posted 06 January 2003 03:04            

In December 2002, I sent my CV to an agency and received a reply+trial test. After quite a while, they e-mailed me back, saying sorry but they'd have to turn me down because I was working full-time at another company. Truth be known, I work at another agency, but am preparing to go freelance (I made this clear to the agency to which I was applying).

The way I see it, when I go freelance, I will accept work from any (and as many) agency I please - including the one I work at in-house now. Therefore, I don't see that my working at an agency now poses a problem.

Is this usually a problem: am I just missing the point?

Footnote: I wrote them back saying that I understood their position fully , and asking how the actual trial test was. The replied that it was great, and would I <b>please</b> be sure to contact them as soon as I go freelance. So I don't think they were just using a convenient excuse to tell me I'd failed

posted 06 January 2003 09:12            

This situation is actually more common than people think... Some companies don't like the potential conflict of interests that arises if someone is working full-time. For instance, what if you've done a job for them and it requires urgent amendment during the day, when you're at work? Or what if as part of your full-time job you had to translate papers for a court case, then they offered you the papers for the other side in the case as a freelance assignment?

These are all things which could also happen if you freelance, of course.... But another consideration is taxation. Some agencies would be worried that if you freelance you might not declare the tax on your freelance earnings. And believe it or not, there are people out there who'd do exactly that....

And finally, there's the worry that if you already do a full-time job, you won't be up to freelancing in your spare time as well and so quality will suffer. In their view. You sound like a sensible person, so I doubt this would be an issue to you - but they don't know you, all they can do is take precautions to avoid potential problems.

On the other side of the coin, I've even heard of companies that won't use freelancers if they've set up their own small agency-type operation. Potential competition. Silly to an extent because a one-man-band isn't going to rival a multinational in terms of anything much, but they still don't like it.

So, to answer your question concisely - you already working for an agency won't usually be a problem, but be prepared for it to be because some agencies simply won't use your services. There are enough freelancers out there for them (usually ) so they don't need to.

quote:

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Footnote: I wrote them back saying that I understood their position fully , and asking how the actual trial test was. The replied that it was great, and would I <b>please</b> be sure to contact them as soon as I go freelance. So I don't think they were just using a convenient excuse to tell me I'd failed

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There you go then! Excellent! Contact them as soon as you hand in your notice, tell them what you're planning to do and then see what happens! They sound quite positive and professional.

Good luck!

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