How I get business as an freelance ethnographer is by searching for companies that do ethnographic research either primarily or as a part of their usability studies. I seek out companies that may need my assistance on large projects. Basically, this is the "sales" part of the job: I have to sell myself. I'm actually pretty decent at this. It's comfortable for me. So anyway, today I get a phone call from Jane at Design Science, a company I contacted last week. And we had quite a productive conversation. She liked my resume and felt I had a lot of relevant experience. She also liked that I've done lots of recruiting for projects. So that was great. A step in the right direction.
After the phone call, I got dressed, went and took a urine drug screen, and reported to my first day of work at my new temporary work assignment. I'm at YRC, Yellow Roadway Corporation. Yellow bought Roadway about five years back, and now YRC needs some help as they switch everything over to the new name. That's where I come in. No heavy lifting this time - just data entry. Due to the standard non-disclosure agreements, that's probably about all I should say. I'll add just one more thing: as a son of a life-long truck driver (most years as an owner operator) I find this assignment quite interesting.
Some of you may already know that I take temp jobs from time to time to help make ends meet when there aren't any ethnographic jobs rolling in. That's just a part of not having built up a sustainable clientelle yet. I've palletized freight in warehouses and I've worked in mail rooms, and that's just in the past year.
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