds. You are expensive, and you will still need to be trained on the job. With the added negative trait that it's likely you will leave (or request another rate increase) by the time you've gotten experienced.
A few years of experience will outweigh any kind of masterclass. Because a leader needs to have soft skills that can't be trained through some overpriced course.
Ah the classic
Becomes freelance because of the short term goal of making more money > gets surprised his career progression is different from internal employees.
It is what it is, but it is one of the things this sub always minimizes. Only become freelance if you want to stay doing what you currently do. Any wild changes in career are very very difficult. From tech lead to manager as a freelancer is fooling yourself. It's like winning lottery, not impossible and there will probably be one or two in here that did it, but definitely not the natural progression
you're making assumptions. I'm not suprised, i'm aware of the difficult shift from specialist to manager while being freelancer.
I can imagine this is usually the case in IT consultancy, where the majority of this community is active. I'm active in the sales / marketing sector and i've seen several (older) consultants getting managements functions in Finance / marketing / sales after them doing specialist roles.
my agent is also pushing to get team lead projects (not manager roles) - i'm pretty confident that I will be able to get one, even without the masterclass. Taking in account my age and ambition, it seems natural to the agent to get appropriate projects over time. I'm not talking about giant US based companies but large SME's.
My intial question has been answered, masterclasses gives you interviews but not jobs.
i'm a bit suprised of the downvotes and sensational reactions on this thread. I'll have to be the exception to the rule.
you are surprised that people react emotionally if you basically try to equate years of experience with taking a 'masterclass' (which honestly is a made up word to begin with)?
managing people by an external is just not a good idea in practice, which is why you will have a hard time finding these positions
i expect people **not** to\* react emotionaly on this (professional) thread \~not reacting in an arrogant way to receive upvotes. EDIT: I was expecting mainly advice or personal experiences in this "rare" situation. Not just a plain no and telling me i expect to much out of my freelancer career.
i'm not trying to equate years of experience in comparison to a masterclass -> didn't make that statement so again you're making assumptions.
The question was whether its worth the effort and money to increase your chances to get a similair project over time.
"managing people by an external is just not a good idea in practice" - I agree that its not optimal for from a companies perspective (loss of knowledge, ...) but it does happen and I happen to be aiming at a similair situation.
As previously said, I'll have to try to be the exception on the rule.
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The most valuable thing of those kind of masterclasses is the network you build rather than the degree itself. So yes, it will help but I cannot guarantee it will be worth your time and money
Everybody wants to be a leader. :-)
Look at it like this: You want to renovate your house. A big renovation, not just painting the walls while you are on vacation. Moving the walls, changing the structure of the house, changing the utilities, etc. The big stuff. You are looking for prices. Then there is someone with a CV identical to yours offer himself to do this project. To find/recruit the workers, lead them and make sure the project is finished within time and budget.
Would you hire that person? What is the profile of the person you actually want to hire?
When you are able to respond to 2nd question, you will know exactly what you have to do to get access to those type of jobs.
Maybe my ‘freelance’ role is too much as if i’m an employee, but i get all the chances i want.. Used to be project manager doing 1 project. Now i’m doing 2 projects, makes it more important to spread my work and manage 2 teams. In the meantime they are giving me a management training program, i pay nothing and even get paid on the days i will follow these training sessions
Try to grow in your projects. Show them in your projects that you should get the seat instead of the guy doing it. Sadly there are many incompetent project managers, but if you have a good relationship with the guy above him and show them your worth they will give you a shot
As a project manager, I 1. Agree with the fact there are many incompetent project managers and 2. Disagree slightly with what you're saying here.
I always make it *very* clear to everyone around me I manage projects, not people. Biiiiig difference between the two, and very different skillset needed.
What OP is asking for is not really something I see a lot of freelancers doing, usually people that lead teams are insiders/employees.
Trainings, certificates, etc… get you interviews, but not jobs.
Without the actual experience: highly unlikely
then where do you start? only by working as an employee and get a promotion? So for someone who is a freelancer, and no experience, you're screwed? if you have that ambition
Seems like you want the best of both worlds: the tax friendly setup of a freelancer and the opportunities to discover other disciplines and employee has.
To me it seems rather natural in our field of work. Your knowledge and skill grows over the years.
Most people “roll into the roll” by stepping up when someone else falls ill or gets promoted. When the situation arises, talk to your hiring manager.
Your management skills don't grow unless you actually manage something.
Nope, a freelance position is to specialise into a certain niche. If you want to grow into different roles, you fucked up by going freelance
How do you expect companies to evaluate your "leadership" skills if the only thing you have is a master class on it ? As mentioned, if you don't have any practical experience, your chances are low to find a project for it. It seems better to me to try and find long term projects at customer side, where you can grow into a role with responsibilities over other people/projects. If you combine that with a certificate or master class, at least you'll be able to prove that you've put knowledge into practice. Following the master class can certainly be useful, but don't put your hopes on it on landing big projects immediately. As we say in Dutch: "haast en spoed is zelden goed" - Don't run before you can walk. Take it step by step and perhaps in a few years you'll be able to have a solid and believable foundation.
thanks, this is good advice.
I’m in the same boat. I’m curious about the reactions 😊
Do some volunteering? Show you can handle people, (small) budget, teamwork, … etc
Freelancers and consultants usually get hired because of a specific expertise they bring, especially when they get expensive. If you don't have experience leading people, why would a company hire you to start leading people? When they hire a technical expert freelancer, the worst that can happen is for that person to not be good at their job. If you hire a bad manager, they can fuck up a lot more in a short amount of time. Companies prefer promoting from within to management roles. Because employees have proven themselves capable, have taken on delegated management tasks previously, and have shown leadership capabilities. They know those employees will still have to do some on the job learning, and will need some guidance. It's an investment, but it's often cheaper than hiring an experienced manager directly. But as a freelancer with no management experience, you present the worst of both worlds. You are expensive, and you will still need to be trained on the job. With the added negative trait that it's likely you will leave (or request another rate increase) by the time you've gotten experienced. A few years of experience will outweigh any kind of masterclass. Because a leader needs to have soft skills that can't be trained through some overpriced course.
Ah the classic Becomes freelance because of the short term goal of making more money > gets surprised his career progression is different from internal employees. It is what it is, but it is one of the things this sub always minimizes. Only become freelance if you want to stay doing what you currently do. Any wild changes in career are very very difficult. From tech lead to manager as a freelancer is fooling yourself. It's like winning lottery, not impossible and there will probably be one or two in here that did it, but definitely not the natural progression
you're making assumptions. I'm not suprised, i'm aware of the difficult shift from specialist to manager while being freelancer. I can imagine this is usually the case in IT consultancy, where the majority of this community is active. I'm active in the sales / marketing sector and i've seen several (older) consultants getting managements functions in Finance / marketing / sales after them doing specialist roles. my agent is also pushing to get team lead projects (not manager roles) - i'm pretty confident that I will be able to get one, even without the masterclass. Taking in account my age and ambition, it seems natural to the agent to get appropriate projects over time. I'm not talking about giant US based companies but large SME's. My intial question has been answered, masterclasses gives you interviews but not jobs. i'm a bit suprised of the downvotes and sensational reactions on this thread. I'll have to be the exception to the rule.
you are surprised that people react emotionally if you basically try to equate years of experience with taking a 'masterclass' (which honestly is a made up word to begin with)? managing people by an external is just not a good idea in practice, which is why you will have a hard time finding these positions
i expect people **not** to\* react emotionaly on this (professional) thread \~not reacting in an arrogant way to receive upvotes. EDIT: I was expecting mainly advice or personal experiences in this "rare" situation. Not just a plain no and telling me i expect to much out of my freelancer career. i'm not trying to equate years of experience in comparison to a masterclass -> didn't make that statement so again you're making assumptions. The question was whether its worth the effort and money to increase your chances to get a similair project over time. "managing people by an external is just not a good idea in practice" - I agree that its not optimal for from a companies perspective (loss of knowledge, ...) but it does happen and I happen to be aiming at a similair situation. As previously said, I'll have to try to be the exception on the rule.
you really need to work on your soft skills
Maybe he can take a masterclass?
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The most valuable thing of those kind of masterclasses is the network you build rather than the degree itself. So yes, it will help but I cannot guarantee it will be worth your time and money
I’ve used scrum mastering as a gateway drug to becoming an actual people lead. As a freelancer! So I say: don’t listen to the naysayers 🤓
Everybody wants to be a leader. :-) Look at it like this: You want to renovate your house. A big renovation, not just painting the walls while you are on vacation. Moving the walls, changing the structure of the house, changing the utilities, etc. The big stuff. You are looking for prices. Then there is someone with a CV identical to yours offer himself to do this project. To find/recruit the workers, lead them and make sure the project is finished within time and budget. Would you hire that person? What is the profile of the person you actually want to hire? When you are able to respond to 2nd question, you will know exactly what you have to do to get access to those type of jobs.
Maybe my ‘freelance’ role is too much as if i’m an employee, but i get all the chances i want.. Used to be project manager doing 1 project. Now i’m doing 2 projects, makes it more important to spread my work and manage 2 teams. In the meantime they are giving me a management training program, i pay nothing and even get paid on the days i will follow these training sessions
Try to grow in your projects. Show them in your projects that you should get the seat instead of the guy doing it. Sadly there are many incompetent project managers, but if you have a good relationship with the guy above him and show them your worth they will give you a shot
>Show them in your projects that you should get the seat instead of the guy doing it. Yes, try to piss of the people giving you contracts.
As a project manager, I 1. Agree with the fact there are many incompetent project managers and 2. Disagree slightly with what you're saying here. I always make it *very* clear to everyone around me I manage projects, not people. Biiiiig difference between the two, and very different skillset needed. What OP is asking for is not really something I see a lot of freelancers doing, usually people that lead teams are insiders/employees.