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Advice for a freelancer returning to the workforce
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Any advice about this situation would be gratefully received and valued so thank you in advance.

I am a self taught freelancer that has been freelancing for over 15 years. It has paid my mortgage, fed and clothed my family and up until recently I have had a passion and love for what I do. However, for the last 6 months I have been feeling a bit like I need a change, the passion for working alone and externally sort of evaporated, but I was not really sure what change or how I could achieve it. Obviously I plowed on with freelancing, but had not been entirely content with the jobs and tasks I was doing any more. My own coding experience is missing working in a team, and I have watched over the years the sort of work I do become more and more common place.

Following a meeting at a long term customers premises, where I gave a presentation to the directors and IT team (quite a brutal one actually all about the business mistakes I thought they had been making) which was surprisingly very well received, a surprising turn happened. I was expecting some kick back but it seems I had hit a nerve they knew was exposed and expressed some things no one else had said, but everyone was aware of. There was a discussion, then a break, and after the break the owner and directors offered me a job. The salary was certainly good enough, the role was excellent, I like the owner and respect him, the team is a good one, and much to my own surprise and after some thought, I accepted the offer the next day.

I am now concerned that my 'freelancer' mentality and my long term self-employed mind set might actually cause some problems as a new member of the team and as an employee. So does any one have any advice for me joining this new team. I am committed to this role and quite excited by the larger scale challenges that will be involved. I am particularly looking forward to learning from and working with some of the more experienced people on this team, but at the same time am quite nervous about working in the team but not as an outsider or freelancer that I normally would be. How can I make this transition as successfully as possible without letting whatever bad habits I might have developed as a freelancer cocking everything up for myself. As a freelancer I am quite used to speaking my mind and being quite upfront and open with criticism (as well as praise of course).

Does anyone have any advice for me returning to the workforce from this background. I am not sure if I am childishly worrying or just nervously excited by the prospect.

Thank you in advance for any input,

Paul.
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Advice for a freelancer returning to the workforce - by PaulD - 10-05-2016, 03:29 PM



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