By-Products of a Profession
Work brings more than a salary and the main result.
It produces by-products: knowledge, contacts, reputation, tools, a portfolio, data, an understanding of the industry, access to opportunities and the habit of solving a particular type of problem.
Sometimes it is precisely these that determine the long-term value of an occupation.
A small project may pay badly but give you an important work sample. A temporary post may give access to a strong team. Volunteering may give experience and an acquaintance with a field.
But the word “experience” is a favourite currency for paying for unpaid labour. A by-product has value only when it:
- actually appears;
- belongs to you;
- can be applied later;
- justifies the pay you did not receive;
- does not endlessly substitute for normal work.
By-products are worth looking for in your current activity too.
If a project already requires research, you can create:
- a template;
- a method;
- a library of solutions;
- an article;
- a tool;
- teaching material.
That way one effort works several times.
A by-product must not wreck the main task, though. Someone too taken with a future presentation can forget to finish the project itself.
First there has to be a cow. Producing leather as a by-product is discussed later.
By-products come with a boring question about ownership. An engineer who developed a convenient calculation method at work takes away the understanding, but not necessarily the files, the drawings and the right to show them to the next employer: that is written in a contract signed without reading. It is the same with a portfolio — half of your best work may be covered by a non-disclosure agreement, and cannot be presented even verbally, in words, in general terms.
So a by-product is best negotiated in advance, at hiring, while there is still something to negotiate, rather than discovered in the final week. On your last day your bargaining position is already zero, and all that is left is memory.