From In-House to Freelancer: 2020 Predictions for the Creative World
From In-House to Freelancer: 2020 Predictions for the Creative World
Where I think the creative world is heading...
The In-House Fat Rolls
Over the last ten years, the creative world has gotten fatter and fatter.
After the 2008 recession, many creative folks who lost their job found the power of the internet, lean startup culture, and started off on their freelancing careers. The freelancers soon banded together to form digital agencies that served these larger companies.
These large companies (we’ll call them client companies) wanting to cut costs and control the creative process started to build in-house creative departments. This is the fat. The in-house creative department starts to require more and more overhead with diminishing returns on its value.
Cue in 2020’s economic recession.
Hitting the Eject Button
The client companies’ hefty overhead of iMacs, Canon cinema cameras, producers, editors, and Adobe Cloud has been sitting around since March 1. And with a lot of content being filmed on iPhones and webcams, executives are infuriated that all their money is tied up in a now-closed up studio.
Over the next few months, we’re going to see hundreds of client companies (and the digital agencies that serve these clients) hit the eject button, sending thousands of creatives, photographers, filmmakers, and designers out on the street.
I say this because I was one of them.
The Reshuffling of Talent
Many of these recently-fired creatives will and should start their own freelancing careers. The demand for creative work and marketing material will remain - it’s the cost justification that won’t. Client companies looking to stay lean will hire freelancers on a per-project basis.
Eventually, these freelancers will form a digital agency to serve client companies, and then client companies will wise-up and hire in-house creatives once again. The cycle continues.
How to Prepare
If you’re in-house, prepare for the worst. The younger/less experienced you are, the more likely you’ll be let go.
Have your portfolio and website up to date (Today is May 26, 2020).
Keep in contact with colleagues outside of your current job
Start creating thought-pieces, and hefty pieces of content to show off your expertise. Keep them in the Draft folder if you’re uncomfortable posting while still employed.
Build your runway.
Hope this helps! Speaking from lived experience on this one. Went from freelance to agency to in-house and back again to freelance over the last 5 years. What a time to be alive.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Simply reply to this email.
Cheers,
Jordan P. Anderson
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