RE: 5 Personality Traits that Spell Success in the Gig Economy

Recently, I read an interesting article titled 5 Personality Traits That Spell Success in the Gig Economy. The article was based on a Good & Co Labs survey of 180,000 gig workers, and identified creativity, curiosity, confidence, a strong personal brand, and the ability to remain apolitical as key indicators of success in the gig economy. Reading this article made me pause and ask myself if and how these traits were reflected by our experience preparing students for the gig economy.

Do our most successful students exhibit these traits?

And separately, is our training helping our students develop these traits? And if not, should it be?

Here are some of my thoughts.

1. Creativity

“Each project will be different — embedded in a different culture, working with different people, involving different parameters… An ability to approach projects creatively is an advantage in this constantly changing environment.” — Good & Co Labs

Gig work, by its very nature, is temporary and dynamic. As a result, gig workers need to be able to handle constantly changing environments, and creatively solve problems on the fly.

At Samaschool, we agree with Good & Co’s finding that creativity is a common trait amongst successful gig workers, as all of our most successful students exhibit a creative problem solving capacity — a can-do attitude and grit in the face of unexpected challenges.

The importance of creativity is one of the main reasons our curriculum is designed to support students in cultivating their problem solving capacity. During our training, we guide adult learners through role playing activities that encourage them to explore creative solutions, and think of ways to address tricky situations that they may face on the job.

2. Curiosity

“A curious, open-minded, intellectual and flexible attitude is valuable to allow gig workers to take advantage of the opportunities available to them.” — Good & Co Labs

While some gig workers specialize in one type of work, many others increase their success by working across various industries and completing a wide range of gigs. The curiosity to explore various skill sets and career paths is a trait we observe in many of our students, such as Kristy, who took Samaschool’s workshop at our partner BAVC in the Fall of 2016. After stalling in a career that had her spending hours in front of a computer or stuck commuting, Kristy was looking for something that was more dynamic and aligned with her values.

Kristy started out providing cleaning services for an AirBnB host, and then expanded her gig work portfolio to include caregiving and pet-sitting. Over time, Kristy has built up her clientele through Craigslist and Nextdoor, and she now hires out her original Airbnb cleaning job to other gig workers to complete for her!

3. Confidence

“Social confidence is important when you work with a lot of different people… Constantly adapting to communicate with new people would be challenging for someone with low social confidence!” — Good & Co Labs

Successful gig workers are confident in their ability to deliver quality work and meet the needs of their clients. We’ve found that our most successful students have strong communication skills and social confidence, which allows them to succeed in unfamiliar environments where they’re constantly meeting new people.

We support our students in cultivating social confidence and strong communication skills through mock role playing and self-reflection exercises. This helps students understand what to expect on the job, and demystifies the gig work process, which can be intimidating for first timers. Students are also prepped on some of the common challenges that gig workers face, and learn how they can deal with these tricky situations while keeping their clients happy.

4. A Strong Personal Brand

“Gig workers also need to be good at pitching their proposals and building a personal brand… to get the best opportunities…Social confidence is essential for anyone who wants to sell themselves effectively.” — Good & Co Labs

Personal branding is important for all job seekers, but it’s especially crucial for gig workers who must constantly sell their brand in order to ensure a steady stream of new jobs. This is why personal branding is one of the major pillars of our curriculum, and the topic that we spend the most time on. We walk our students through the entire personal branding process, from identifying the key elements of their personal brand, to effectively expressing it through their online profiles, to making sure it shines through their in-person interactions with clients.

We’ve found that personal branding is important for almost all of our students, such as Chih, a Taiwanese immigrant who came to the U.S. when he was 18 in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. After finishing college, Chih had difficulty entering the workforce, so he enrolled in the A+ certification program at our partner the Stride Center in Oakland, CA, where he participated in a Samaschool workshop. This workshop introduced Chih to Field Nation, an online marketplace for IT work, and helped him optimize his online work profile to include a good profile picture, well-written descriptions of his services, and a robust list of his service offerings. Learning these essential personal branding skills enabled him to secure 36 jobs on Field Nation, which he then leveraged to transition into a full-time job.

5. Apolitical

“Our data also shows that gig workers are more individually focused in their attitude to competition. This indicates that they prefer to work alone, and therefore take all the credit — also, all the blame…This suggests that, while gig workers are not less ambitious, they prefer to be recognized and rewarded for their talent, not for their ability to play the politics game.” — Good & Co Labs

While the first four traits in Good & Co Lab’s analysis were right in line with our expectations, this last one — apolitical — was harder for us to align with our experience. We really not sure how apolitical our students are, but this was nevertheless an interesting finding that we’re interested in keeping an eye out for in our our trainees attitudes.

One thing we are aware of, however, is that gig work can be socially isolating. To help our students cope with this, we like to encourage them to organize with other gig workers, seek mentors in their field, and grow through collaboration with others. After all, being able to work as a team is a positive personality trait for those working in the traditional job setting — the ultimate goal for many jobseekers.

Success Beyond the Gig Economy

While these personality traits are not a comprehensive list of traits demonstrated by successful gig workers, or a requirement for succeeding in the gig economy, we agree with most of Good & Co Labs findings. Furthermore, we would argue that these traits are increasingly valued across the entire workforce, including in full-time jobs. As people develop these traits through gig work, they are also building habits that will help them succeed no matter where their career takes them.

This is why our training is designed to help students develop many of these traits, and why we partner with existing workforce development organizations to integrate our curriculum into their existing programming. If you’re interested in learning more about our curriculum, please contact us at partnerships@samaschool.org.