Web Worker Daily

Recently, I was commiserating with a friend looking for a new job about the unpleasantness of that task. I remembered the hours of fruitless toiling, sending countless resumes off into the void, along with unique, individually tailored cover letters for hundreds of positions. Days that first seem like a pleasant extended vacation eventually become a drawn-out reminder of just how little money you’re making, and just how unproductive your waking hours actually are.

Thing is, I realized that was what it was like before I became a web worker, when my ideal job was still a cozy 9-to-5 in an office somewhere, with a salary, benefits and a paid lunch hour. Once I gave up that ideal in favor of pursuing freelance opportunities online, the dreaded Job Hunting Process, which I thought was written in stone, largely ceased to exist. Sure, what replaced it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, either, but for all its faults, it definitely beats the cold dread of Workopolis and Monster.com. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of people are getting into coworking in a big way, the team at WebWorkerDaily included. It’s a very nice idea, and a welcome escape from the solitude of working from home, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone wants to go out and join what effectively amounts to an office environment, having just escaped from one.

If you want to try out the coworking experience, but would rather get just get your feet wet than completely take the plunge, two might be the magic number. Find another person to work with and you might eliminate some of the isolation of the web worker lifestyle, but it won’t resemble the office job you might have felt trapped by. But who you work with, and how you work together, make all the difference when it comes to a coworking partnership. Read the rest of this entry »