I’ve written a lot about the power of working for free, and how you can work for free to uplevel your career.
But how long should you work for free? How much time is “enough” before you ask for a paid position or move on?
Here’s what one reader asked:
But how long should you keep doing this for?– is there a timeframe. RIght now I’m working for [a few producers and] I love the experiences and knowledge gained from these places, but these are unpaid and them being so small, have almost no chance of hiring afterwards. I do think the connections and experience is valuable, but wondering for how long until I move on?
It depends on the type of free work:
- For a traditional internship, 10 weeks or a semester, whatever you agreed upon
- For a consulting gig, a 1-3 months trial
- For a “dream job” like opportunity, 3-6 months
However, there are more nuanced way at looking at this other than “time spent.” You can think about this across three different axes:
- Positive value exchange
- Maximizing the opportunity
- Extracting value on exit
Let’s look at each axis.
Positive value exchange
You should continue to do free work as long as you feel there’s a positive value exchange.
All work is a form of trade — you’re trading your time for “X”. At different stages of your career, “X” takes different forms.
When you’re well established and deliver a lot of value, hopefully “X” is a Brinks truck loaded with cash money, but it could also be prestige or intrinsic meaning. With my first free work gigs, I was trying to pop my entertainment industry cherry, so I traded my time for Hollywood experience. You can trade your time for future job leads or networking opportunities.
Whatever “X” you’re getting in exchange for your time, as long as you feel the trade is worthwhile, it’s okay to continue working for free.
Maximizing the opportunity
Most people only scratch the surface of the free work opportunities they get.
That’s because they only look at the transactional part of the free work — the value exchange of money, prestige, experience, etc. I mentioned above. They ignore the untouched benefit of using their affiliation with the client/company to boost their status.
In behavioral psychology, this is a bias called “group attribution error”, or what I like to call, “the cool kids effect.”
In high school, you have the clearly defined “cool kids” who ate lunch together and snuck off for cigarettes during gym class. Then on the outskirts of this group, you had a gray territory of people who were friends with a few cool kids, and by association, this elevated their status in the eyes of others (without technically being a part of the cool kids).
Doing free work or interning for a company is exactly like this. You may not technically be on the payroll, but that shouldn’t stop you from leveraging the benefits of group attribution. When you’re making phone calls, emailing for drinks, you’re no longer doing so as “John Smith.” Now you’re doing it on behalf of “Very Busy and Important” company.
Here’s another way of using your client/company’s names to boost your status and maximize your opportunity:
First, find everyone who worked at your company in the past five years. It doesn’t matter if they were an intern, an assistant, or an executive. Get their names and emails, and do as much research as possible.
Next, email them, mention how you’re both alumni from this company, and ask if you can meet to ask for their advice.
Go and meet them. Ask for their advice. Ask about their experiences. Buy their drink.
(However, under no circumstances should you ask for a job.)
Instead, maintain and build this relationship for the next 5 years, adding value whenever you can. If you’re in the market for a new opportunity, mention it and if they think you’re right for something, they’ll let you know.
Extracting value on exit
Most of the value in an unpaid role is exchanged when you leave, not when you’re doing the work.
Once you understand this, you’ll make the most out of all your free work opportunities. You have to leverage the value you created into your next opportunity.
The key to doing this is making a proportional ask. Here’s an example:
Let’s say your boss used to be a Pretty Big Deal at a mid-level or top-level agency, and you were interested in getting into that agency’s trainee program. In that case, it’s probably OK to let them know your goals, tell them you’re trying to get into the trainee program, and would they make a phone call for you?
What’s not a proportional ask?
In 99% of the cases, asking for a lead to full-time employment is too big an ask.
I would strongly recommend NEVER asking this. You’re asking people (who really don’t know you that well) to stick out their neck for you.
At this point, they know you’re probably looking for a paying job. If they want to put you up for something, they’ll let you know. If they don’t want to, they won’t. It’s that simple.
Notice the difference between the first and second examples. The ask in the first example is very contextually different; you’re asking for a foot in the door, which is very different than asking for a job.
It’s a small but important distinction.
The other big mistake made here is never making an ask at all. The more time you allow to pass between your ask and your free work, the less likely you’re going to get what you want. Strike while you’re top of mind.
It’s your responsibility to get what you want out of your free work experience.
What do you think about these methods to get value out of your free work? Are there better ways to make the most out of these opportunities? Let me know in the comments.
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