Latest / Fractional Frequency / The New Career Playbook: Fractional, Flexible, Future-Ready

Transcript

The New Career Playbook: Fractional, Flexible, Future-Ready · Fractional Frequency

• Jenna Ferrua: hello everyone. So today we are here with Jacko Filipenko. And this episode of Fractional Frequency, we're going to focus on navigating the new career landscape. We'll trace Yaakov's journey from being voted out at his previous company to becoming a digital nomad and founder of an HR tech giant. We will unpack his skepticism toward AI replacing humans, discuss the rise of public expertise as the true credential for the modern worker, and examine how businesses can leverage fractional talent. To stay in and competitive. So, Jakov, you've said that layoff anxiety is actually pushing people toward independence. What are you seeing in the market, and why are so many people, specifically Gen Z, choosing a portfolio of fractional roles instead of one full-time job? Yakov: Sure. first of all, thanks for having me today. I would start from from the COVID period, because like that's the period when we realize that it's something is going on. And at that time I just like sold my first startup and I worked at an venture capital firm. And some of our portfolio companies they didn't feel themselves well. and some of them started to skyrocket, like like Miro or Deal, and we started to investigate what's going on and we found an obvious reason that like people move to their places and they work they're working from home they do not spend time to commute to their like offices this time they can like spend with their friends and family or they can invest in something and because like a few other reasons like happened like like there is no managers like behind you and other things so we saw a few trends from things like people starting like to starting to move far away from from the city centers to the things people were looking for additional jobs and then a few other things happened first one is a series of like layoffs. And to be honest, like in in my understanding it happened in kind of awful way because like people let's say they they confirmed job offer they moved to another place signed a lease contract and one day before they have to start their jobs they they were fired some of them Or like people with like I don't know twenty years in one company, they were fired in one day and so on. it was about a a relatively small number of people, but it because it was big stories. I I read a lot of articles on Reddit or other different places, and it looked like the social contract between in police and employers were like it was like destroyed or reconfigured somehow. So people started to think about how to be protected from employers and side projects it was an answer. on one side you can edit in addition to your full-time job on the other hand you can let's say replace what your full-time employer with three to four part-time projects. You can like in in with this setup, you can travel, you can I don't know invest in only things that you like, marketing. You shouldn't like manage other people and so on. So that was the answer for millennials and generations that are older than millennials and with next generation actually My first startup was about marketing and we know this story about how about the childhood of millennials. they was born they were born in the period when when dot com crash happened and they saw like the how their parents how the problems with houses, homes and like all the things And that's why it's a marketing story. That's why millennials prefer to to pay subscription over owning something. So the same thing with Gen Z. their parents they struggled to find a job and it was like specifically mass market jobs, this market. And it looks like their pre configured to part-time jobs, short projects, much less than two years. and actually recently we we checked our own analytics, how often Gen Zs how often do they change their jobs in the first five years? And if for like millennials it's roughly one and a half to two years and then for Gen Z is less than one year at that moment. So that this we see. Amy Crook: is that by their choice though, or is that them deciding that they just want to leave so sooner or is that because the job market's so volatile? Jenna Ferrua: They're forced out. Yeah. Yakov: That that's a tricky question because like when I started my my own career, my father told me that I would never hire a person like you because you are changing your jobs too often. It means like two to three years. And now we think about Jenna Ferrua: Yeah, yeah. Amy Crook: Yeah, 'cause that used to be true. Yakov: we analyzed previous generations and in their first three jobs they were changing their first to two to three jobs it's roughly like four years or something. So it's it's actually true. but the thing is that like millennials we are right now we are the main workforce all over the globe. So like companies must adjust to our schedule. So same thing will happen with Gen Z and the thing is that probably it's their choice, but like it also reflects that how the market works right now. Jenna Ferrua: Yeah. I totally agree with you. You know, you bring up an interesting point, is that the perception has also changed, right? Like when you were applying for jobs, it was perceived negatively if you were bouncing around, right? And trying different jobs. And they wanted to see more, I think, the stability. But now the r it's the reverse of if you are hopping around, you're only like building your, you know, your abilities and your technical aptitude for things or your knowledge, right? Because it's showing just how much you're you're learning, right? By trying different jobs. So it's just a total different it literally is a revolution, right? And so then who knows what the next one will be. So I totally agree. Yakov: the thing is that probably Gen Z probably they will work in another way. Probably they will have not just one job like as a b basic approach, but probably they will have like a few of them in parallel and that's how Jenna Ferrua: Well. Yakov: like they will like work longer in one in one place. Jenna Ferrua: Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with that too. It's a different model, right? And on that note of just, you know, things changing, we also hear about companies wanting to stay lean, right, due to the efficiencies of AI. So how do you see AI and fractional talent working together to help businesses scale, you know, without building huge teams or I guess the need to have big teams. Yakov: I would say that there are two different things. The first one is we are focusing SMBS or Cs, because small businesses they do not have like big budgets to hire people in advance or to I don't know to hire people to do experiments and so on. That's why for them part time workers are actually like a great fit because let's say our our own experience. When we started our marketing, we didn't know what kind of acquisition channel will work for us. So we had two ways. The first one is to hire I don't know a CMO and believe that this person will will drive everything or another one is to hire let's say we believe for some reason that let's say I don't know Facebook, Instagram ads will work for us. So we hired a part-timer who has incredible skills in specifically in Facebook and Instagram ads. And and like if it like fail, we can like I don't know, say goodbye because it's like a part-time, it's it's clear for both parties and so on and start another experiment. And with this idea we believe that part-time provides this flexibility to small and medium size businesses and it for them it looks like they are big enterprises. Does make sense? Jenna Ferrua: Mm-hmm. it does. and I guess on that note, the whole when Silicon Valley emerged, right, where Yakov: Mm-hmm. Jenna Ferrua: do you think there are other areas or, that people should have on their radar? Remote workers, like do you see a place that's going to be like the next big boom for I guess just Silicon Valley in general, right? Like where's the next like big boom for jobs? Yakov: Actually there are a few things. the first one, the market where we like our growth started actually was Myanna, Myanmar region. And the reason is let's say Dubai, it's a city where people from all over the world, at some point they have decided that I want to live in a in a beautiful place without access and so on. like these people typically have background, they they they have an expertise in something and so on. But like Dubai itself is not like it it doesn't provide a lot of opportunities. So like these people started to think about how to work remotely. And the thing is that we see that people are moving around, digital nomads are they're traveling a lot, and there are like a bunch of like different countries. They provide like benefits for for them and for their families because it's like a kind of like tourism but like people go to a country not just for a month or for a couple of weeks but for like a whole year or something. so there is a b big fight for for talent and the thing is that we believe that because of this war between Iran and other countries, specifically UAE. like many countries they want to protect their IT infrastructure at this moment. Like previously Europe developed this GTPR law to protect their data and so on. And the thing is that I believe that in the next three years a lot of companies actually a lot of countries sorry they will start to build their own infrastructure within their countries and it will require a lot of IT people who will be able to to support it locally. And it won't be like one Silicon Valley anymore. It will be like a a lot of different hubs that are supported by local governments. that's my prediction for the next three years. Jenna Ferrua: I agree with you. It's not just gonna be one area. They're going to have to expand. Amy Crook: And why do you think everybody leapt to that so quickly that we have this new technology? So that must mean humans are out, AI's in, everything's good. Like wh how why do you think we jump jumped to that conclusion so quickly as humans? Yakov: we have a fight with my CTO, who is Jenna Ferrua: Yeah. Yakov: like advocate for this whole like AI thing. and my current understanding is that we should think about two different types of of companies or products or whatever. First one is like operational and the other one is let let's say product companies like like Inch for example. And from the operational perspective, there are a lot of things that you can optimize with modern AI LLMs. let's say you can analyze like a lot of information in 10 minutes, and previously it took let's say weeks just to find this information and so on. But the problem is that let's say development process when you are developing an app or something. But the the thing is that a lot of things since nineteen nineties that made this process much faster than it was previously. and the thing is that for ten last years an app Is not the product itself. Marketing, positioning, all other things is is much more important. It was much more important even let's say in 2010. So now it's just like if your production cycle looks like this, developing an actual app is a small part of it. you still have 90% of it that you should develop, and all these things are not like operational so you have to have people who will make decisions about what you are selling, what are you like what is your value proposition, how to market it, and so on. And all of these things are still about your people in your team and how like smart are they and and and and how like like what what kind of decisions they can make and and and what kind of budget do you have and so on. Does that make sense? just like people believe and like it's it's it's more about marketing. So many founders and like managers they think that like AI is actually AI. So like they do like if you will name it right, LLMs, large language models. You can say in a sentence that I dedicated this task to a large language model. It doesn't sound good. So the thing is that we believe that this AI is an actual AI from from science fiction, but it's not. That that's the problem. But like it's it's hard to explain. It's actually my education is related to it. Like neural networks is that what I like have studied in my university. this is the first thing, and the second thing is when I joined Alt UVC, venture capital firm, I actually worked at their crypto branch of it. So like a fan decided to let's say we will invest in in crypto assets as well. And I saw this hype at the past, and it was like crazy for me, people they were raising money at the speed of light, fifty, sixty million for nothing, they had just white paper. And in my mind I was like, Okay, probably I'm wrong because so many people can't be wrong at the same time about the one topic. So I I'm wrong. I just don't understand how it works, and like Jenna Ferrua: Yeah. Yakov: I'm proud that we did not invest in in all of these companies, to be honest. Some of them were like actual fraud, and some of them were just like I don't know, misguided, something like that. But the thing is that I saw this I don't know mania in the past. So I like and and since then I I have decided that okay, I will try at least for myself to to make decisions on my own. And now it looks like the same thing because at the beginning I heard a lot of news like this company replaced their support agents with AI. and it was like okay this is a nice example and the thing is that I I knew and one of the investors in this huge startup and I asked them hey what's going on? Are they really making it real? And the answer was no, actually they were not able to raise money and they need to cut the budget. They they have to to fire people. But the thing is that can't just like tell to investors and to the market that we are not able to raise money. And this AI thing is actually a good I don't know, I don't know, marketing or something because It it looks like you are not firing people because you don't have money. Amy Crook: Yeah, no, that's that's super interesting, yeah. So tell us a little bit about what you're working on right now. Yakov: it's actually related to what we discussed earlier. it's about part-time jobs or like what what we call like future of work. Because you ask the question what's going on with Gen Z and so on. And the thing is that it's like we are moving in my understanding, and we believe in it, we are moving to a new format of work. And it's not just about full-time or part-time, it's about how people think about the social contract between employers and employees. And we see a few models in like let's say in Scandinavian countries they are testing this four days work week and actually this startup model was Another format of how people can work. Let's say you are, twenty-five years old professional, but you're best at something and you are like joining a small startup, but you have an option pool and this starts with growing, so in your 30s you will be rich enough to retire. That was actually a another dream. So and we believe that this part-time is actually the answer to a lot of problems. The first one is about the social contract. If you do not believe in in one employer, you can work with a few of them, right? Another thing is modern professionals they want to they they can't afford to buy a house at at least in the US, that's a that's a problem. So they can let's say at least travel. they also can change their profession Like let's say I'm a marketing guy, but I want to try myself at as a product guy, so I can let's say try to find an opportunity with that. So at Inch we are helping companies to find part-timers. and for companies, as I said, we are not working at this moment with big enterprises because they have budgets to hire full timers and so on. but SMBs. They are our ideal customers because they typically don't have enough money. They to be honest, don't clearly see what they need to do, especially in in fields let's say everyone knows how to build a product, but almost nobody knows how to how to market it. So they're looking for ways of how to, I don't know, launch in a new country or to grow their sales and so on. And that's the that's the place where we are helping them. Amy Crook: Yeah, that's awesome. I like it. So how does the platform work then? How the you go to a small medium business and say, do you want to look for people on our platform or or does it work the other way that the candidates put themselves on there? How does it work? Let's tell the people how to get involved. Yakov: Actually a great question. So the first thing actually we realized based on our data that in the part-time world people can or could be in both roles. So let's say they can hire people as managers, hiring managers, and at the same time they can work in another project as a professional, as an expert. so our first employers they joined us as professionals and then they convert it to the to hiring managers. but yeah also we acquire SMBs and we acquire them typically not in a way hey let's hire part-time marketer. we actually ask them what kind of problem do you have and they describe their problem and it could be absolutely different thing let's say We want to launch our next festival in Egypt next year or something. we have this idea but we don't know how to do it. And because of actually AI, we can automate the thing, we can scan our base, we can find exactly like professionals who had similar expertise, our experience in the past, and we can suggest them. And then they match and discuss it and that's how it works right now. Jenna Ferrua: Amy, I think we should do our next networking event in Egypt. So it looks like we have we have a way in. Yes. Amy Crook: I do too. I go for a little festival in Egypt. bit of pyramids, bit of camels, I like it. Jenna Ferrua: Yes. Amy Crook: so say I'm, looking for some work on a fractional basis because I'm disillusioned with the workforce and I wanna travel the world. I just come to your website, like how do you get involved as a candidate? Yakov: you have to go to inch.org and create an account. you have to pay our membership fee. you have to fill your profile, specify your like past projects and it's actually like description of your past projects is actually much more important than your C V. That's another thing of AI reality because for some people it's hard to let's say sell themselves, to present them in a way to make it I don't know more advanced or but the thing is that everybody these days upload their CV to Chat GPT or Gemini or whatever and then this process starts and it looks like every person nowadays is like a superhuman something like that. this was not a big problem when people were worked at offices because like you meet in person, you see how this person performance on. and if we switch to remote, you have to validate this skill somehow. And the thing is that in this AI world you can fake almost everything. People use AI to put the like test cases to they use it on their interviews. they adjust their CVs and so on. and it's actually very crucial to be able to validate it somehow. And we found another thing that people trust other people and their opinions and so on. So one of the parts of our product is this validation mechanism. you can't describe your own expertise you actually describe someone else expertise and then they can't vote for you back. They they have to describe someone else and so on. And we are building this graph and we are trying to be this like to work as a mechanism that provides this feedback about expertise of a professional. Amy Crook: that's really cool. And then they can validate it and they can see like, okay, this person's done this kind of work, like this is gonna be a good fit for us. so I mean, how long do you think resumes have got left before nobody wants to read one because they're all full of lies? Jenna Ferrua: Ha ha ha Yakov: to be honest, it's I I believe it's already happened. on one side you have LLM that might adjust your your C V. On the other hand you have LLM that reads it, find like this patterns and like enrich your your your CV and tries to verify it. and the problem is that like it's really hard to to solve it without significant changes. You can't just like ask users to fill their CV on your website and to to control that they're typing letters or something like that. a different approach and that's what we are trying to do, build a scheme where It's will punish you if you will lie about your colleague. So like you are actually prove that this person did this job and they achieved these results. And you are you are promoting your own profile if it's true and you are making a negative impact on your own profile if you are lying. Jenna Ferrua: Yeah. Me too. So switching gears a little bit, Yakov, because I think that you have a very fascinating journey that would be helpful for, others to to hear and learn from. specifically, Getting voted out of your own company is, I'm sure, something that most founders, hope that they never experience. I mean, let alone anyone probably like to have that happen. and to obviously then see the success that you have. So what did that moment teach you and how has it influenced your, leadership style today? Yakov: at at least I'm in in this club like of founders who to be honest, in the first two months after that happened, I remember that I scheduled like four to five meetings every single day just to be busy because I like I didn't know how to do nothing. Like Jenna Ferrua: Not be busy probably, yeah. Yakov: it's actually the very first and the biggest lesson is like nothing actually happened. on the very next day, it's like Jenna Ferrua: Like your life changes. No one else their life doesn't change. Amy Crook: Yeah. The stop. Yakov: they can support you, Jenna Ferrua: Yes. Yakov: let's go to a bar and discuss it, but like everyone else is like that's fine. You can handle it. Jenna Ferrua: Yeah. Amy Crook: Yeah. Speaking go to a bar. It's Jenna Ferrua: Yeah. Amy Crook: nine AM. Go to work. Jenna Ferrua: Yes, we could do it. Yakov: So yeah, this actually the biggest thing because I spent two two months to just realize it. nothing is really changing. So and then I tried to understand what I did wrong or did I and then I like I'm a mathematician, like my major is in mathematics. And I realized that okay, it was a problem not in something related to to the logic thing, but it's more about relationships, all other things. So actually I I studied psychology, specifically Gestalt, and it was really nice thing because it opened the whole new world to me. I mean we are using it a lot in our like product and this Steve Jobs thing, their idea I mean Apple's idea is that like design can change everything. And I can't say that we believe so much in design, but we believe so much in in people interactions and their behavior and their psychology and we use it a lot in our product because I don't know how familiar you are with patterns of like product development but they they use this framework jobs to be done and it works in B2B SaaS products or something like that. In our field people typically they don't have a specific job to be done at this moment. let's say if a person is expecting that he will be fired in a month. It's the same like level of pro it's the third like I don't know hardest problem in his life and the first one is like your family members death and the second one is like your divorce. So like they do not in in most cases they don't even expect that on the next day you will suggest them and new opportunities they actually need some some sort of like support at first and then they will start they will have enough energy and resources to to start applying for new jobs and so on. So this all of the things actually you have to keep in mind if you are developing product like Inch. Jenna Ferrua: so empathy also is sounds like it perhaps that's what you also learn from that experience. Yakov: Empathy, yes, but much more actually. as as I said, I am a mathematician, I I like formulas. Jenna Ferrua: Yes, yes. Yakov: people do a lot of things and they let's say everyone knows that you will study or learn another language, it will improve your mental health, you will think faster and so on. But the thing is People actually do it without any specific purpose. so we are irrational species. Yeah. Jenna Ferrua: Yes. Human beings are irrational, yes. I completely agree. so you've been featured in places like Business Insider and Fast Company, and you recently spoke at the Fast Company Grill. What would you say is the biggest misconception that people still have about today's workforce? Yakov: I would say that two years ago, it was in Chicago, I was a speaker and I was describing of how the current workforce landscape looks like and my thesis was Gen Z generation they will be the next main workforce all over the globe in the next few years and we have to be prepared to to this and like it was like a 40 minutes pitch and then like a lady asked me a question she said like okay everything is good everything is fine but can you tell me please how to tell to my boss that it's okay to hire millennials I was like okay we are probably think about next steps. So actually This is the thing is that most of the people don't understand is like the social contracts have changed. let me illustrate it with an example. the typical schedule is like eight hours, eight working hours a day, right? But this thing was adopted by Genry Ford more than 100 years ago. And We are not working at factories, most of us at this moment. US is a service based economy, but we still use the same schedule, right? but this thing have changed and a lot of other things actually is changing right now and we have to adapt to it. all of these AI things and similar is not so important like the social contract. That's how Jenna Ferrua: Mm-hmm. Yakov: like employees think about your your company. if you want to be able to compete with other companies and other products you have to hire the best talent I I don't know the exact percent but this is a thing and to be able to do that You have to understand your customers and your customers are your future employees Jenna Ferrua: agree with you. That makes c that makes complete sense. there's so much emphasis on like the fear of AI, but that's just a change just like anything has changed, you know, over the years for the workforce. So I totally agree with you. Yakov: one another thing is like many companies these days they are using this narrative. we are replacing people with AI. And what what will happen if next year you will realize that you need more employees? And if your HR brand says that you are replacing people because you are investing in AI or something. next year employees they will not feel safe with with your company. So like just think about it when you announce these changes. Jenna Ferrua: Yeah, I totally agree on that too. You need people to also the the more that people also are trained or aware, and brought up to speed, I think also on the advancements that are happening in technology, it's only going to make companies better, right? So you still need them to continue, right, the trajectory that's happening. So Yakov: Yeah, and if someone thinks it's it's a joke, you can read about career cut fishing. It's actually Jenna Ferrua: Yeah. Yakov: a huge trend among Gen Z in the UK. what they basically do, they they apply to a job, they pass all the interviews, they accept the offer, and then they never show up on at at their very first day. It's like the that the trend of how they demonstrate to employers that it's like they it's it's actually probably an an a trend so they like discuss it with friends and it's like jokes and so on. But the thing is that they spend companies time and and money and so on. And this is just one trend. Probably something will happen in the next two years, three years. and it also will be some kind of damaging because Gen Z they're trying to Find their place in this relationship. Jenna Ferrua: That's so fascinating. I had no idea about that. Wow. And it is probably to, be I don't know if it's adversary, but just like beat the system, if you will. That's the best way that I could talk about it too. Like they're trying to find their place, right? But also being like, look, I could get it. I could get this job, but I'm not gonna show up. There's no consequences for me, right? So I definitely see that. Jakov, you've talked a lot about the importance of building public expertise. For someone that is just getting started, what's the single most impactful thing that they can do to future-proof their career? Yakov: it's actually one of the best things that is going on right now is that you can do something whether a small amount or number of resources. Jenna Ferrua: Mm-hmm. Yakov: it's just like you can if you are in a IT field or you're a white collar or something, you can actually I present yourself with with real like products or real I don't know documents or whatever, and like demonstrate your judgments. Because one thing that will happen is all operational things will be much easier to implement in the nearest future. But what will be the most important skill is how do you make judgments. that's the skill that you have to develop and that's the skill that you can demonstrate even now. that's my advice. Jenna Ferrua: Thank you so much. Amy Crook: It's good one. It's a good one. Yakov: Thank you. Amy Crook: Well, great to have you today. Jenna Ferrua: so Amy, do we need to Yakov: Yeah, thanks for having me. Amy Crook: Okay.