How About Temping at the Top?
by Barbara Reinhold
According to John Thompson, author of The Portable Executive: Building Your Own Job Security, there are clearly more qualified managers and executives today than there are "regular" executive posts to be filled. That fact, says Thompson, is actually good news, because it's forcing talented folks (like you, perhaps) to consider striking out on their own as "portable" or temp executives. An increasing number of previously corporate-owned men and women are finding enhanced autonomy, earnings potential and enjoyment in a variety of self-choreographed roles. Here are a few which Thompson recommends:
1. Creating niche businesses
2. Consulting
3. Starting a company of your own
4. Acquiring a company (sometimes a spin-off of the one for which you've been working)
5. Starting up a new venture on a temp basis within an existing company, and then, if it's successful, deciding whether to stay on or move on
6. Creating a job for yourself with an existing client
7. Franchising
The real bottom line, say most folks thinking and writing about executive talent these days, is that high potential people need to take a more flexible view of executive work, opting sometimes for longer-term assignments within organizations and sometimes for more portable options. In these exciting but uncertain times, it's the only way to really drive your own career.
