Elodie Céline Gibault: Freelancers working on assignment in banks: Work experiences and career paths of experts

This thesis examines the freelance work of experts on assignment for banks, within organisations significantly affected by digital transformation. As the banking sector becomes increasingly digitised, it is facing a shift in roles and skills, resulting in a need for expertise and the use of ‘tech’ professionals on assignment. Known as ‘self-employed workers’, these freelance professionals are defined by their expertise and professional skills ‘offered’ within a specific market: that of business services and banking. This highly dynamic field of activity enables many experts, particularly in the IT sector, to become self-employed.

This thesis explores the ecosystem that supports and organises the work of these professionals, the conditions under which they enter their expert careers, and their experiences of this form of employment within the specific context of Bank M. We will demonstrate how freelance career paths are socially situated. From a professional and biographical perspective, they are the result of individual actors—qualified experts—who choose independence within a given state of the labour market.

Composition of the jury
Sophie BRETESCHE, Professor of Sociology, HDR, Institut Mines Telecom Atlantique
Martine D’AMOURS, Professor Emeritus, HDR, Laval University, Quebec
Jean-Michel DENIS, University Professor, Director of the ISST (Chair)
Yannick FONDEUR, Researcher, LISE-CNAM
Cécile GUILLAUME, Sociologist, Senior Lecturer, HDR, University of Surrey, UK (co-director)
Pascal UGHETTO, Professor of Sociology, HDR, UGE, researcher at LATTS
Nadège VEZINAT, Professor of Sociology, HDR, University of Paris 8, researcher at CRESPPA (UMR 7217)