 |
| Rene Mansi/ iStockphoto |
Freelance or Full-time: Choosing the Right Path
by Hayli Morrison
There is a new wind blowing in the media industry. Hundreds upon thousands of media professionals are swapping the cubicle for a home office and opting to give their car a rest as they kiss the daily commute goodbye. The vast majority of them also bid adieu to steady, full-time employment with one company, opting instead to juggle several clients at once. It is a prospect both exhilarating and frightening, especially when faced with independently acquiring one’s own health insurance, retirement plan, office equipment and guaranteed weekly paycheck.
Freelancer Karin Price Mueller took note of how health insurance companies are responding to the growing number of independent workers when she left her full-time executive producer position. More and more companies are offering affordable and practical coverage options. However, she was also quick to point out that the task of saving for retirement requires great discipline and dedication, unlike the automatic plans offered by many full-time employers.
“I do miss having a 401(k) plan,” said Mueller, who contracts with clients like MSN Money and Newark, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger. “I still save for retirement on my own, but automatic withdrawal from a paycheck is always the best.”
Another challenge faces many freelancing professionals when they leave the work world – socialization, or the lack thereof. Some find great relief in an environment without co-workers, while others miss the human contact. Many freelancers carve out time for friends to make sure their social life doesn’t end up as solo as their professional life.
“I like talking to my 18-month-old, but he doesn’t really keep up with the news,” joked Gary Drevitch, a telecommuting father of three who has contracted with such clients as Disney, McGraw-Hill and Harper-Collins. “As a freelancer, it’s nice to have a variety of different clients, if not just to have a variety of people to talk to.”
Drevitch added that clients sometimes hire him to work temporarily on-site, which is a welcome change of pace from his home office. However, the work location matters less than the work load, he pointed out.
“Like any freelancer, I enjoy it more when I’m busy,” Drevitch said. “When I’m not so busy, I don’t enjoy it as much, but one of the advantages is getting to try some different things.”
For Alik Levin, a former freelance web development consultant, staying busy was never as much of a problem as keeping the passion. Levin had plenty of steady work while freelancing in 2000, but he often felt like his work was relatively insignificant and did not tackle “real world problems.” He left freelancing to work information technology in the corporate world and rediscover passion for his work. He made less money, but enjoyed working on large teams with a wide array of technology solving tough problems.
“Simple example – a freelancer does X, Y, Z to earn $1,000 a week,” Levin said, posing a hypothetical scenario. “The freelancer loves doing Y, which is only 40% of the overall work. That means freelancer gets paid 400$ for pure love.
“As a corporate worker I was doing $300 a week for 100% love,” he said. “The bottom line is, as a corporate worker, I earned less money but never spent a dollar to recover from the energy and passion lost doing what I hate.”
Ultimately, many telecommuting professionals consider freelancing a way to strike the work-life balance that’s right for them. As Mueller points out, her chosen career path leaves plenty of highly flexible time for socialization with friends or family activities with her husband and three children.
“I loved my full-time TV job,” Mueller said of her years as a CNBC executive producer. “That is, until I started freelancing. I love the freedom of my current career. I can write anytime I want and set my own hours. I can meet friends for lunch or volunteer at my child’s school anytime, as long as I plan for it in advance. My children will only be young once, but I can work for the rest of my life.”
Although the freelance path didn’t work out for Levin, he is quick to encourage others to give it a try. “If you can do it as a freelancer, escape your cubicle today!” he said. “Get a life, not a job.”
