For people who has freelanced a majority of their career, has it been worth it than taking on FT jobs?

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Freelancing has its benefits, but also some drawbacks. You have more freedom to chose your projects than when you work for a company, but you also have to spend more effort lining up those projects. You can have periods of relative inactivity and then have 60 hours of work a week. You have no benefits. You have to handle your own taxes, etc. Freelancing can be a full-time job with none of the perks of a full-time job.

So would you say it was worth it?

Yes worth it! Less politics. Less a popularity contest. Twice the salary.

I get my own directly from the source.

It really depends on you and what your needs are.

I have freelanced about half of my career, more or less. If you are someone who likes routines, likes knowing there’s a steady check coming in every pay period, likes predictability, and is good at office politics; then freelance may not be very appealing.

Not everyone will be a good/successful freelancer. It required a specific skill set and temperament and many people don’t have the stomach for it.
There have been incredible periods as a freelancer where I was making awesome work, and making more money than I knew what to do with, but working crazy 80 hr weeks. And then a few months of just nothing. It’s a little nerve racking. I’m not good at playing politics in the office, so that part l hate about FT work.
But as with everything, sometimes you get tired and you switch. Freelance can be tough and sometimes FT feels like a rest and also the other way around. As a freelancer many times you don’t get to produce your ideas, you don’t get credited for them, you work a
lot on stuff like pitches that you can’t put in your book. There are dry spells and relationships that need to be forged and kept and wheels that need to be greased. It’s especially difficult at the beginning.
I’ve heard it said that full time gives you a false sense of security because layoffs are so common and nobody is immune; and freelance gives you a false sense of insecurity because while it feels chaotic, you’re in a lot more control of things than you are as an employee. When I look back there were periods of my freelance career where I remember being terrified of not getting enough work, and in retrospect, I was doing quite well. It just didn’t feel that way at the time.

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It can be feast or famine, with periods of hustling for gigs and uncertainty about where your next paycheck is coming from. And there's the whole no benefits thing, which can be a real bummer.

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