Tuesday, July 22, 2008
freelance vs. staff
Time to start stirring up things. Which is better, freelance or staff? The eternal question. Before I started working, the thought of having to look for a job every 4 or 5 months always scared me (I wanted to work in film, and this seemed to be the average turn around). When I got off school, I started working in commercials, which meant looking for a job every couple of weeks. Looking back on it, after doing it for a year now, I'm damn glad I did it. Yes, there were scary moments and a couple of weeks without work here and there, but the experience is priceless. I had a chance to see how different houses work, their pipelines, location, different types of projects. And my learning curve has been real steep too. And not to mention the people you meet. I haven't shown my demo reel in over a year, and yet I keep getting hired at new places. I think the most important lesson I've learned this past year is that the relationships you make in this business are gold; and your work ethic.
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ahhhhh yes, the eternal question.... wow. I just went through this earlier this year. Like Rodrigo, when I first started freelancing, I was also frightened that even after I found the first job, there was no reassurance I'd find a 2nd or a 3rd. But it turned out the same, if you have a good work ethic and deliver your commitments (and are not an asshole to boot) then its not hard to find the next job and then the next. You just have to put yourself out there. And then freelancing becomes really fun - I've met so many different people, and learned so much from all the different types of projects. I even worked on a film title sequence.
I know of a few freelancers who have been doing this for 15 years, and they wouldn't go to staff unless there was a *really* good reason. That said... my thoughts on staff...
the biggest reason I had for joining staff had to do with where I am in my career... I had reached a mild plateau where I'm getting hired for lighting jobs, which I love (and always continuously learn from), but I'm not getting any further in my other goals which have to do with programming cg tools, and writing shaders. I hadn't really had any downtime between jobs for two years. This opportunity came along because BNS is starting up their 3D department, and I'd get to be lighting lead, while learning things I want to learn during slow periods. It seems to be a personal decision about what people want to do - you can do great being a freelancer and become better and better as you go along because you are practicing your craft. But - if you are hired for something particular, then that company usually assumes you will always do that particular thing, even if you are a generalist. The flip side of that is that you could sell yourself as a different specialist to a different company and work that way to develop a broader skill set - which is totally possible too.
Now staff (this is really dependent on the staff situation of the company) you do have the security of being at the same company all the team, learning the ins and outs of working with the same team each time which leads to more efficient workflow and team efforts. There are more opportunities to advance because you are building a deeper relationship with the company since they have you for a longer period of time. So to sum up... I'm really glad I did this - it is perfect for me at this time, and when I feel like I'm stagnating again, I'll just move on - maybe go back to freelancing again. Just my two cents...
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