Hedging held me back
For a while I hung back. I was looking for a W-2 job while doing fractional work on the side, and I was not fully committed to either.
The W-2 job was not out there
Eventually I realized there was no W-2 job out there for me. I had looked for quite a while. Given my level of experience, there were not positions available that paid even a small fraction of what I was used to making in industry.
The numbers on job searches later in a career point the same way. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025 annual averages, unemployed people ages 45 to 54 had a median search of 11.8 weeks, and those 55 to 64 had a median of 11.3 weeks and an average of 26.7 weeks. For all unemployed people the median was 9.9 weeks and the average was 23.0 weeks.
When I tried for roles lower on the totem pole that paid less, they got much more tactical. Job posts listed 20 different pieces of software they wanted hands-on experience with. For years I had been managing the people who ran that software. I understood what it could do, but I did not run it myself.
Sink or swim
I really started having success with fractional work when I knew that was it. I was either going to make this work, or I was going to retire really, really early.
Going independent is also not the fringe move it once was. MBO Partners’ 2025 State of Independence study counted 72.9 million independent workers in the United States. A record 5.6 million of them reported earning more than $100,000 a year, nearly double the 3 million in 2020, and 63 percent said being independent was fully their own choice.
I compare it to dads who teach their kids to swim by throwing them in the deep end. I am not saying that is a good thing, and I did not do it to my kids. But when your choice is sink or swim, you find a way to make it work. If you are building a fractional practice and want help with the networking side, see LinkedIn BizDev or book a networking chat.