My Response to Full-Time Employment Opportunity
Tags: My Work | Written on 10/8/08
I received a request for employment from a company who had gotten funding and was trying to assemble an, "all star team" (I made the above logo for fun). Most of the time I do not respond, but in this case the person hiring took so much time crafting the email that I decide that I needed to email back. My response was largely canned, but at least I took the time to respond:
I am currently not seeking full-time employment, however I do consult for agencies that know my work or have worked with me in the past. I find that working relationships are most beneficial if the agency has had experience with my work, because they are able to accurately judge my abilities. Typically, I am sought after for prototyping and user interface development. My rate is ___ per hour.
He then responded with a line of questions regarding why I was only open to consulting. Here was my response, which I think sums up a lot of where I am at in my professional life:
Employer: Thanks for the reply. May I ask why you are not open to full-time employment? Do you prefer consulting work?
Marc: Consulting allows me the ability to work from home and keep working for agencies to a minimum. I try to stick to 24 hours of consulting per week, allowing the rest of my time to be dedicated to personal projects. My projects are worth their weight in gold, more valuable to me than the fleeting cash that I get from consulting. That said, I still need to pay bills and I do love to do client work when it suits my talents and abilities.
Employer: One thing to mention is that we could talk about giving you the option to do consulting work on the side, while being a full-time employee of ours.
Marc: I tried full-time employment with working on side projects and got burnt out, so this is not an added benefit. Full-time employment is too demanding on time. You only have so many fresh-thinking development hours in a week. My opinion is that if you do 60+ hours in a week, than a lot of that time you weren't spending on pressing your abilities to the maximum - not only do you end up having no life, but you most likely wasted a lot of time with clouded thinking.
The goal here is efficiency and making time as effective as possible.
Employer: We need an all-star team to turn our company into a multi-million dollar enterprise and we think you could be a great asset to our team.
Marc: Thanks again for considering me for your all-star team. As far as making a company into a multi-million dollar enterprise... I have worked with fortune 50 companies (UnitedHealth Group, HSBC, 3M and Ford) and have seen them make millions off of my work, which is a reason that ultimately led me to go off on my own as soon as I could. I am happy to make people money, but the fact is that if you are full-time, then your rate is pretty much set and you don't have the time to dedicate to creating your own ideas.
Employer: Will you consider it with the right pay? Let me know.
Marc: I do not consider full-time to be an option right now because it limits me from doing the projects that I feel the need to create.
Overall the goal is to create ideas, and full-time employment doesn't allow me to do that at this point in my life.
Comments
" I try to stick to 24 hours of consulting per week"
I've thinking the same thing but not sure I could survive off of only 24hrs per week, my goal is about 30 - 35. Even that scares me a bit since I've been working a full time job and freelancing for the past couple of years.
Anyway, great post, thanks for sharing.
It is a bit scary to take the leap, and I don't recommend this for everyone. However, in the end I have faith that I made the right decisions and choose to consider progress and productivity rather than the sense of security in a full-time job. Money is temporary, but decisions last a lifetime.
Marc, I've curiosity from you: how older are you? How time you've worked in Web?
#1) Often freelance work is looked as less "stable" as a "nine-to-five" with salary and benefits. I tend do disagree. Freelance, a.k.a Independent Contractors, have everything a employee does, if not more.
For example, people often claim that they stay employed because of the benefits. This is really an excuse for most since benefits are available for IC's as well. Call up your state's Chamber of Commerce and I bet you can get health care through them. Example in PA you can get a Chamber membership for $2.50/mo and full Medical/Dental/Vision Benefits for about $175/mo with no deductible and a 10% co-pay. This is just one of the options (I just helped some friends get their benefits so I know this off hand).
Also, IC's can determine their own income, hours, and workload. So, as long as you belong to one of the many freelance job sites out there, you will have work. And even when the economy is slow, your still going to have work because your spread out among many businesses or clients and not a single commerce entity.
#2) IC's have more opportunities to create/play with hobbies or things they are interested in becoming good at. In turn this allows for greater specialization which contributes to building an IC's "Brand" as their own identity and not XYZ Company. I know I have created many things I wish I could claim to be my creation and not the company who paid my salary while I did all the leg work.
Anyways, they are just a few pointers/comments. Take them or leave them, just thought I would share.