Are You Doing Free Work?

JOB SEARCH STRATEGY
FREE WORK.

There’s one topic I talk about that really gets people fired up.

Doing free work.

I’m a huge fan of free work.

It demonstrates your abilities without being asked.

It shows initiative to be helpful and solve problems without being asked.

It sets you apart from everyone unwilling to put in the extra effort.

So why does everyone hate it so much?

From what I’ve seen it’s due to…

1. They’re mass-applying for roles. So, trying to deliver value to all of them would take an unthinkable amount of time.

2. They’re not targeting roles that interest them and where they will be able to use their zone of genius.

3. They feel that their free work will somehow be exploited.

In a recent interview with Noah Kagan, Tim Ferriss said…

Let’s break down the examples he shared…

Tim’s First Job Out of College: The CEO of a company came to be a guest lecturer in one of Tim’s classes. Tim wrote his term paper on the company because he wanted to provide a free competitive analysis to prove how valuable he could be to the business. It worked, and he was hired.

The 4-Hour Work Week: Tim gave guest lectures at Princeton twice per year. They involved a ton of prep work. Flights from San Francisco to New York. Receiving feedback and iterating on his presentations again and again. And for all that effort he was paid… $0. But, the information delivered in those lectures became the basis for one of the best business books every written. The 4-Hour Work Week.

Startup Investing: Tim wanted to get started angel investing but didn’t have a ton of money. He would provide a few thousand dollars and then deliver a hundred thousand dollars worth of work for the startup, providing advice, connections, and being the most valuable low-cost person on the company’s cap table. The free work he did in the early days led to an incredible reputation amongst the founder community and led him to get the opportunity to become an early investor in companies like Uber and Shopify.

TIm’s First Employee: Tim’s first employee was a guy named Charlie Hoehn (I’ll do a full newsletter about Charlie in the future because he’s awesome). How did Charlie get his job working with Tim? You guessed it. Free work. He sent him “gifts” to help him with things like his book launch, ideas about launching a community, and how to improve his blog. After three months of these free gifts, Tim asked him if he wanted to come on full-time.

You may be saying, “But that’s Tim, he’s an outlier.”

But not so fast.

The man on the other side of the interview table is Noah Kagan.

Noah was employee number 30 at Facebook and number 4 at Mint.com.

So if you’re looking to be an early employee where your shares will be worth millions, he’s a great guy to listen to.

Noah also believes in free work and has examples of where it paid off…

Mint Employee #4: Initially, Noah was rejected for the Director of Marketing job at Mint. Not taking no for an answer, he asked if he could just present them with a marketing plan. He spent 40+ hours building out the marketing plan and presented it to them. He told them that he could implement the plan for three months and, if they liked his work, bring him on full-time. It worked. Two years later, Mint was sold to Intuit for $170 million.

I have a treasure trove of similar stories that I’ll share in more detail in future newsletters, but hopefully, you get the idea of the tremendous upside of free work.

I’ve given examples of when free work works, but I haven’t addressed why people hate free work, so let’s do that now.

Why People Hate Free Work.

Mass Applications

Most people who hate free work hate it because it’s time-consuming.

It takes time to…

• Research the company and individuals to identify problem areas or opportunities you could leverage your existing skills, experience, and network to help with.

• Craft a comprehensive value deliverable that clearly demonstrates your ability, solves a problem, or enhances an opportunity.

• Perform warm and cold outreach in order to build relationships with people within the organization so you can drop your value deliverable in the laps of the decision-makers.

You can’t do that if you’re applying to 100 roles each week.

You likely can’t do it if you’re applying to 10 roles each week.

So it pays to focus on quality vs quantity.

The “easy apply” button is easy, meaning most people will use it.

The people who stand out are the ones who avoid the easy route and take the path that will make them unique.

Lack of Focus

When I see a job search last longer than 3 months, almost 100% of the time, it’s due to a lack of focus.

Not a lack of focus on the job search itself, but a lack of focus on the type of role the person is targeting and where they want it to take them.

Lack of focus is what leads people to a “strategy” of mass application.

Once you have a clearly defined destination in mind and understand the ideal job and company characteristics to accelerate you toward that destination you can focus on a small list of companies where your specific set of skills can be put to good use.

This makes providing a high-touch in the networking, application, and value creation process far more doable.

It also means that you’re going to be far more willing to go the extra mile.

People don’t like free work because they don’t like the job they’re applying for.

You know you’ve found the right role when doing free work feels like scratching an itch or like a fun project that you get to deliver to some cool people.

Fear of Exploitation

Are there people out there who exploit applicants and other experts for their free work?

Sure.

Is that common?

Not in my experience.

In my experience, what I have seen to be true is…

Think about it…

All the information you’re likely going to share with them is readily available online.

If they really wanted to, they could spend the time to do the research themselves and put together a similar deliverable.

But that’s the thing.

They don’t have the time.

You’re going to be able to fast-track them to that result because you have the time, the knowledge, the experience, and the excitement to do it.

If they take this free gift you have given then and believe you’re the right person to implement the plan, GREAT!

If they are polite but think it’s not a great fit, that’s ok.

You now have a badass value deliverable you can modify for another similar company.

If they truly exploit you for your time, energy, and expertise then you still have the deliverable to use for other companies and you dodged the bullet of working with awful people who are likely to screw you in other ways.

So here’s my advice…

• Watch the interview with Tim and Noah.

• As you target companies, think about ways you can demonstrate your abilities creatively and effectively.

• Don’t be afraid to do the work and put yourself out there. 99% of people will not be willing to put in this work which will quickly put you into a very small pool of candidates.

The job market is more competitive now than it has ever been.

Target roles you really like at companies you would love to work for and do everything in your power to stand out.

Value deliverables and free work are one of, if not the most powerful way to make an impression.

Watch the interview below:

MOTIVATION
GOOD.

Job search got you down?

You may just need a mental re-frame.

This video was shared in the UpEmployment Accelerator Community.

The member said he watches it before every interview to get himself psyched up, inspired, and bring amazing energy to the conversation.

Enjoy!

Look… I get it.

This is a hot-button issue in the job search.

But all the evidence I have seen shows me that the people who land truly remarkable positions do so due to free work.

Does it take time? Yes

Is there a chance they still won’t give you the job? Yes

But it’s the best way to give everything you have.

It’s a clear way to take your shot at the job and exit the attempt saying, “There’s nothing more I could have done to land that job.”

And that’s all you can do!

Let’s become career champions together 🏆

Kyle