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My previous employer (the one I have been with the longest, at 3,5 years) categorically rejected paying for conference participation etc. The company would fre
by gyulai 4y ago
My previous employer (the one I have been with the longest, at 3,5 years) categorically rejected paying for conference participation etc. The company would frequently get requests from organizers of conferences, networking events and the like for the company to have a presence. The CEO would then post the speaking opportunities in the company-wide group chat laying down the rule that anyone could attend in the company's name if they wished, but he personally considered it a waste of time and we'd have to do it in our own time.
I think people very seldomly took him up on the offer and if they did, I would guess there was a certain probability that he would read it as a negative signal along the lines of: This person is really going out of their way to do networking, so they're probably working on finding their next gig so they can leave the company.
In one other company I worked at, the company was keen on conference participation, but the way it would work there, if you were the person doing the legwork it would be your boss presenting at the conference. So you couldn't really use it as an opportunity to make a name for yourself. You'd just make a name for your boss.
I've also done extensive freelancing. If you run a low-risk freelancing strategy, clients pretty much expect you to work for them fulltime. It's already a tough sale to get them to give you a day off every quarter to do your own bookkeeping. And the hourly rates aren't high enough to allow you to spend several weeks or months in between freelancing gigs to work on status-building. ...now if you're using your status-building to get the most choice consulting opportunities where you have the bargaining power to do few hours at high rates that's a different story, but that's a different kind of freelancing altogether. (The "high-risk" kind which I'd distinguish from the low-risk kind that my personal experience is limited to).