It’s been over a month now that I’ve started my first full time position as a front end programmer/designer. Now that I’ve had a taste of working within a company I’ll share my experiences thus far.

Working with a team

In the past my experience working with other designers/developers has been limited. I now work directly with programmers as well as a few graphic designers from time to time. Having like minded people to bounce ideas off of has helped me think differently about how and why I do things as I’m designing.

As a freelancer my only source of feedback was from the client and anyone in my Twitter feed who took notice of my project. Feedback is crucial in this line of work because it’s very easy to get lost in what your doing and lose sight of the big picture.

Designing with less restraints

During my first big project with the company one of my interviewers had commented that my work was looking better than what I had in my portfolio. The reason for this is that a majority of my clients were interested in web design packages that were competitively priced.  With keeping things competitive I could only produce a limited number concepts. I’m now in an environment where I am free to conceptualize my ideas.

In conclusion

Making the switch from freelancer to full time employee has been a great move for me personally. It’s shown me that on my previous career path that I could not have gotten as far on my own as I have now. I feel more challenged now than I have in the past six months and I feel this is where I need to be. If I were to have chosen full time freelancer over taking a position I think I would have had to work even harder to keep from becoming stagnant. I see how important it is for freelancers to network and take on bigger fish than they’re used to.

I’d love to hear your comments or questions, thanks.

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