Bye bye freelancing

I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks now, but I've deliberately kept my spare time computer-free (well, mostly. You know how that goes).

I'm happy to announce, though, that as of the first of December 2007, I've been working for Dutch Internet Works.

Boy, it wasn’t easy to take this step. I’ve been very much in doubt about continuing my freelance carreer, for a load of different reasons. On the other hand, I’ve had just as much doubts about starting to work for someone else.

Why?

Two main reasons, really; colleagues and money.

Colleagues

Freelancing for about one and a half year had made me a bit of a hermit. I’ve been working in my own office, in my own time, with 90% of the time no people physically present in the room. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I like to be on my own and make my own rules, but lately I started to get a bit tired of it.
Also, I started to notice that having no people around you is not a good thing, mentally. My advice to freelancers; go out! Participate in whatever, communicate with others in the field, join clubs. I never took the time to do stuff like this and experienced the negative impact of it first-hand. Do yourself a favor and be smarter than I’ve been.

Money

Another, maybe more capitalist reason, was money. While I’ve never really had any financial trouble, my income has been very variable. My girlfriend and I have been wanting to move to another place for some months and, for example, mortgages have been an uncertain subject. I really was ready for a fixed income. It gives me the freedom to worry about what kind of kitchen we would like, instead of a stupid thing like money.

Whatstyle

Working for Dutch Internet Works has been a great experience. I’ve had a nice first month in which we fired up some interesting projects. There’s some really challenging technical stuff going on at the moment, in which I can pour my heart and soul.

Alongside this new start I want to give Whatstyle a revamp. I’ve been neglecting the blog for way too long and now is the time to make a change. I’m going to try and write an article a week, at least.
I believe I have the experience to provide dummies with instructive articles and therefore the responsibility to do so. Hold on to your RSS readers and expect more posts in the near future.

I’ve also got a redesign planned, but in order for me to keep the stress levels to a minimum, that may take a while to realise.
The articles will return, though. I promise.