This dilemma rings aloud in the minds of the students as they approach the final year of their college.Faced with the societal pressure to kick start their career and become independent, students often find themselves standing at crossroads with the question: Entrepreneurship or Employment?
Being an entrepreneur isn’t for everyone; by the same token, being an employee is not either. There are serious pros and cons to each side that affect work/life balance and personal fulfillment. This article will help you delve into the realities of life as an employee and as an entrepreneur by weighing out the advantages and disadvantages of each.
1. Employment
In the corporate world, the realities of employment can vary greatly depending on the company for which you work. Being an employee generally means you have a specific role within an organization. Employees generally have the priorities of stability, security, and specialization.
Employment brings the following set of advantages and disadvantages:
ADVANTAGES:
Team Work : Typically with employment, you will have colleagues and even other people within your team. This means you can share workload, responsibilities and complement each other's efforts.
Work-life balance: Being an employee allows you to strike a perfect balance between work life and personal life.
Steady pay and benefits: During Placements, you will agree upon a salary before hired and can count on receiving a steady paycheck at the selected intervals. You also will have some sort of benefits package built into your contract. This could be health benefits, benefits for taking leave, and other perks such as an expense account, company car, and in-office perquisites.
Learning opportunities: When you’re working in an organization, you generally will have more opportunities to learn from other people. Most often, you will have people working above you from whom you can learn from to further develop your skills, and also other colleagues from whom you can learn cross-functional skills.
DISADVANTAGES:
Dependency: As an employee, you are dependent on the rules and regulations set by the HR and have to follow the instructions of your boss diligently. If you disagree with the instructions or rules set out by the higher authority you have to be careful with how you voice it out. Often, you will be stalled by red-tapism and would not have the freedom to be the master of your own decisions.
Limited Scope and Income: You may have limited options for development or career progression outside of your specific trajectory or industry. As an employee, your income is limited to the agreed-upon salary and is fixed. To increase your salary, you have to request a raise, try for a promotion, or change jobs.
Competition and office politics: Working with a lot of other people means you may have to compete with others to get recognition or have your ideas implemented. An organization will have shifting structures of power and authority, so you will have to learn to navigate the waters of workplace politics.
2. Entrepreneurship
In today's community entrepreneurship has become a buzzword and the temptation to take the entrepreneurial path is quite powerful as it promises us to give the space and tools that we need to create an impact and inspires us to build a business around the ideology of transforming lives. Entrepreneurship has the following set of Advantages and Disadvantages:
ADVANTAGES:
Unlimited scope: As an entrepreneur, your scope isn’t constrained or limited. You can explore all facets of an organization, and can take part in any component. If you have new ideas, you are free to explore those and add new components to your business.
Independence: Entrepreneurs have the freedom and independence to build their company from the ground up and make their own decisions. They don’t have to report to anyone and can choose how to work, where to work, and when to work.
Flexibility and Financial Growth: With independence comes more flexibility. Entrepreneurs can structure their work schedule and set their own hours. If their company is successful and grows, this allows for even more flexibility in the future. An entrepreneur is not constrained to a salary, and their income isn’t capped, which means their potential for financial growth is much higher.
DISADVANTAGES:
Risk and investment: Starting your own company is very risky, and many entrepreneurs and companies fail. Not only do they face company failing and the financial risks that go with it, but they also have to deal with the legal risks and liabilities of starting a company. Entrepreneurship generally requires a large investment on your part, without any guarantee that you’ll get any return.
Financial instability: Being an entrepreneur means you don’t have the stability or security of a regular paycheck. Finances of an entrepreneur are entirely dependent on the success and growth of the company. Even if the company grows, it could have a slow period which can negatively affect your income.
Difficult work-life balance: As an entrepreneur, you have to invest a huge amount of time into starting your own company for many years; Initially, you will find yourself working very long hours without much return which can create an enormous amount of stress. An entrepreneur has to work extremely hard without any paid leaves.
Loneliness: Being an entrepreneur can be extremely lonely, especially at first. All decisions are up to you, and you have the burden of all of the stress on your own shoulders. You don’t have colleagues to bounce ideas off of, and the success and future of your company are entirely up to you.
After analyzing both the career paths it ultimately depends on your mindset and personality that which path you feel is made for you. Both entrepreneurship and employment are paths to financial independence, professional development, impact creation, and self-expression. It all depends on which leaves you the most fulfilled.