Millennials

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Why millions of Millennials are ditching the 9-to-5 to do what they love
Published on April 27, 2018

Glenn Leibowitz
McKinsey Head of Communications | LinkedIn Top Voice in 2015, 2016 & 2017
Millions of people are planning to quit their corporate jobs and work for themselves over the next few years, according to a new survey by Freshbooks, the cloud-based accounting software firm.

The survey of 2,700 full-time employees, conducted at the end of 2017 in cooperation with Research Now, shows the number of Americans who plan to work for themselves could triple to as many as 42 million workers by 2020. That's an increase of 27 million workers who say they are ready to abandon traditional work for full-time self-employment. Of this number, 42 percent are expected to be Millennials.

So what's behind this coming exodus of employees from the corporate workforce? Here are the top reasons respondents gave for wanting to quit the 9-to-5:

43 percent say they want more control over their career
43 percent say they want to make a career change
33 percent want to leave for financial reasons
32 percent want to leave for family reasons
15 percent want to leave for health reasons
Of course, most people can't just leave their 9-to-5 jobs whenever they want to. Here are seven ways Millennials and other respondents are preparing for the day they turn-in their corporate badge and walk free of their cubicle farm:

58 percent are saving money or paying off debt
52 percent are learning new skills
45 percent are reaching out to potential clients
42 percent are taking advice from other entrepreneurs
36 percent are building their personal brand online
26 percent are taking courses in-person or online
26 percent are lining up investors or partners
But are people really happy once they've struck out on their own? Apparently they are, according to the survey. Overall, self-employed professionals enjoy greater career satisfaction than those with traditional jobs: 71 percent versus 61 percent holding down a traditional role at a company.

And this satisfaction gap widens further as workers age, with the gap reaching as much as 30 percent between the self-employed cohort and the traditionally employed cohort. Apparently, the combination of a better work-life balance, improved health, and more income makes life as an independent professional all the more attractive over time.

And once they've left the 9-to-5, people don't want to go back: 97 percent of professionals who are currently self-employed said they have no plans to return to a corporate job.

Are you contemplating leaving your corporate cubicle to strike out on your own? If you've taken the leap to self-employment already, how has it been better (or worse) than working for a company? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for reading! Please reach out and connect or follow me here on LinkedIn.

This article also appeared on Inc.com.

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