So here’s what has been on my mind the last few weeks. Why do so many higher ed web professionals take on outside work? The majority of talented people I know are consultants (or similar) on the side.
What does this say about our profession? Maybe I’m off base here, but something just doesn’t seem right. In a perfect world, we would be so excited and enthusiastic by our primary job that all of our creative energy would be spent there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all criticizing anyone who takes on outside work. After all, I’m a very active consultant myself. but something is wrong with this picture.
So I’m looking for your help to explore this issue further. Please let me know your thoughts.
There are many cases where web professionals who work at a local university end up selling their services in the private sector after hours. They are essentially competing with people like me, who have spent many years building a business, staff, obtaining business insurance, expanding our skill set, giving back to the community, and even giving back to the university.
There are many reasons this is a problem:
– With a day job, these freelancers can undercut the costs of real businesses with real overhead. This pushes down the fees we can command, hurting our ability to sustain a business.
– With a day job, these freelancers are not available during normal business hours to deal with high priority issues, further eroding confidence a client might have in the industry as a whole.
– These freelancers are often using software that is licensed to the university to do their work, or otherwise use university resources (internet access, stock libraries, travel vouchers, etc.), all of which are subsidized by my tax dollars. In essence, I pay my personal and business taxes to subsidize my competition.
– These freelancers are often so focused on their technical or higher ed duties, that they do not have the experience to provide quality consulting or even technical services to a client, again eroding the confidence in the industry from clients.
– Many freelancers finish a job and disappear, requiring a company to ultimately find a professional firm to support them, but now with a depleted budget and a lot of anger going into a new engagement.
If a freelancer isn’t willing to give up his/her day job (and the guaranteed paychecks and benefits) to start a business and make a go of a it, then how committed can he or she be to the freelance work?
If a freelancer doesn’t let his/her boss know, and ultimately have the blessing of his/her employer, then that is dishonest. More clients should ask that question and decide if they want to hire someone who lies (either outright or by omission) to the one paying his/her checks. Smart clients would realize they are at the same risk.
Every higher ed professional I know who works a second job does so out of economic necessity. Low wages at colleges and universities, no raises and ever increasing cost of living create a real economic need for additional income.
Adrian, in reading your comments, it sounds like you’re categorizing higher ed web developers as second-rate professionals. As though we’re not “real” prossional web developers and produce a sub-standard quality of work as compared to as business owner such as yourself. There is no school or program for “higher ed web developers”. We all come from different industries, and can leave the education industry for any other. The skill set is the same. It’s only the application of those skills that differ. I’ll respond to each of your points in turn.
– Your first point about undercutting cost of is contradictory to your initial statement that freelancers are “upselling” their services. Furthermore, I don’t think it’s freelancers that are doing that, it’s the non-professional developers who have no real experience and lowball their quotes that are undercutting costs
– Someone who hires a freelancer is fully aware that that person has a “day-job” and so should not have the expection of getting a hold of them during business hours. If that’s a core requirement, then they should hire a design firm. I don’t really see this as an issue.
– You can’t assume what software people are using or how they acquire it. You’re also not the only one that pays taxes, so do the rest of us.
– It’s stunning that you can say freelancers can’t provide “quality” technical services. Again, you seem to think higher ed developers have no real skill set that can be applied outside of an educational industry
– A freelancer disappearing is no different than a company going out of business. I have a personal website with an email address attached to it. That email address has not changed and any of my past clients can (and do) contact me for support if needed
– There are many reasons why people freelance and why someone would not want to start a business that have nothing to do with the level of comittment to their work
– My employer is aware that I freelance, in fact it was on my resume when they hired me and it still is. There are business owners who lie about many things as well, so I don’t see why you’ve cast freelancers as dishonest in general
Overall, you have some valid points, but I think they are more applicable to non-professionals who try to pass themselves off as web developers when in fact they have no real knowledge, trainng, or experience other than they played around with making websites in their spare time.
Mark, good question.
I’m kind of surprised you asked it, actually 😉 Not because it’s not a good one, but because you must know the answer — somehow.
I think it comes down to 2 main reasons:
1)It’s always more difficult to be heard and taken seriously at your own institution (Karlyn explored that specific issue in a previous blog post about consultants vs. staff).
I remember in the early days of my blog and my column for University Business, people from many institutions were really enthusiastic by the info, advice and tips I shared with the community. However, it was totally a different story at the institution I worked for. Down the road, that’s why I decided to leave and start something else where I could make a difference.
Don’t forget that, in some cases, the freelancers you mentioned have always been freelancing – even prior to their job at a given institution.
2)While not the main factor, money is also part of the equation. As we both know, salaries in higher education are not that great. Freelance work help on that front (even if it might become unfair competition for small biz as Adrian points out, but you can always build on your strengths).
What I find a bit sad is that some schools are going to pay quite a bit of money to hire consultants while they could nurture and cajole their own internal resources – people. There is great talent in this “industry” – higher ed executives just need to realize and recognize it.
The time of the higher ed web pros will come. I even believe things have started to change.
Eileen hit the nail on the head. Economic necessity. All things being considered I’d rather be doing one job rather than two.
Very interesting question.
You mentioned “talented” people. I think that points to our answer. If you have a talent or rather, an “expertise” in a certain area, you are likely sought after for this. When an opportunity arises, many times people with a passion in that area realize:
A) I have something to offer.
B) I enjoy doing it.
C) I can make (a little) money doing it.
There are also many of us who are in the corporate world who teach “on the side” and we can ask that same question. (Although the money isn’t as big of a driver in this case.)
RD, I should have numbered my points to make this easier for responses. In this case, they are in the same order as yours.
I did not qualify higher ed web developers as second-rate. If anything, they may not have the business acumen necessary to be a consultant that can bring more to the table, but I don’t think they are second-rate. I think the service they offer can be sub-par owing to conflicting interests between day jobs and freelance work.
– I did not say that freelancers are “upselling” their services (your quotes), so I don’t understand the first part of your point. I can tell you, however, that I have personally seen rates that freelancers will charge and have heard about this issue in other college towns where a freelancer will cut his/her rates to get some work.
– I don’t agree that everyone who hires a freelancer understands that the person has a day job. Again, prior experience suggest that clients we’ve gotten have been frustrated by poor response times from their freelancers (among other factors). This is bolstered in my mind by peer comments.
– I made my statement about how freelancers got their software by remembering my days as an undergrad and seeing how many non-university client files were stored on the campus machines, often because that’s where the art was created. I can still open art files or data files and see the meta information written into the files that includes the software license name. In my own community I am aware of campus resources being co-opted for freelancer client needs. I cannot make the assumption, but I can raise it as a point of concern given my own experience.
– I did not say freelancers cannot provide quality technical services, but juggling a day job and a freelance career doesn’t leave much time for skills development, especially for skills development outside of the higher ed world.
– Companies do go out of business, and dishonest companies don’t care. Most companies obtain things like business insurance, key man insurance, E&O insurance, and have their software stored in escrow in case of their demise. I am still not aware of a freelancer who has taken those steps to protect the interests of a client.
– I agree there are many reasons someone may want to freelance, but I feel strongly that the plan to make the leap into a business requires a freelancer to develop good customer service, customer relations, commitment, and ultimately put his or her name on the line. Short of that, a freelancer may only be in it for the money or novelty and that doesn’t serve the client as well as it could.
– I did not cast freelancers as dishonest in general. If you re-read my statement you’ll see that I very specifically say that, “If a freelancer doesn’t let his/her boss know, and ultimately have the blessing of his/her employer, then that is dishonest.” If you have received the blessing from you employer then you would have no reason to care about that statement. The question is, since awareness is different than approval, did you receive written permission to freelance from your employer? Considering many of my new hires have had it on their resumes (and we’ve told them that freelancing is forbidden), I haven’t gone back to request a new resume and look it over as some method of establishing that they are or aren’t freelancing. I don’t know any employer who would.
Sadly, while you are right my statements apply more to non-professionals, so much of my experience has been that non-professionals are generally the ones freelancing. I have been brought in many times to shore up a failed project from a freelancer, and I hear the complaints regularly. I also had to suffer through competing with local freelancers while attempting to build my business, all the time confident that they were engaging in most of the practices I’ve cited.
Economic necessity, definitely. However, I also enjoy the variety that comes with outside work. Although I love higher education, it’s easy to get caught up in a routine of the same technologies, the same people, the same types of projects.
Occasional freelancing gives me an opportunity to branch out a little more. I like to think of it as cross-training.
Entrepreneurship is an activity that should be encouraged and developed. In many cases, the opportunity to take on outside work becomes a point of recruitment to attract and retain talented people. And, as Christina suggests, this work becomes a source of enrichment
Adrian and RD –
Thanks for the conversation about the merits of colleges and universities using outside freelancers. That being said, it’s a little off topic. I’d like to focus the dialogue on this particular post on the motivation behind higher ed web folks pursuing outside work. I’ll certainly follow up in the future with a post on the pro’s and con’s of freelancers from the college perspective.
Kyle –
Great point. I’ve always been impressed with how willing higher ed folks share best practices, even with direct competitors! It’s downright collegial 🙂
Seriously, we should think about the potential conflict of interest. For my consulting work, we identify the direct and indirect competitors ahead of time and these schools are off-limits for me.
Mark, my apologies for straying off-topic… I did have more to say on the issue, but I’ll save it for a future post on pros and cons if you decide to do one. 🙂
To respond to your question… As others have stated, I freelance as a way to supplement my income, and as a way to utilize some of the skills that I don’t get to use as often in my higher-ed job, or to apply them in different ways. I like Christina’s description of it as “cross-training”
On the topic of freelancing for other higher ed institutions… that is the one area where I do not freelance so as to avoid even the perception of a conflict of interest. In fact, most of the freelancing that I do is for small businesses, e-commerce sites, non-profits or independent consultants in other industries (ex: event promoter, realtor, etc.)
Thanks all for the comments and ideas.
To give you some more background on the origins of this post, two events this spring got me thinking about this topic.
First, I am giving the opening keynote for the higher education track at the J Boye Conference in May. My topic is “Why is Higher Ed the Toughest Gig in all the Web?” and had generated a lot of conversation in the blogosphere. While my intention was to explore the easy/challenging continuum, many people also explored the good/bad continuum. This got me thinking if Higher Ed is such a great place for a web professional to work, why do so many quality people spend considerable time and effort outside of their full-time jobs.
Second, I read the book “Drive” by Dan Pink twice this spring (yes, I liked it!) This book explores what motivates us and how traditional carrot and stick approach (i.e. money) doesn’t work. Pink maintains that the three elements of true motivation are autonomy, mastery and purpose. This got me again thinking about why good higher ed web people take on extra work.
I think there is a relationship between the two.
Personally, the reason I do Web consulting jobs outside of my higher-ed job, is purely a financial decision. Coming to higher education from corporate was a 15-20k loss in salary. I only do a minimal amount of outside consulting giving my family and hobbie time commitments. My motivation for future consulting jobs is based on money as I do get great satisfaction out of my current position.
Mark: Love this question. My perspective is not web focused but as a writer/strategist. I started within an institution and now consult for many. For me it’s about HE revealing the big world of ideas. Once you see that world within and beyond your campus borders, you want more. One institution is constraining. The excitement for me is applying ideas to different situations, institutional cultures, and teams of people. And while life within an institution can be lovely, unfortunately, the politics and way-we’ve-always-done-it mindset within some institutions can be agonizing. When consultants are called in it usually means an institution is poised for action.
Three reasons..
1. Economic- great to have some freelance projects pulling in extra $$$ to help augment my higher Ed salary,which as was stated previously, is lower than what I might be able to get in the business world, and has remained very static over the past few years.
Education/experience- from my experience, alot of the major higher ed web projects are monstrous, multi-year projects involving teams, committees and very convoluted processes. I like to get involved with freelance jobs because I can add to my portfolio of work and can oversee those usually smaller projects from start to finish. I can truly say they are my “babies” and can take pride in telling people, yes, I made that site. These smaller projects usually involve smaller budgets, open source CMS, shorter time frames and can be a lot of fun. Freelance projects keep me current, energized, and help add a little extra $$$ in my wallet.
Dan Pink acknowledges that money isn’t an issue, so long as it’s fair enough not to become a fairness/respect issue (see: http://www.danpink.com/archives/2010/01/raises-do-matter). I’m not sure that when we’re talking about really talented web people, that higher ed is close enough for it not to be a fairness issue. The truly talented never have the level of autonomy or freedom to move at a swift pace like they would have in leaner private companies (think of all the committees, regulations and levels of management required to make decisions in higher ed).
Don’t get me wrong, I love working in higher ed. I do my job knowing that I could make more elsewhere, though. I also know my toughest days are when I’m bogged down, but it’s because of political or bureaucratic reasons rather than technical issues. Talented people are willing to struggle against challenging issues, but if the political environment causes more challenges than creative or technical challenges, the truly talented people can, and do, leave because it’s those creative and technical challenges that allow them to grow (it’s bred into talented people, it’s how they got there to begin with).
I take on outside work because it allows me to freely create without permissions. I am able to explore new ideas and concepts without having to “sell” the ideas to the director, vp, brand management, etc. My creativity and passions flow more freely without those constraints.