Freelance: pros and cons

The modern labor market offers applicants a variety of job options and the conditions under which they can carry out their professional activities. Not so long ago, the word “freelance” appeared in our vocabulary, and it means the work outside the state of any company. A freelancer can participate in several projects simultaneously or work for several companies without being a full-time employee of any of them.

For some people, the opportunity to work on freelancing is just a fairy tale: there are no early rises at 7 am to catch the office by the beginning of the working day; there are no annoying supervisors who constantly monitor the progress of your work; there is no need to ride the metro at rush hour or stand in a traffic jam for hours – because you work at home. At first glance, freelancing has only advantages. But this is only at first glance. In fact, freelancing has both advantages and disadvantages, and not every person can be a freelancer. First of all, you need to take into account the specifics of the activity. Freelancers most often are people of creative professions – designers, illustrators, photographers, etc., as well as freelancing in IT technologies, journalism, philology (translation of texts and books), marketing, engineering and others.

Freelancers themselves are looking for clients (most often through the Internet) and do some work for them, for which they receive money. If you believe the statistics, then people working in freelancing, have an income of 1.5-2 times more than specialists of similar professions, but working in the office for a particular company. But is freelance as attractive as it sounds? Should I say goodbye to the office and indulge in “free swimming”? To understand this, you need to carefully weigh all the pros and cons of the freelance lifestyle and work.

The advantages of freelancing can be seen both from the point of view of employees and from the point of view of employers. First, let’s see what benefits a person who decides not to work “for an uncle” and become a freelancer:

1. Perhaps the most important advantage is the availability of a free work schedule. The freelancer receives the assignment and the deadlines for its fulfillment (and sometimes he assigns the deadlines himself), but he decides on what hours to work exactly. Someone is more comfortable to sleep before dinner and work until the middle of the night – a freelancer can afford it. However, the widespread belief that a freelancer has a lot of free time is a delusion. In fact, a freelancer works as much as an office worker, and sometimes even more.

2. Freelancers themselves are looking for customers and can themselves choose projects that they will be interested in doing. This is a definite plus, as the freelancer has the opportunity to do work not only for the sake of earnings, but also for the sake of pleasure. An office worker, however, rarely can afford to refuse the task that the authorities assigned him. A freelancer will never be forced to do what he does not want.

3. Each freelancer has a certain price for their work. And it is the freelancer who says, for what reward he agrees to do this or that job. The employer only accepts or does not accept these conditions.

4. Freelancer is a financially independent specialist. He receives exactly as much money for each completed project as he actually earned. No more, no less. He cannot be deprived of part of his salary or fined for any violation, as is often the case in enterprises (for example, systematic delays, incorrect behavior or other mistakes). The freelancer always knows why he received his salary, and he knows that this amount at the moment corresponds to his abilities and skills, as he himself called it.

5. Freelancer has access to an unlimited number of potential customers. The Internet opens up tremendous opportunities to find customers around the globe.

6. A freelancer can combine several professions at once. If you are well versed in software, but at the same time writing amazing oil paintings, why not be a programmer and an artist at the same time?

7. When you work via the Internet (that is, you communicate with clients, receive orders and give away work you have done – and all this happens online), you can afford to work from anywhere in the world. What should you take a ticket to, say, Thailand, and live there for a couple of months without disrupting your work process? This is a great opportunity to change the situation “on the job”.

8. Freelancers can not be fired. The freelancer will never hear these unpleasant words: “You are fired!”, Which often cause people a psychological blow and drive them into a state of depression.