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If you don’t like hiring, but completely freelancing is scary, you can build a career as a gig specialist on projects. We tell you what it is, who it is suitable for and how to do it.
Who chooses freelancing
The freelance market in our country is constantly growing. Now it is $41 billion, and by 2025 it could more than double. This is gradually leading to the emergence of the gig economy – an employment model in which performers are hired for short-term projects and paid for the result achieved. If freelancers on exchanges are more likely to perform small tasks from small or medium-sized businesses, then workers who are hired for a project focus on corporate problems.
Now almost a quarter of our countries have gone to freelance, including:
- 43% have higher education;
- 40% combine freelancing with their main job;
- 26% have registered the status of self-employed or individual entrepreneurs, 29% plan to do so.
The most popular field of freelancer activity is design, 58% of work is concentrated there. 46% are developing websites, 38% are programming. 32% of freelancers are copywriters, 24% work in marketing.
Why professionals leave for projects
“You grow faster on projects”
Business analyst Kirill Shcheblanov told Trends that he started his gig career with a project for Gazprom Neft. He found a client on the Professionals 4.0 freelance platform. “The company needed a centralized recruitment service,” Shcheblanov shared. – Since only a couple of dozen employees can work in a subsidiary, it is unprofitable to maintain a full-fledged HR department in each. The objective of the project was to develop a unified online system that would reduce the cost of attracting specialists and help current employees quickly solve emerging problems.”
Kirill compared the system developed by the remote team with the MFC, since it allows solving any problem within the framework of one service. Employee surveys were used as an assessment of the effectiveness of the system. Shcheblanov says that at the start, users rated the system at 5/10 points, but in a few months the rating rose to 7/10. After this project, Shcheblanov joined the next one, also from Gazprom Neft. There he was engaged in optimizing the scheme of work of counterparties as a project manager – as a result, the company launched an international partnership.
Shcheblanov is sure that the experience of working with projects allows him to quickly level up as a specialist. “You can work with multiple clients and get a deeper understanding of the market compared to working full-time in one company,” he says.
“I have more days off than an office worker”
According to SMM specialist Darya Mazhayeva, who worked on the recruiting project of the Albes company, freelancing simultaneously saves working time and allows you to relax more. “Working from home is more comfortable – you can focus on the task and not be distracted by smoke breaks and conversations in the office. In addition, work often takes less than 8 hours a day. I can go anywhere at any time – it makes life look like a vacation, ”says Mazhayeva.
Offer after the first project
After the project, there is a chance to get a full-fledged offer. Product designer Daria Fedotova joined Gazprom Neft after completing her first project at Professionals 4.0. “I lived in Estonia, but I planned to return to Russia and build a career here. I got into the Gazprom Neft project through the platform. The team and I worked on the Cognitive Geologist system, which calculates the probability of accumulation of raw materials in a particular location. I was tired of freelancing and was looking for a big project that I could continue working on after returning to Russia. Despite the remote format, we worked well with the team, and I was called to the staff. I agreed, because the project really sunk into my soul, ”says Daria.
Test drive of the desired area or skill
Many specialists perceive work on projects as an opportunity to upgrade specific skills or gain experience in the right area. “I had three projects at Professionals 4.0, all related to the environment and sustainable development,” Dmitry Lazarev shares his impressions. – I specifically selected such projects. Firstly, it is interesting to me, and secondly, my participation can bring real benefits.”
“For Cognitive Geologist, I developed the interface as a product designer. To create a really convenient service, we collected feedback from geologists who are now working at the Gazprom Neft fields,” says Daria. Kirill Shcheblanov shared similar impressions. According to the analyst, when he started working with the first project of Gazprom Neft, he knew practically nothing about the extraction of raw materials, but in the process he understood not only the engineering, but also the legal intricacies of the process of interaction between counterparties.
Digitization against bureaucracies
Many specialists give up the idea of working for a large company because of their unwillingness to get involved with the bureaucracy. More than others, state-owned businesses and the civil service itself are repelled – 54% of candidates are sure that there is a lot of paperwork, low salaries and a high level of stress.
Part of the fear is true. Typically, the process of employment in a corporation takes several months – the candidate needs to go through several stages of selection, send a full package of documents and pass a security check.
Daria Fedotova says that when she was offered to work with Gazprom Neft, she was sure that she would have to deal with a pile of paper documents and a complex access system. “I have never come across a service where the whole team could immediately gather and work from home on a project of a large company,” says Daria.
Projects for everyone, not just your own
“When they first told me about the project and the platform, it seemed to me that this is an internal corporate tool through which only acquaintances are recruited. It turned out that this is not the case, and indeed a lot of interesting projects have been collected at Professionals 4.0, where any specialist can get if he has enough experience, ”says Fedotova.
According to Nikolai Dolgov, Development Director of Professionals 4.0, about 900 short-term and medium-term projects have been launched on the platform, of which half have already been implemented, and a third are at the formation stage. The tasks that are assigned to teams are specific and differ from what is offered on regular freelance exchanges. For example, companies are looking for specialists for business process reengineering or robotization of a production site.
How much do projects earn?
Kirill Shcheblanov is sure that one of the main advantages of gig work is the ability to earn more than in an office or freelancing. Daria Fedotova agrees with him on this. As the product designer admits, in a few months of work on the Cognitive Geologist project, she “updated the fleet of MacBooks.” Since professionals are paid for results, not hours worked, it is possible to combine several projects or a full-time job and gig-employment.
Nikolai Dolgov told Trends that since 2019, the average check for the implementation of a project on the Professionals 4.0 platform has grown from ₽120 to ₽250-300 in 2021. This is significantly higher than on the classic freelance exchanges, and more than in the state. For example, on average, business analysts earn from ₽120 to ₽160 thousand, while about 80% of vacancies are concentrated in Moscow.
How will the demand for creative professionals grow?
According to Nikolai Dolgov, the highest competition in the gig economy segment is observed among IT performers, marketers and business analysts are a little behind. Despite this, Dolgov believes that at the moment it is impossible to accurately predict who the business will need in 3-5 years.
“Now there is a shortage of highly qualified IT professionals. However, in the future, IT specialists may overtake the fate of lawyers and economists. One thing is for sure – there will be a growing demand for people of creative professions who can create and create new things. Those specialists whose work cannot be automated will win,” says Dolgov.
Roles will replace professions
Nikolai Dolgov is sure that in the coming decades the concept of a profession will transform or disappear altogether. It will be replaced by a professional role — a portfolio of expert competencies, with the help of which he will be able to connect to the work of many interested companies. “The more competencies a specialist develops, the wider his capabilities will be,” says Dolgov. Those professionals who can combine several unique skills from related fields, such as medicine and working with data, will be in a winning position.