u/Tiny_Major_7514

Hi everyone - I've been a freelancer for nearly 20 years, and while I've had 2 previous contract gigs, it's been a few weeks as I worked on some big scoped projects for some big brands.

Towards the end of last year I decided to try to get back into contracting, but have found it hard - expired clearances hasn't helped.

I found the process quite deflating, and combined with AI fear and general dread of turning 40, becoming a dad and having a full brain I found myself also looking at permanent roles and applied for a permanent government job - 1 day a week on site.

I got offered the job - but as soon as i got offered job also got offered a new part time contract with one of the big recruiters for a well known brand.

So I'm really torn what to do and would love to hear some insight from other folks who may have at times gone down either path. I've never worked a full time job before - so going permie would be a huge deal and mean i could stop chasing gigs and also get off linkedin - but it's a decent paycut and although flexible, not as flexible as freelance/contracting.

The contract isn't for ages, but could be extended and I feel it may lead to other things and get me back in there - although I'm still not sure how likely that is. Trying to do the responsible dad thing but not sure what this is!

Thanks

Maybe this is a good place to ask, let's see. I've been working as a designer for 20 years, mostly freelance mixed with the odd government contract. After covid I went hard on my own studio as at that time contracting became uncertain at least amongst my contacts, and I ended up winning several big scoped projects.

Fast forward to now and I have a little one, and with the ol' AI dread and the increased competition around - I thought I'd get back into contracting.

Unfortunately I've found it tough, and it seems as my security clearances are lapsed no one wants to know.

So to as much try a door as anything I applied for a senior design governement role and have been offered it.

Pay works out the same really - less take home now but the pension is better so it's pretty like for like.

I was hoping to get some insight from folks who've worked gov permie jobs and I figured there'd be a fair few folks knocking about here with that background.

1. Would you consider it relatively safe longer term? I've had solid freelance income for 20 years, but I can't lie, the narrative around the industry has rocked me quite a bit, and it seems a good option (and definitely better then private sector).
2. I've just turned 40, and i feel if I do give up freelancing and join the workforce proper it should be now or else I'll be on the wrong side of the hill - agree?
3. Do you find you can switch off more after work in a permie job? I love freelancing but there's always stuff going in in my head. Saying that I do get to avoid the office politics.

Any other insights truly appreciated!

EDIT: Other details: IxD role & hybrid working, just a day a week on site. My current day to day work is scoped projects and some fractional work with brands - some of it quite fun creative stuff, so quite a change of pace.

Hi all - really interested to hear some insights here- i know it's so personal and subjective but I feel so stuck and so worried about impacting my little one either by staying or moving. I'll keep it brief, but obviously there's so much nyance and more info to tell, so please feel free to ask any questions (and please be kind!)

- I moved here 20 years ago from regional Australia. Always intended to move back but we underwent IVF which went on for years and meant we accidentally built a live in the UK.

- Life is good here; we both are freelance creatives, earn decent money, own most our home by the sea and have a 3 year old who we can give lots of time to. Being in Europe we can also travel relatively easily.

- But my wife's family are almost estranged from her, and so we have no support, but beyond that it makes me sad my little one doesn't have a family unit. While my parents get on well with her, they are 70 & 74. This works both ways for me; they may not have long left, which is a gamble to uproot your life for, but also more of a reason to make memories with them now.

- They do see us regularly; we did xmas there and they are coming to see us on a campervan trip we're doing around europe in the summer, and will come back to stay with us. This is another perk of being here, but they wont be able to come for ever.

- Back in aus though they live regionally (Riverina) and my sister and her kids live in canberra. We don't want to be in either of those places for a couple of reasons, but that leaves us with the illawarra area (We love being near the sea, and this is on the same kind of line as those two areas, plus we just did a recce there and liked it). So yeah while our little one would hae a family unit, we would still be a good while from family ,and won't have any friends in that area.

- But Australia is expensive, and particularly property in that area. We missed the aus property booms by way of being here, and while we have some savings behind us, we don't have very transferrable jobs - my wife could work in a school as a teaching assistant but id probably have to survive initially on some of my freelance clients who still would be happy working remotely before i either found a full time role (from what i can tell this isnt easy at the moment) or slowly built up new clients (again not easy). Really would love to talk to anyone in creative/tech fields on this one.

- My parents have an annex we could stay in a while while we found our feet. My wife would need a visa though which isnt cheap (nor is moving in general) and takes 18 months so its hard to view the whole thing as a quick 'try it an see' kind of thing. She is open to move but isn't pushing for it - she just wants a decision to be made.

I'm aware i could have nostalgic views of australia, and its hard to tell on reddit what people actually think of aus now as theres a lot of doom and gloom - so really would love to get some insight from other aussies.

Thanks!

Reposting as a few people seemed to misunderstand my intentions. In short both my wife and I are feeling very stuck about potentially moving back to Australia from the UK and I'd love some kind (please) outside insight.

In short:

- I moved here 20 years ago from regional Australia. Always intended to move back but we underwent IVF which went on for years and meant we accidentally built a live in the UK.

- Life is good here; we both are freelance creatives, earn decent money, own most our home by the sea and have a 3 year old who we can give lots of time to. Being in Europe we can also travel relatively easily.

- But my wife's family are almost estranged from her, and so we have no support, but beyond that it makes me sad my little one doesn't have a family unit. While my parents get on well with her, they are 70 & 74. This works both ways for me; they may not have long left, which is a gamble to uproot your life for, but also more of a reason to make memories with them now.

- They do see us regularly; we did xmas there and they are coming to see us on a campervan trip we're doing around europe in the summer, and will come back to stay with us. This is another perk of being here, but they wont be able to come for ever.

- Back in aus though they live regionally (Riverina) and my sister and her kids live in canberra. We don't want to be in either of those places for a couple of reasons, but that leaves us with the illawarra area (We love being near the sea, and this is on the same kind of line as those two areas, plus we just did a recce there and liked it). So yeah while our little one would hae a family unit, we would still be a good while from family ,and won't have any friends in that area.

- But Australia is expensive, and particularly property in that area. We missed the aus property booms by way of being here, and while we have some savings behind us, we don't have very transferrable jobs - my wife could work in a school as a teaching assistant but id probably have to survive initially on some of my freelance clients who still would be happy working remotely before i either found a full time role (from what i can tell this isnt easy at the moment) or slowly built up new clients (again not easy). Really would love to talk to anyone in creative/tech fields on this one.

- My parents have an annex we could stay in a while while we found our feet. My wife would need a visa though which isnt cheap (nor is moving in general) and takes 18 months so its hard to view the whole thing as a quick 'try it an see' kind of thing. She is open to move but isn't pushing for it - she just wants a decision to be made.

I'm aware i could have nostalgic views of australia, and its hard to tell on reddit what people actually think of aus now as theres a lot of doom and gloom - so really would love to get some insight from other aussies.

Thanks!

Reposting as a few people seemed to misunderstand my intentions. In short both my wife and I are feeling very stuck about potentially moving back to Australia from the UK and I'd love some kind (please) outside insight.

In short:

- I moved here 20 years ago from regional Australia. Always intended to move back but we underwent IVF which went on for years and meant we accidentally built a live in the UK.

- Life is good here; we both are freelance creatives, earn decent money, own most our home by the sea and have a 3 year old who we can give lots of time to. Being in Europe we can also travel relatively easily.

- But my wife's family are almost estranged from her, and so we have no support, but beyond that it makes me sad my little one doesn't have a family unit. While my parents get on well with her, they are 70 & 74. This works both ways for me; they may not have long left, which is a gamble to uproot your life for, but also more of a reason to make memories with them now.

- They do see us regularly; we did xmas there and they are coming to see us on a campervan trip we're doing around europe in the summer, and will come back to stay with us. This is another perk of being here, but they wont be able to come for ever.

- Back in aus though they live regionally (Riverina) and my sister and her kids live in canberra. We don't want to be in either of those places for a couple of reasons, but that leaves us with the illawarra area (We love being near the sea, and this is on the same kind of line as those two areas, plus we just did a recce there and liked it). So yeah while our little one would hae a family unit, we would still be a good while from family ,and won't have any friends in that area.

- But Australia is expensive, and particularly property in that area. We missed the aus property booms by way of being here, and while we have some savings behind us, we don't have very transferrable jobs - my wife could work in a school as a teaching assistant but id probably have to survive initially on some of my freelance clients who still would be happy working remotely before i either found a full time role (from what i can tell this isnt easy at the moment) or slowly built up new clients (again not easy). Really would love to talk to anyone in creative/tech fields on this one.

- My parents have an annex we could stay in a while while we found our feet. My wife would need a visa though which isnt cheap (nor is moving in general) and takes 18 months so its hard to view the whole thing as a quick 'try it an see' kind of thing. She is open to move but isn't pushing for it - she just wants a decision to be made.

I'm aware i could have nostalgic views of australia, and its hard to tell on reddit what people actually think of aus now as theres a lot of doom and gloom - so really would love to get some insight from other aussies.

Thanks!

Reposting as a few people seemed to misunderstand my intentions. In short both my wife and I are feeling very stuck about potentially moving back to Australia from the UK and I'd love some kind (please) outside insight.

In short:

- I moved here 20 years ago from regional Australia. Always intended to move back but we underwent IVF which went on for years and meant we accidentally built a live in the UK.

- Life is good here; we both are freelance creatives, earn decent money, own most our home by the sea and have a 3 year old who we can give lots of time to. Being in Europe we can also travel relatively easily.

- But my wife's family are almost estranged from her, and so we have no support, but beyond that it makes me sad my little one doesn't have a family unit. While my parents get on well with her, they are 70 & 74. This works both ways for me; they may not have long left, which is a gamble to uproot your life for, but also more of a reason to make memories with them now.

- They do see us regularly; we did xmas there and they are coming to see us on a campervan trip we're doing around europe in the summer, and will come back to stay with us. This is another perk of being here, but they wont be able to come for ever.

- Back in aus though they live regionally (Riverina) and my sister and her kids live in canberra. We don't want to be in either of those places for a couple of reasons, but that leaves us with the illawarra area (We love being near the sea, and this is on the same kind of line as those two areas, plus we just did a recce there and liked it). So yeah while our little one would hae a family unit, we would still be a good while from family ,and won't have any friends in that area.

- But Australia is expensive, and particularly property in that area. We missed the aus property booms by way of being here, and while we have some savings behind us, we don't have very transferrable jobs - my wife could work in a school as a teaching assistant but id probably have to survive initially on some of my freelance clients who still would be happy working remotely before i either found a full time role (from what i can tell this isnt easy at the moment) or slowly built up new clients (again not easy). Really would love to talk to anyone in creative/tech fields on this one.

- My parents have an annex we could stay in a while while we found our feet. My wife would need a visa though which isnt cheap (nor is moving in general) and takes 18 months so its hard to view the whole thing as a quick 'try it an see' kind of thing. She is open to move but isn't pushing for it - she just wants a decision to be made.

I'm aware i could have nostalgic views of australia, and its hard to tell on reddit what people actually think of aus now as theres a lot of doom and gloom - so really would love to get some insight from other aussies.

Thanks!

Hi everyone - really need some input from strangers on this one as feel totally paralysed by indecision. This could easily be a long one but I'll just keep this as brief as possible. Please feel free to ask q's. In short:

- Moved from Australia to the UK after uni, ended up meeting girl and marrying and settling down early.

- Always planned to head back at some point, but due to infertility issues we went through years and years of traumatic IVF and had to stay in the one system. Thankfully we have a 3 year old now.

- Now almost 20 years since moving I am still drawn to being back in Aus, but maybe some of it is nostalgic. I am aware Australia is a different place now, but it's hard to tell from short visits just how different day to day is.

- Here financially we do ok. We both work as freelance creatives, so various AI and other industry concerns at the moment, but are on good pay, work from home, and can give our little girl lots of time and generally have a good work life balance. This means no typical government/school/hospital job that transfers across. In a way it gives flexibility but in another way we'd have to work hard to get in again (my wife also is a qualified teaching assistant so could do that).

- The big draw is to be near family; but my parents aren't getting any younger (70 and 74) so partly i'd fear going and they don't last long but also that seems a bigger reason to move. Otherwise we go see them once a year and while theyre able they generally come see us once a year too.

- But my parents live in the riverina, and my sister and her family live in canberra. I don't fancy living in either place for a few reasons, and we always wanted to live in the illawarra (prior to covid that was the plan, before prices went nuts). I also don't know anyone in that area, we just like the area, and find it the next closest place to be to everyone. But it's so expensive.

So the question im trying to navigate is - is it worth moving back to aus to be near family when I'd be so far, and are my childhood memories of australia being tainted. I hear a lot of people complaining about cost of living in australia but is it really that bad? Yes UK has gone up too but thankfully we're not in london, we are in a nice place near the coast where we've accidentally built a life.

A good example is this year; we saw my parents at xmas and now in the summer we're taking my van around europe (and seeing my parents in europe before coming back here with them). Is maybe that and being self employed and living by the sea attractive to someone in aus? Yes it's grey a lot of the time but thankfully the summers can be lovely.

Would so love to hear some perspectives of australia - is the grass really greener?