Quitting Freelance: What I Wish I’d Known Before Pursuing a Full-Time Job
5 minute read
So you’ve decided to apply for a full-time job. Congratulations! I hope you have a strong support system behind you and not a single cry of “sellout!”
After all, turning to full-time writing work after a period of freelancing isn’t selling out — it’s making the decision to take your career in a different direction. It doesn’t mean that you couldn’t cut it as an entrepreneur, or that you’re choosing to become a corporate drone. You can always go back; you just want or need something different right now.
But leaping to full-time from freelance is tricky, and there are hardly any discussions online about how to do it gracefully. I’ve laid out some lessons from my journey to a full-time writing position so you have an easier time of it than I did.
Just repeat to yourself: I’m not selling out.
1. It’s going to take longer than you think.
Looking for a full-time writing job is pretty straightforward. You apply to things, network (virtually and in real life), maintain a consistent online presence, and research more jobs. It’s simple.
But it’s long. There will be weeks when you don’t hear back from anyone. You may not find any job listings worth your time. Or you may have two interviews in a week… and then be rejected the next week. Me, I made it into the final round of interviews four times before I landed a job of my dreams. I turned down a few offers that weren’t perfect, all on faith that the perfect job for me would come.
But you have to continue on; there isn’t a choice. People find freelance work through carefully-crafted pitches, and you find a full-time job by pitching yourself in the same way. It’s all about where you put your energy.
2. You’ll be tempted to go back to freelance work.
My job search took seven months from start to finish. Two of those months could be completely written off, because I did very little in the way of searching.
In my defense, I needed to make money. But the slow going led me to bury my frustration in seeking out new freelance gigs. I knew what to do as a freelancer and business owner, but being a regular job seeker meant that I had to show up every day and feel like a failure.
The best thing I did for myself while job searching was to take a seasonal job at Halloween City. For ten hours a week, I was out of the house working at a job. I was away from my laptop, interfacing with customers, and connecting with coworkers who had probably never read anything about entrepreneurship. It was awesome. It reminded me of why I was looking for something full time.
It’s tempting to go back to freelancing when things get hard. But as cheesy as it sounds, this is when you need to return to why you’re looking for a full-time writing job. Treat it like a mantra. Is it the benefits? Being part of a team? Basic human interaction? Find your why and remind yourself of it often.
For me, it was paying freelancer taxes. Damn them to hell.
3. You will have to be picky about the type of writing job you want.
It’s not hard to find job listings. It’s not. There are local sites, Twitter, and specialty sites by industry, to say nothing of conferences and regional networking.
What’s hard is finding the right jobs. Save yourself some frustration and make a list of qualities you need in a job, so you can stop wasting time on things that aren’t for you!
Ask yourself:
Do you need to work in your city?
Are you open to working in a city close to yours, or even relocating?
Does working at a nonprofit appeal to you?
Do you need a clear schedule or can you work anytime?
Is contract work acceptable, or do you need to be a regular employee?
Are you comfortable with remote work?
Do you need time to wind down client work or can you start immediately?
There will be jobs that will break your heart. I wrestled with a company that I was absolutely perfect for, and that had a dire need for editors like me. I had talked to their recruiters for years and had internal people pulling for me.
But they weren’t willing to hire me for remote work. Not at all. It will likely be five years until their company culture is open to remote work for anyone but the elite. Eventually, I had to stop trying to change their minds. It was making me crazy.
4. Just focus on the job hunt.
Here’s a quick list of things I did purely out of stress when I was looking for a job:
Worked out all the time
Cleaned things that hadn’t been cleaned in years
Read 70 books
Became the Dungeon Master of a homebrew campaign (all the nerds just flinched)
Snapped at my partner
Avoided my friends
Subscribed to 5 more podcasts
Compulsively watched Friends
Not all of these are destructive habits, mind. But they all disguised the fact that I was under a lot of stress.
There’s nothing wrong with being stressed about looking for a job. That’s how this process usually works. It’s why so many people give up and decide to go into freelancing!
So stop pretending you’re not stressed. Everyone in your life will understand it if you can’t think about anything else. You’re already used to working overtime as a freelancer. You can divert that same energy to gaining a full-time job.
Looking back on the last seven months, my job search was the most effective when I was able to stay focused. But focus didn’t always look the way I thought it would. Most of the time it meant searching for jobs, working, and then just relaxing. I didn’t have to take on projects compulsively because I didn’t have a job yet—I could just focus on getting the thing. Once I had my eyes on the prize, everything fell into place.