Your Fluctuating Career
When your career has taken more turns than a taxi in Manhattan, you may not think anything of it to jump from one job to another. In fact, if you’re a freelancer, that’s part-and-parcel of your profession. However, there may come a time when you need to leave the freelancing behind either temporarily or permanently. And the worst thing to come to grips with is that feeling that you’re failing at something.
I took on temp work recently, which may become more permanent than the freelance job. My bank account resembles more a ransacked piggybank than a savings of any sort. My business expenses have me wondering just how I’m making those credit card payments, and I’ve not seen a check in so long I’m wondering if my clients have died. Enter the temp job. It will shore up my bank account, pay off some bills and give me restful nights instead of angst-filled ones.
If you find yourself in similar circumstances, I’m here to say it’s okay. It’s okay to take on a 9-to-5. If you plan to freelance the rest of your days, you’re going to run into this at least once. It’s not giving in, and it’s not failing. It’s doing what you need to do in order to eat. So why not do it?
That brings me to another point – are you sure your career aligns with your future? For instance, do you want to retire someday, or do you want to own a vacation home? Or are you happy to work into your dotage (by choice or not) and forego the comfortable life for the happy work life? These are things you need to be asking yourself. Is a freelance career something you can live with? Forget the golden images of working in your slippers and of lounging on the beach with a laptop – aside from the slippers part, you’re going to be sorely disappointed if you think writing from home is any great luxury. You’re still going to get carpal tunnel, stress, deadline headaches and deadline anxiety. You’ll jut get it all without the nasty commute. Yes, we call our own hours, but guess what? If we want to be competitive, we’re going to be working 9-to-5 (or typically 8-to-6) like everyone else.
It may not be pretty advice, but it’s the best I can give you. Get real with yourself – tell the truth about why you want to freelance full time. If the answer keeps coming back to “calling my own shots”, rethink it. If the answer comes back to a variety of work and the chance to build a business model that works, this may be for you. And if you cannot accept that the job comes with major glitches and the occasional, or not so occasional, corporate stint, then just stick with a regular paycheck.
Oh, and please make sure your goals are doable from whatever career path you take. It would suck to find out five years from retirement that you’re not anywhere near ready for it financially.
Then there are those of us who have the 9-to-5, have had it forever, and are looking for the opportunity to … is “break free” the best term?
Nice post, Lori.
I’ve lived with financial uncertainty my entire life, and it’s still more palatable to me than being stuck in someone else’s office. I’m fortunate though — my “day job” involved working in the arts — working in theatre, film and television. So I’ve been able to structure my life that way. I made a choice a long time ago to leave the 9-5 world. I’ve had to give up a lot of what’s considered “normal” and, for me, it’s been worth it.
Every time I’ve made a decision to take a job purely on finances, I’ve regretted it. The toll has been more than the cash was worth.
When I’ve taken a job because it itnerests me, it’s paid off both financially and emotionally, and often opened new opportunities I would never have thought of.
Andrew, freedom has a ton of contingencies. Honestly, it’s a bit of a myth that we freelancers are truly free to do what we want. We can, but if we’d like to eat or not get evicted, we’re just the same old 9-to-5 as anyone else.
But there’s always the dream to hang on to. You know the one – where we all write our best seller and spend our days reading the reviews from our yachts…. ;))