this is kind of a weird situation and i dont know who else to ask. so ive been freelancing for about 18 months, its been going okay, not amazing but steady enough. and then out of nowhere a local media production company reached out and offered me a salaried position as their in-house drone op. benefits and everything.

on paper its obviously more stable but im worried about the creativity side of things and also whether the pay actually makes sense vs what i could earn if i really pushed the freelance side harder. the salary they quoted is decent but not like life changing.

has anyone made this jump either direction ? freelance to staff or staff to freelance? i feel like ive built up a decent client base and walking away from that to be exclusive to one company feels strange but also maybe im just scared of stability lol. curious what people who have been in the industry longer think about this kind of decision.

i went staff after freelancing for two years and honestly i dont regret it even though i thought i would. the thing people dont tell you about freelancing is how much mental energy goes into the business side, chasing invoices, finding the next client, the dry spells that mess with your head. having a steady paycheck genuinely freed me up to actually enjoy flying again. that said my situation was different because the company i joined did really varied work so i wasnt doing the same thing every week.

if its a company where youre basically going to be doing the same corporate B-roll over and over then yeah maybe think twice. but if the work looks interesting and the people seem decent id at least negotiate hard on the salary before deciding. you can always go back to freelance, your skills arent going anywhere.

one thing worth asking them about is whether you'd be allowed to take outside jobs on your own time. some companies are fine with it as long as theres no conflict of interest and that could let you keep some of your client relationships warm just in case. probably worth clarifying before you sign anything.