What do you do on social media? Laugh at the memes? Join a trend? Enjoy the comments more than the post? Have a fight in the comments section? Troll celebrities? Share excessively? Scroll endlessly? Get inspired? Make new friends? All of the above? Whatever you do on social media, you need to avoid getting suckered into believing “influencers”. There are four things you need to NOT believe blindly when scrolling through social media and while you may already be aware of it, the pull and the glossiness of it all just might make you think it could all work out.
Starting over
You’ll see a lot of LinkedIn posts from people who have left high-paying jobs and taken time for themselves. They will wax eloquent about the amount of time they can now spend with family, follow long-forgotten hobbies, focus on a new venture and of course enjoy exiting the “rat-race”. Sounds peachy. It isn’t. The keyword here is high-paying. Do any of these people disclose their CTC, their investments, their family wealth, their spouse’s income? Nope. They never do that. And they never will. Because the way it plays out makes for superb copy. That’s all. It is absolutely not a feasible option, at least not for those who rely solely on jobs – on a typical 9-5 to provide for their families and themselves. This holds true even for someone in a higher management position, not just those in lower-paying jobs! Those who can afford to quit a job because of burnout, toxic environment or just plain fatigue, do it because they can afford to. If you want to really understand what an impact leaving a job can have on a person, skip the post and read the comments.
These “uplifting” posts have been flooding LinkedIn for some time now especially since the WFH era of the pandemic began. It’s quite obtuse to talk of how liberating it is to not have a job when people are getting laid off left and right. Of course it’s great to work on your terms, to not have a boss, to spend time with your loved ones, to not have to toe the line, but can you afford it, is the question you need to ask yourself, every time you read a quitting story.
Going freelance
It’s good money that’s for sure. But, only if you are consistent, dogged, have and keep lucrative contacts and great at what you do. Even then it’s a game of dice because there’s always a chance of management changing hands, your contact leaving the company, work being moved in house or someone better or cheaper willing to do the same work. LinkedIn is flush with success stories of freelancers but those are few and far between. Leaving a job to bank on freelancing is a dangerous move and one you could regret. If you have the physical and mental bandwidth to freelance while holding down a regular job, do it. But, if the only freelancing jobs you’re getting are from rival companies or compete with your day job, then don’t.
Freelancing is an extremely good way for students to earn some money – it isn’t the best option if you have less resources, not very good financial backing and have responsibilities. The call of the freelance siren is enticing especially if your current workplace is burning you out fast. In that case, keep looking for a change, send out feelers, work on a hobby for extra cash, but don’t quit your job without another in hand.
Listening to ‘coaches’
Be careful who you learn from. There are a lot of people on LinkedIn with “coach” in their profile. The prefix sometimes makes no sense. Not everyone who has found success in something they are good at can teach the same thing to somebody else. If that was the case, we’d all be teachers, because at some point in our life we were really good in a certain subject! It’s not the best idea to follow, learn or do what a “coach” says merely because they convince you it’s worked for them. It’s called brilliant marketing. They are good at selling an experience, an emotion, an idea. You need to know what to buy and what you shouldn’t. You have to make that discerning decision.
Side hustles that “totally” work
You will find a lot of very well made, snappy reels that convince you about how easy it is to make money on the side. Get paid to read, to listen to music, to write a review, sell on Etsy yada yada yada… It’s never that easy. Either the pay is a pittance or you’ll end up in a scam. Also, most of these so-called simple ways to make money are for those in the US or Europe. There is precious little for us in India. Research your options well and never, never share personal information online. Even if you find these online side hustles that work for you here in India, you’ll be stuck in endless loops of multiple activities to make some money. So, the question you need to ask yourself is, is that worth it?
