Cashing in?
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- desmo
so ive been working freelance the past year and a half and money has been good (not great, but good) and recently i have been offered a full time job where i can make at least 20,000 more that what i am making now. The problem is, is that i would be working for a large air conditioning company (doing total rebrand, site, newsletter, etc) and the commute to work would be long and tiring.
So, would you guys stay freelance and bounce from job to job, or sell out to a big company and cash in on the big bucks?
- eating_tv0
Bounce, bounce, baby!
- hallelujah0
if business has been just as good lately, I would stay with freelance, because it will probably grow
- tasty0
Inhouse rebrand will turn into website maintenance and eventually being let go.
Can you contract with them as a freelancer for 6 months?
- desmo0
how would having a long term, large air condition company on a cv look? its not as impressive as having an agency with fancy name brands on it, is it? you think it will put off potential clients/employers down the road?
- cannonball19780
sold out
- utopian0
I just took a full-time job at McDonald's, 190k/year and some company benefits.
- Douglas0
add another zero and take the AC job.
- Iggyboo0
I agree use this as terms for a contract unless you want to stay there for longer than 12 weeks. truthfully if you enjoy freelance you'll miss it.
- duckofrubber0
Yes, negotiate a long-term contract with them. You will be happier. They will save money. Win-win. Just make sure that it's worth your while!
- fyoucher10
Why not just try to get their job as a freelance project. They might be hiring you fulltime instead of freelance b/c it's cheaper to hire someone FT. When their project is done, you'll most likely be laid off and back to freelance without air conditioning.
- vaxorcist0
check the corporate culture... you may feel like a domesticated animal in a room full of cube drones and endless meetings with people from another universe... agency life is A LOT different than corporate life sometimes.....
After a few months, you'll either do maintenance, or some totally different in-house intranet projects with lots of meetings,etc....
- raf0
The benefits of in-house work are usually good money and lots of qbn-ing, if you're into this sort of things.
You don't learn too much though and it's rarely worth staying too long with the company.
If you ever plan to join a design studio/agency, they don't care much about in-house work.
Is it worth losing your current clients? I doubt so. It definitely is worth trying to work out an in-house fixed contract with the company, ie. 3-4 days a week. This way you still have the time to keep your current clients and possibly can charge the company what you'd get working with them full-time.
- MrDinky0
do both.
hire / partner with a friend to manage. work day at fulltime and part time at freelance
- boobs0
Air conditioning sounds like a real drag. $20K for the huge commute won't even pay you for the extra time (10 hours/week!) and the increased auto costs. Plus being your own boss is priceless. So tell the air conditioning twats to drop dead.
- Sugary0
I dunno, you can buy a really nice air conditioner for $20K...
and then if you get laid off you can do your freelance in AC FTW!
- Peter0
What Dinky said.
Set something up with friends. There's no reason to drop your clients just because you get extra busy. You got friends, right?
And as a feelgood note: USD20K (and that only) is what some designers in Tokyo make a year.
I call those people entry-level. Still, it's fun to put things in perspective.