Stanley on top of Grandfather Mountain [photo by Knolan Benfield]
“Say goodbye to full-time jobs with benefits” was the headline on CNN’s website on June 5, 2010. The writer, Chris Isidore, said, “Doug Arms, senior vice president of Ajilon, a staffing firm, says about 90% of the positions his company is helping clients fill right now are on a contract basis.” Not all staff jobs will disappear, but the clear indication is that contractors are growing in the percentage of the job market.
A couple of years ago, the local WSB-TV reporter Jim Strickland interviewed me about being a freelancer. They were doing a story on the rise of contractors versus staff jobs.
On May 30, 2013, The Chicago Sun-Times shocked everyone when they laid off their entire photo department. Two weeks after the Chicago tabloid laid off its photo staff, the Southern Community Newspapers Inc. chain in Georgia closed its photo department.
Change has happened
When I left college, my career plan was to work for a newspaper for a couple of years and then work for a missionary agency as a staff photographer telling stories of missionaries worldwide. Just shy of two years at a newspaper, I got a call to come and work for the missionary agency for the Baptists in Richmond, VA. The Commission Magazine was their flagship communications piece that won 3rd place in the Pictures of the Year award while I was on staff as best use of photos by a magazine. Right behind National Geographic and Sports Illustrated. Five years later, it was the end of 1989, and there was a slight recession, and I lost my job.
My plans had no contingency for this situation. Looking at what seemed to be a weakness of not being a seminary graduate in the missionary agency, I went on to seminary. Three years later, the landscape had changed by 1993.
Loyalty to a Profession, not a Company
The years of layoffs and downsizing have changed how people think of their jobs. For example, it is more common today for people to feel loyalty to their Profession than to their employer. This is because they are working on advancing their career but no longer see doing this with one company. Many of my colleagues feel called to photography, specifically to the visual storytelling of nonprofit or faith-based organizations.
While twenty years ago, they could find a staff job doing this type of work, those jobs are scarcer than ever, and sadly those salaries haven’t changed in more than twenty years.
Tentmakers
The most famous missionary in the Bible was the Apostle Paul. Many do not know that for most of his career as a missionary, he was also a tentmaker. He was a bi-vocational minister.
Today for people to follow their calling and use their talents, the best path for them may be that of a tentmaker. One of my friends, Greg Thompson, sees himself in this role as a tentmaker. Read about him and follow some of his blog posts here http://tentmakercommunications.com. The advantage of this bi-vocational/tentmaker is the ability to pay your bills and still fulfill your call.
Balance of Lifestyle and Vocation
Too often, I talk to young photographers who want to pursue something that would be a very lonely life for most of them. A few have wanted to be war photographers.
After getting them to refocus and tell me what type of lifestyle they wanted when not photographing around the world, it was only then that I could help them see pursuing war photography would require sacrificing some of their lifestyles. I
advise anyone wanting to be a professional photographer to determine what lifestyle they want and then look at what type of photography can sustain this lifestyle. The other way is to look at what you feel called to do in photography, then come to terms with the lifestyle needed to lead to pursue it.
Due to the shift from staff positions to contractors for most organizations today, you need to be an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur means you must learn how to run a business first.
Entrepreneur versus Staff Specialist
Many of my friends who went to seminary to become missionaries studied scripture and preached. However, most didn’t learn how to run a business and do marketing. The seminary didn’t teach business acumen because organizations sent out missionaries for many years.
Today missionaries may have an organization that endorses them, but most missionaries are no longer staff missionaries; instead, they are in an even worse position than most freelance photographers. They must raise all their support for the ministry and pay their bills. In addition, a portion of their funds must go to the organization that endorsed them.
Sadly many great missionaries and photographers are having a similar problem; the lack of entrepreneurial skills for running a business has them leaving their professions to find a job to support themselves.
Take a Leap of Faith
Soren Kierkegaard encouraged Christians to stop turning inward, contemplating their faith, and taking action. This called on them to take a leap of faith. If you focus on paying the bills and security, then I think you have turned your back on using your gifts. But unfortunately, using those gifts is not something that will be easy. I leave you with this scripture, which I hold dear to my heart because there are many days when life throws so much at me that if not careful, I will also focus on my security and not on my calling.
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed – that exhilarating finish in and with God – he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
– Hebrews 12:2