To all freelancers, are you happier being freelance or was it better full time at an agency? I like the idea of going freelance, but not the thought of hustling for gigs and losing benefits. What are your pros / cons?

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As someone who’s barely scraped by as a freelancer for the last 3 years, I suggest staying in your FT gig. In my experience there isn’t a freelance market to jump into right now.

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Listen to CD1. Given the last 2 years, one does not simply walk into Mordor.

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See where the industry is in March / April 2025 then decide.

(Nothing will be changing despite yesterday’s .5% Fed drop or even after the election in November. It’ll hopefully start improving 8-12 weeks after the new administration comes in.

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Agree ☝️

likehelpful

I’ve been freelance forever and LOVED it …until these last 2 years. Keep your steady paycheck and health insurance.

likehelpful

I feel like the only freelancers who are thriving are those incredibly well connected and with accolades. That’s who we hire (and quite frequently).

I'm 35 and I'm so burnt out as a designer. Nowhere to move up...everyone can do it now so it seems...just a shitty industry right now...

Freelance is always the more difficult path and I’ve personally found it to be more difficult to land than it was 10 years ago. The only people who should be freelancing right now are independently wealthy people and about 10 hot shots because that’s all the work there is to be had right now. The rest of us deserve to sacrifice our homes and retirements so the agencies’ parent company’s investors saw a flat line on their investor statement. I mean, unless we start to unionize and protect ourselves from their prerogative to always value fiscal investment over labor investment and trade humans as tradable commodities.

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likehelpfulfunny

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