Please Feed The Animals

Note from Erik: The following is part of series of articles written industry and career coaches. This feature will appear every Monday.

A couple of years ago, when I left my job as creative recruiter for Digitas to work for myself, it was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.  Everyone was very supportive (including the people at Digitas which spoke volumes about them), but there were times where I felt that so much rested on my shoulders.

Yes, there are many benefits to working for yourself.  I don’t think I could find one person who hasn’t fantasized about working from home where you could set your own schedule, take your laptop to the coffee shop and if you’re dog crazy like me, have your faithful pet by your side.

But after the novelty wears off there’s usually a certain amount of discomfort that settles in – you notice that it’s 3:00 pm and you haven’t spoken to another person yet. Or you’ve talked to plenty of people, but none of them have anything to do with your work.

After I’d been working on my own for a few months, a very smart and industrious recruiter who had a business much like my own introduced herself to me. We’d known of each other’s work from afar, and she thought it would be nice to get to know each other personally. After my initial suspicions (she was technically my competitor after all), we met for lunch and immediately hit it off.  She told me about a network of like-minded recruiters that she had formed to share resources, compare best practices and make money together.

I needed time to process her invitation.. As is often the case, the primary obstacle was my own ego because, after all, didn’t I want my company to grow and be better than everyone else’s?

But then, I thought about my time.  Did I really want to kill myself to beat the others?  Did it really matter? Didn’t I just want to make money so that I can enjoy the things that I truly enjoy in life?

This is probably not everyone’s experience, but I wasn’t working on my own to become filthy rich, but to have more ownership of my time. (Not that I would object to wealth if I could achieve it without killing myself). I liked to be able to work when I was at my best, get in a daily yoga class and to think about the time I saved by not commuting.  My quality of life in that way had improved tremendously already.  But after a couple more months I was ready to connect more with people who were doing what I did, so I called my friend, met the group (over the phone) and joined.

We share emails about jobs we’re working on, questions about contracts, situations with clients and industry news.  We also have a monthly conference call where we discuss our respective jobs and share information.

We all have the potential to make money and most of us do, but for me the best part is the collaboration.  Just the act of collaborating with other recruiters seems so unique, and that, even alone, is satisfying.

I’m now career coaching and no longer recruiting, but I’m still connected with the group and have taken what I’ve learned from them to continue to expand my network and look for new opportunities for collaboration.

If you can get creative and think about working with your peers rather than against them, you may have a shift that expands your knowledge, perspective and opportunities.  But, don’t be naïve, ask questions, do your homework and trust your gut.

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Anne Hubben is a creative career coach, partnering with creative people to help them make meaningful changes in their careers.  Her blog and more information about coaching can be found at http://rubycreatives.com