Fletcher Medler, a student at Berklee College of Music, is enrolled in “The General Business Gig,” a course dedicated to teaching musicians how to survive in the gig economy. Medler had played a few professional gigs, but he knew he had gaps in his knowledge.
“I wanted to hear from someone who has worked in the industry,” he tells Fast Company.
The course covers everything from the type of music people want to hear at gigs, to how to budget and purchase equipment, to charging customers. It first ran in 2016 and is application-only.
“It’s a constant challenge for many musicians to get paid the actual value of what their time and artistry are worth,” says Jes Perry, a professor at Berklee who currently serves as interim assistant chair for the professional music department. “We try to prepare our students for this reality and how to negotiate effectively so that they can, in fact, make a living doing what they love, whether it’s playing cover songs or their own original music.”
Musicians have been part of the gig economy since before that term came into fashion, but today 39% of American workers have done some kind of freelance work, according to freelance platform Upwork.
Yet very few colleges and universities are making it a point to equip students for the gig economy. At Babson College, Diane Mulcahy taught a gig course from 2010 to 2020, until the pandemic rolled in. Mulcahy was ahead of the curve: In 2010, companies like Uber, Airbnb, and Taskrabbit were in their infancy, while Upwork was three years away from being born. From 2010 to 2020, the number of gig workers at U.S. companies increased by 15%, according to ADP Research Institute.
9-to-5 work doesn’t work for everyone
Mulcahy, who was an investor and consultant at the time, wanted to offer the course because she felt like traditional full-time work schedules were ripe for disruption. “I could see the 9-to-5 for your whole life wasn’t working for a lot of people: parents, people with disabilities, people later in their careers who don’t want to work full-time,” she says. “There’s a demand for a different way of working, and businesses weren’t supplying those options. The gig economy resonated.”
The first year she offered the course, not enough students signed up. “When I first told people I was teaching this, they’d ask, are you teaching a computer course? Gigabytes?” However, over time, Mulcahy’s course developed a following, with students offering ideas for the syllabus, including branding and personal finance.
Today, instructors pitching gig courses might have an easier time than Mulcahy did. At UC Berkeley, Shuo Chen, a general partner at venture capital firm IOVC, and Gorick Ng, author of The Unspoken Rules and How to Say It, started a course in 2022 on building a side hustle and turning it into a full-time career.
“This was the class we wished had been offered when we were in school—a class that can help us not only find clarity and direction in our careers and lives, but also walk away with a side hustle that we can take with us into adulthood,” Ng wrote in an email.
When he and Chen pitched it to Berkeley, that’s exactly the response they got. “I wish this class had existed when I was in school!” they were told. Chen and Ng are currently on paternity leave, but plan to continue the course when they return.
Uriah Giordana currently teaches "Career Building In the Remote Economy" at the University of Minnesota and says his course always fills up. “It struck me as a missed opportunity,” he says. “The gig economy can be complementary to a 9-to-5. You don’t have to wait until you graduate to get a full-time job; a gig can help you get to where you want to go.”
Still, gig courses are few and far between. The University of Michigan offered a few gig courses but switched to offering courses on how to lead workers in a gig economy. Mulcahy hypothesizes that a major barrier is universities are afraid of what parents will say.
“I’ve spoken with a lot of universities and career services about offering more gig services; there’s a lot of resistance to teaching students about how to do gigs,” she said. “The perception is still that students will get a full-time job. It’s a hard messaging change for universities and career centers.”
Part-time work, full-time knowledge
Even students who don’t go on to work in the gig economy can benefit from gig courses. Aaron (last name withheld by request), who works in technology strategy consulting, took Mulcahy’s course in 2015 "because I didn’t know what I wanted to do for the next decade,” he says.
What he remembers the most is Mulcahy bringing in speakers who took a mid-career break—one who took time off to visit family, another who took some time off after creating a startup. It made him realize that different career journeys were possible.
While Aaron did not end up in the gig economy, he found the lessons he picked up in Mulcahy’s class invaluable as a consultant. “I learned you can’t get comfortable," he says. "You have to understand what your skills are and what the market is looking for.”
Aaron took this approach at his firm and found himself constantly learning new skills and pitching himself to new projects, which allowed him to grow and get promoted. “I don't know that I would be where I wanted without understanding what is possible with a nontraditional career path,” he says.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Jes Perry's title. She is the interim assistant chair.