It makes me chuckle to eavesdrop on people who have pre-conceived ideas of what it’s like to freelance.
“Oh I don’t want a 9-5 job” they say. Yes that’s true, if you freelance you will be working ALL THE TIME if you’re not careful. Most of your time will be spent looking for those “next steps” and your evenings and weekends will be taken over by client work that needs to be done.
Yes you’ll be better paid, but less often and usually not on time.
Regardless of these factors, as I write this post at the end of a shattering day, knowing that the rest of the week will probably kill me as well, I still like being a freelancer. But it’s definitely not for everyone.
Have to agree with you there Alex. Although evenings and weekends can be free if you master the art of saying no (still working on that myself) and are disciplined about planning your schedule.
Yeh, well saying no becomes hard when you don’t know if you’ll get work in a few months. Kinda like fishing i guess, I tend to take every opportunity that comes by.
I’m a freelance in dream (still) ;)
But maybe not so far…
Initially for a post-doc, officialy a 1 year developpment contract … and after ?
Maybe one other 1-year contract somewhere else in the world … and so on ?
P.S.: What’s a “9-5” job ? From 9AM to 5PM ?
Yes, that’s what it means. Its the shorter version of it. :)