After a few years of part time freelancing while studying, the dreaded step into being a full time grown up is at hand. But what to do? Despite the freedom of working from home, I find myself longing for a respectable day job where I get to leave the house and meet people I don’t share the toothpaste with. A lot of people ask me why. Here’s my answer:
1. I want to learn more.
Obviously, I try to learn something new every day. Being self taught in web design, I’m no stranger to finding out new ways of doing things all on my lonesome. But I feel that in an agency environment, I could learn so much more - from the people. Working alongside experienced, inspired individuals is more rewarding and infinitely more enjoyable than trawling through online tutorials day after day. Also, having worked on my own since I started out, my social muscles could use the excercise. Team work is such an important part of being a good designer, and a good designer is what I want to be.
2. I want to do more work
I don’t spend my days twiddling my thumbs now, either, but being a new kid on the block, projects don’t fall into my lap at such a rate that I could feel I’m stretching myself to the fullest. There are days when I get to concentrate fully on my own projects, but unfortunately I can’t afford to pay myself. Ha ha. Being a one man band, I also spend more time on administrative tasks than should be legal. I’m fully aware that no job is 100% designer geekery, but working for an agency, I’d hope the scope of projects to work on would make it more than worth the change.
3. I want the security
Let’s face it, freelancing can be feast of famine. I have no problem with the feast, but the famine is a no-no. To be honest, I could do with shedding a few pounds, but the little nipper might have issues with living on porridge. As would the missus… So a regular salary is Our Official Idea Of Heaven. I wouldn’t say no to private healthcare either, but that might be getting greedy.
On the whole, I think that a full time job would just suit me better. After all, it’s ultimately about what’s right for you. I long for a team to realise visions with and bounce ideas off. I still wouldn’t turn away freelance work. But a nice desk with my name on it is somewhere in London. Now we just need to find each other!
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