Freelancer or Full-Timer: Which One Suits You?
Hello! I’m Nazri, a former freelancer who is now trying to become a full-time employee at one of the Indonesian fintech companies, CICIL, which focuses on helping students financially. I’ve been on probation at CICIL since February, and at the end of last April, I was declared to have passed the probation and officially became a full-time employee on May 7th. This is my first time becoming a full-time employee. Yeay!
Here I will share my story and experience working as a freelancer and as a full-time employee, and what are the differences, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each from what I feel, so that you can use this as a reference or consideration in making the choice, whether to work as a freelancer or a full-time employee.
So since graduating from college majoring in Product Design in 2018 until early 2022, I mostly worked as a freelancer based in Bandung. Many of the freelance projects I work on come from my friends or I take from one of the freelancing platforms in Bandung. I work as a freelancer with a focus on design. During that time, I tried various jobs that were still within the scope of design, such as being a graphic designer, product designer, fashion designer, workshop and training facilitator, as well as mentoring students and college students.
There are many differences that I feel when I become a freelancer and become a full-time employee. Some of the things that I feel the most difference and discuss here are:
- Execution of work tasks ( from flow, task, time)
- Daily life and work flexibility
- Income and benefits
- Network
1. Execution of work tasks ( from flow, task, time)
In terms of doing work, as a freelancer, when a project is accepted, usually all the tasks that will be given are fixed by the client, already have the requirements, there are only minor adjustments from me in the design process. Meanwhile, when I became a product designer for a company, I was given the space to dig deeper into the task, whether the initial requirements were in line with the target to be achieved or were there other ways.
2. Daily Life and Work Flexibility
As a freelancer, when you receive a lot of projects, you will definitely feel busy and don’t have free time. But when there are so few projects, I panic. But from there, it can be seen that a freelancer’s daily life fluctuates, sometimes it can be very relaxed, sometimes it is very busy. So as a freelancer, we strive to be more proactive in looking for project opportunities. Or if you really want to enjoy the free time by relaxing, enjoy it :)
And from there, working as a freelancer feels more flexible. Not only from the number of projects that I can work on, but also from the time of execution, which can be negotiated with the client, what projects are taken, determining the fee, determining when to relax and when to be busy. Everything is determined by me.
It is different from being a full-time employee, having a work schedule from Monday to Friday, focusing on developing the company’s products, if you want to take a day off, you must first ask for permission because it is related to the performance of many colleagues in the company (but during the first 3 months I still can’t take time off because I’m still in probation hehehe). Because we are expected to be a team player in developing the company.
3. Income and Benefits
From my experience, the income is also different. As freelancers, the income that we will get is not guaranteed to always be stable, due to whether or not there are projects that we are working on. Especially during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, many projects were postponed or there were fewer projects. Meanwhile, as a full-time employee, it is guaranteed that every month there is income coming in so that the finances are much more stable.
In addition, by becoming a full-time employee, I get other benefits provided by the company such as good work equipment and health insurance. While being a freelancer, because you are not tied to anything, the only benefit you get is the fee given from working on the project to completion.
4. Network
From my experience as a freelancer and trying many fields as I have mentioned before, such as being a mentor, facilitator, graphic designer, fashion designer, and product designer, I have made many new networks or friends. Starting from workshop or training participants from various backgrounds, fellow designers, friends from other fields such as developers, HR, business, and others. And this needs to be maintained so that communication can continue even though the project has been completed.
When you become a full-time employee, you will meet around the same people while working. This is beneficial because we get to know our co-workers more deeply so that we can build closer relationships, and can work well together.
That’s all I can say about the difference between being a freelancer and a full-timer. Hopefully this article can help you in choosing to become a freelancer or full timer, or maybe both, full timer by day, freelancer by night? It can be. So which one do you choose?
Thank you for reading. :)
