The Daily Freelancer: One of the Best Things About Freelancing Is...

I haven’t been freelancing for very long, but I have already learned what the best thing about it is:

Laser focusing on what you love to do.

Which is a rarity to be able to do in a corporate position.

Let me tell you about my job of six years, before I left it last September. I managed a program at a prestigious college, and when I first started off in the position, it was considered a marketing and communications position, even though it was in an academic service department. It was very independent, and I had a ton of autonomy. Half my time was spent managing a 100+ page website — managing the website layout, writing new content, working with departments to revise older content, writing informational blurbs, managing the blog, sending out email newsletters, and more — and the other half was customer service. I loved both aspects of it, but since I’m a writer, and since I’ve been dealing with websites since I built my first one back in the late ‘90s, I really loved the website governance portion of it. There was recorded increased engagement with the site when I managed it, my content revisions decreased confusion, and I would always get a ton of praise from my audience.

Then the whole website portion of my job was moved to a different department. And I had no say about it.

Not only did site governance move to a different person, all the content was moved to different departments, too. No longer was there someone who was a writer with website content experience overseeing it; no longer was the manager of the program managing the program’s website. I still had a hand in some aspects, but 90% of the stuff I loved was gone.

Then my job was really changed without me being able to have a say in it, and so I left.

One good thing was that I realized web content is the kind of thing I love doing. I looked at some other positions, but it’s rare to find the one position that fits your specific career desires. Often one part of the job description will be what you love, but there will be other duties included as well, that aren’t determined by you. Ultimately, businesses, especially larger ones, have directives. And if they’re running lean, you’ll have a lot on your plate to accomplish, things you might enjoy and things you might not.

As I’ve been freelancing, though, I’ve been able to work on website writing projects for clients, and no one can tell me I can’t. No one can take that away from me. There’s no one above me who can block me from doing it. My previous workplace might have understood the value I brought, but that didn’t outweigh any of the initiatives for changes from higher up the ladder.

Now, I’m hired for that value that I bring.

Being able to work in jeans is a pretty great thing about freelancing, too. But I would say being able to be laser focused is one of the positives!