been freelancing for about three years doing mostly aerial photography, some mapping work, occasional inspection stuff when it comes my way. its fine but the inconsistency kind of wears on you after a while, some months are great and some months i'm wondering why i didnt just stay at my old job

theres a company in my area that does infrastructure inspection - power lines, cell towers, that kind of thing - and they reached out about a staff position. salary would actually be less than what i make in a good month freelancing but obviously theres benefits and predictability and all that. i guess im just curious if anyone has made this switch and whether they regretted it or not. the grass is always greener thing is real and i dont want to make a decision based on one bad slow month

i made that exact switch about 18 months ago and honestly dont regret it. i was freelancing for four years and was pretty good at it but the mental load of always hunting for the next client just got exhausting. now i show up, fly what they tell me to fly, go home. the pay ceiling is lower for sure but my stress level is way down and i actually enjoy flying again instead of it feeling like a grind

that said infrastructure inspection is pretty specific work, its not the most creatively satisfying thing if thats what you got into drones for. lots of methodical grid patterns and data capture, not a ton of room to do your own thing. depends what you actually want out of it i guess. if stability sounds good right now it probably is

what kind of equipment does the company require you to have or do they provide everything? thats one thing i've always wondered about staff positions vs freelance, like do you still have to own and maintain your own gear or does that become their problem