Short Term vs. Part-Time

With the economy being so tough, everyone is having a hard time finding a career. For those who are fresh out of school starting their career, the main battle tends to be not having any actual working experience yet. For the more seasoned worker, it can be an issue of too much experience, or too high of a pay requirement. In order to at least make some money during this job search time, you must consider whether a part-time job is an option, even if it is not in your career field.

One of the nice things about working part-time, is that it gives you a more flexible schedule, still allowing time for job hunting in your desired field. However, it is also easy to push yourself in that part-time position to work too much in an effort to bring in additional cash, making the position become less part-time, and more full-time. Sometimes that may be necessary, and is understandable, and all depends on your needs and responsibilities at the time. The other option, though, which allows you to potentially work within your desired career path, and still allows time for job searching, is to find some short-term employment.

Short-term employment tends to be job-based tasks where you are hired or sub-contracted to do a specific task or project, and once done, so is your position. Getting paid for this type of work tends to be more substantial since it is related to your actual skills and training, plus it can be listed as prior work/accomplishments. You may have run across these types of positions in your job search and passed over them due to the need for full time employment. However (and again, this depends on your current need and responsibilities) you may wish to stop and consider jumping at these chances.

Short-term employment is still employment, and it pays, which can help you bring in some funds to assist in continuing to cover expenses for your full-time career endeavors. In some cases, rare though they may be, it could also turn into more long-term employment, or at the least it is that foot in the door for further work. Plus the skills you gain and the building up of your work portfolio in the process are all positives. Finding these positions can be done through various types of outlets.

Checking the help wanted section of the local paper is a given, as most everyone is probably already doing that. Just keep an eye out for these types of positions and, instead of passing them by, investigate them. Of course, it goes without saying that you should check the typical online job search forums also. The most common place to discover these types of positions though, is through a local temporary staffing agency. Always keep your record up to date at employment agencies (plural, meaning file with as many agencies as are available to your locale) so when these jobs arise, you are easily reached. Checking back with the agencies frequently – at least weekly if not more – is beneficial too.

Of course the social networking world has opened the doors to these types of jobs too. Aside from being deeply entrenched in the LinkedIn world, create profiles at sites like Skill Pages, which caters to short-term jobs.

“Contact employers in your area and ask if they use contractors and short-term workers,” instructs Bonnie Conrad at eHow. These companies may not be hiring full time positions, but may be open to sub-contracting some work here and there in order to help ease their current  in-house work-load. Of course, this is a great way to get your name into the hands of local companies, and if a more permanent position does opens up, you already have a little exposure.

Finding your actual technology career may not be the quickest and easiest thing to acquire these days, but allowing yourself multiple options, like part-time, short-term, and even entry-level positions will give you more flexibility which may lead to more open doors.

Image courtesy of Boians Cho Joo Young at FreeDigitialPhotos.net