

Ask HN: How do employers view the prospect of employing ex-freelancers? - digitalWestie

At the moment I'm a freelancer and I'm pretty happy where I am. At some point I think I'd like a change in job. It's not that I'm having trouble freelancing, quite the opposite in fact.<p>Anyway, my own motivations aside. I often wonder what the perception of employing freelancers is. I've experience of running my own show gathering and managing my own clients. As a result, I feel I have something extra to offer. Additionally, I'm thrown into a lot of different situations so I end up becoming familiar with various technologies, applications and their architectures.<p>The problem is I wonder if this is a double-edged sword. Are freelancers perceived as being 'mercenary' or likely to leave at the drop of a hat? or thought of as not being team players? Thoughts?
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lifeisstillgood
At big companies - they are seen as employees it is easy to fire. They wont
ever say that to the tax authorities (IR35 etc) but in general, large
companies hire freelancers because they can get 20 in NOW, and fire them in 6
months when they change direction

Small companies don't hire many freelancers - they either hire generalists to
do it all, or think they can do it themselves in house.

