Freelance vs. Full-time
Now that I’ve successfully completed one year of freelancing followed by one year of full-time at a design agency, I’ve decided to give the past two years a proper critique.
Freelance Pros
- Setting my own schedule. I often worked long hours throughout the week so that I could have one or two ‘sleep-in’ days.
- Bragging rights. I used to love saying “I work for myself,” at 22 years old!
- Wearing pajamas to work. Casual Friday was every day! You should have seen my hair…
- Being picky. I didn’t always have the luxury, but when things were busy, I could pick and choose which projects most interested me.
- Travel! This was a huge deal for me as I was flying to the UK every couple of months. Working remotely gives you the freedom to work from anywhere!
- Writing off things. When tax season rolls around, you’ll have a lot of expenses. Phone, cable, computer costs, and even a portion of your rent!
- Meeting new people. Freelance designers have a ‘secret club’ in which they share project ideas, inspirational sites, CSS tricks, fonts, and more. When a fellow freelancer contacts you, RESPOND!
- Personal projects. When things are slow, you’ll have spare time to work on personal things which will help keep you motivated and interested.
Freelance Cons
- Not knowing when work is coming in. It’s a little stressful worrying about not getting enough work in to support yourself. It got hectic at times
- Not knowing when money is coming in. This makes life ultra complicated when you have to spend a weekend eating Kraft Dinner and not going out just in case that client’s cheque doesn’t arrive.
- Being unable to trust clients. I learned this the hard way! Be wary of in-betweeners: the ones who outsource client work to you. Some you can trust, some you can’t.
- Instant messaging. When your clients know you’re a click away, they’ll waste so much of your time by interrupting you with Skype messages and not letting you get properly ‘in the zone’.
- Lack of holidays. As a freelancer, most of my holidays turned into working holidays. I didn’t work I didn’t get paid, and my work would pile up.
- No benefits. You better get used to paying for dental, meds and whatever else an extended healthcare plan would cover!
Full-time Pros
- Steady pay. It’s nice to be able to budget accurately with a salary you can rely on.
- Better pay. I spent too many freelance hours doing things I wasn’t getting paid for, which meant that I was working less than full-time and quite often invoiced clients for less time than I spent.
- Holidays. It’s nice to get away on long weekends and relax! I feel a lot more relaxed now.
- Steady work. In an agency you don’t have to reel in your own clients!
- No more invoicing! It’s such a relief not to have to do the administrative side of things anymore.
- Social interaction. It’s nice to have people to talk to during the day!
Full-time Cons
- Answering to a boss. This is particularly a difficult thing for me as my boss is also my boyfriend. But he forgives my occasional attitude and we make it work.
- Work you’re not interested in. You can’t be picky in an agency; you sometimes have to do things you don’t want to do.
- Set hours. I’m not a morning person, and thankfully blubolt is flexible with this one because I’m generally more productive after 10am.
- Planning meals gets a bit trickier. You have to plan your lunch (or buy it) and prep dinner if you want to eat right when you get home.
- Teamwork. As a freelancer YOU call the shots – it’s a lot more difficults to work as part of a team. But also a lot more rewarding.
For me, freelance was the right thing to do at the time and working for an agency feels right now. It all depends on your place in life, I guess. Despite all the ups and downs, I’ll always think fondly of my freelance days!
