Gig Economy

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Education
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Universities Should
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Students for the Gig
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Economy
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by Diane Mulcahy
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HBR / Digital Article / Universities Should Be Preparing Students for the Gig Economy
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Universities Should Be
Preparing Students for the
Gig Economy
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by Diane Mulcahy
Published on HBR.org / October 03, 2019 / Reprint H055UJ
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C. J. Burton/Getty Images
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How well do universities prepare students to work independently in the

Gig Economy? Today’s graduates are joining a workforce where the Gig
Economy — including consultants, independent contractors, freelancers,
side giggers, and on-demand workers — makes up an estimated 30-40% of
the U.S. workforce. They’re also facing an economy in which alternative
work arrangements are growing faster than traditional full-time jobs, and
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are only projected to keep growing. The recent news that the majority of
Google’s workforce is made up of independent and temporary workers
Copyright © 2019 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. 1
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rather than full-time employees is just one example of the rapid
transformation of the corporate workforce.
Despite these changes in how we work, universities have yet to integrate
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the study or practice of the Gig Economy into their curriculum or career
services. Instead, they continue to educate and prepare students to
become full-time employees in full-time jobs. That approach does a
disservice to students who will graduate ill-equipped and unprepared to
succeed as independent workers. To better prepare their students for the
workforce they’ll enter when they graduate, universities can take three
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important steps:
Teach the Basic Skills to Work Independently
During the past seven years I created and have been teaching the first MBA
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course in the country on the Gig Economy at Babson College. As far as I
know, it’s the only one of its kind. This needs to change. Many of the skills
required to be a successful independent worker can be taught: how to
create a business entity, how to manage a small back office, how to
negotiate prices and consulting contracts, and how to develop and execute
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a marketing and branding strategy. These basic business school skills can
be re-framed to prepare students to work independently and
entrepreneurially to build a portfolio of gigs.
The students in my class have learned these skills and gone on to make
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significant changes in the way they work. I receive emails months and
even years after graduation from students who have taken on side gigs to
pursue work they love, quit their traditional jobs, started their own small
businesses or consulting firms, moved to new locations, or who are
traveling the world working remotely. They tell me how grateful they are
to do work they choose, live near family or in a place they love, and stop
commuting to an office. Even the ones who make the choice to continue to
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work in a traditional full-time job tell me they feel more prepared to work
independently if they should need to, or decide to, in the future. These are
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anecdotal results from one course, but they portend the impact that
teaching basic entrepreneurial skills could have on students’ professional
and personal lives.
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Expand Career Services to Offer Gigs
University career services focus on matching students with full-time jobs

and, so far, have ignored the rising incidence, and importance, of
independent work in the Gig Economy. I regularly hire independent
workers to help with projects that involve research, writing and editing, as
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well as marketing and social media. I post those opportunities on a variety
of platforms, from Upwork, to Craigslist, to LinkedIn. University Career
Services are the least receptive to this project work. They are trapped in
the mindset of thinking that work experience equals a full-time job and
have little on offer to help students create a portfolio of work during the
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summer, or to help them take on side gigs during the academic year.
Career Services must do a better job of helping students find work, not just
jobs.
There are nascent signs of change. For instance, the University of Texas at
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Austin and Wellesley career services have begun educating students about
the Gig Economy. The DePaul School of Music uses a student app called
The Gig Connection to help students find gigs throughout Chicago, and
Boston University has developed a Quick Job board, which includes short-
term opportunities that range from raking leaves, to assisting in medical
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research studies, to developing a web site. Dedicated platforms and apps

like these that help students find short-term projects, assignments, and
gigs are still rare, but the ones that exist illustrate what the future of career
services could look like.
Teach What They Practice

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It’s paradoxical that universities are active and enthusiastic participants in

the Gig Economy, yet only prepare their students to work as traditional
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employees in full-time jobs. Universities need only turn the mirror on
themselves to see the work world their students must be ready to enter.
Their own business models and practices are a case study about how
employers are changing work and their workforce.
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Universities rely on independent contractors. Like Google, universities
have already built blended, flexible workforces made up of more
independent workers and fewer full-time employees. This is most evident
in the growth of adjunct lecturers, who make up 50% or more of the
teaching staff at many universities. If universities are part of the trend of
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hiring significant numbers of independent workers, they should prepare
their students for that future, too.
Most professors have side gigs. Universities expect and allow their full-
time tenured professors to have side gigs such as consulting and advisory
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work, paid research, Board positions, and speaking engagements, to
elevate their brand and augment their income. “The Tenured
Entrepreneur,” who hustles for work on the side, is the university faculty
norm – not the exception. Even among traditional liberal arts professors of
English and History, for example, writing books, contributing to literary
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and popular magazines, and speaking are popular, and paid, side gigs.
Yet it’s not the norm for students. Too many students leave school with a
transcript instead of a portfolio. Even small side gigs during the academic
year, whether required as separate courses, or part of existing courses,
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create a way for students to experiment with a variety of work and acquire
concrete skills and work experience.
Universities are going online. Universities are separating the need to be

on campus from the ability to earn course credits and degrees. Higher
education’s fastest growing new product is the online remote courses and
programs that allow students to learn when and where they choose. The
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same desire for control and flexibility is driving the growth of remote
independent work, and needs to be reflected in the opportunities that
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career services offers to students and that campus recruiting presents to
graduates.
The Gig Economy is disrupting the way companies work, and the way they
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hire. Corporate leaders are increasingly choosing to work with
independent contractors, consultants, and freelancer as needed, rather
than creating full-time jobs filled with full-time employees. To succeed,
students need to learn how to be self-employed, entrepreneurial, and how
to run a small business, because increasingly, that’s what each of us is and
will do for at least some part of our careers. By teaching their students
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what they themselves already practice, universities can do a much better
job preparing their graduates for the increasingly independent workforce
of today, not the traditional jobs of yesterday.
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Diane Mulcahy is the author of The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide
DM to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life you
Want. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at Babson College, where she created
and teaches an MBA course on the Gig Economy, and a Senior Fellow at
the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Learn more about Diane’s
work at www.dianemulcahy.com.
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Digital

How well do universities prepare students to work independently in the

Despite these changes in how we work, universities have yet to integrate

Teach the Basic Skills to Work Independently

University career services focus on matching students with full-time jobs

research studies, to developing a web site. Dedicated platforms and apps

Teach What They Practice

It’s paradoxical that universities are active and enthusiastic participants in

Universities are going online. Universities are separating the need to be

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