Freelancing? Work for an agency? Work in-house?

I have been through all this and let me tell you how to choose between them.

We need money to pay the bills and feed ourselves, so we need a job. Simple.

BUT what kind of job suits you is another story. As a marketer or creative workers or content creators, we get more choices to think about

1/ Freelancing

So this is the key to financial freedom and freedom to work freely, as many say.

BUT first, you need to have a client base, you need to have a portfolio. You need time to build your audience. So many people start this as a side hustle, which is actually a good way to start fuss-free.

5 tips to balance everything with ease as a freelancer

As long as you can balance everything is fine. If you don’t know how yet, read the writings to learn more.

You also need to stay disciplined as I always say. I you nail it, you can eventually be your own boss and grow so fuckin fast

Fastest way to grow as a writer

2/ Work for an agency

So this is the way you use to get yourself experience in every industry. I once worked in an agency for a while only, and it help me build a portfolio on the F&B industry, beauty and cosmetics, Recreational, and even interior designers.

Still, everything has a downside.

I was warned, I didn’t listen. And this is how I end up.

Working in an agency can be crazily stressful, especially if you take a night class like me. You might push yourself towards burnout. They require hitting high KPIs, with high efficiency, and meeting high standards.

3/ Work in-house

What you can learn depends on the company scale. I write about it briefly in one of my past writings

3 Difference between working for big and small company

And I am going to focus on differences for marketers

Small Companies

So if you are working in a small company, you alone might be the whole team already. Then you have to be the Jack-of-all-trade. You can learn everything about marketing, online and offline. How to make creatives to how to do O2O promotions.

You have no one to rely on, so you can say no one will steal your credit, and you also have no one to blame when things don’t work. The data will clearly show how is your efficiency.

Big corporation

For a big company, you can focus on one thing, and be the craftsman of it. They have a clear structure and SOP, so you can get your hands on quickly. Especially if you are not good at building systems and logs.

You still have to face KPIs, and data audit on you. But not as harsh as in agencies. You don’t need to have lots of night overtime working. Some might find interpersonal dramas in office annoying. If you are this type of person, soak it in and bear with it for a while, save up your money. And be a freelancer.

You still have interpersonal skills used, but much less drama.

Survival guide below:

Can there be friendship at work

Summary

If you are new to the industry, I hope this sharing can help you decided which path you want to go down. And if you find it not suitable for you, just change it. This industry is full of flexibility.