I have been freelancing from home in Moscow, Russia for 4 years now as a frontend developer and as a self-taught UI/UX specialist. There were good and bad times in regard to work/life balance, money, clients and myself. I am not a famous rockstar freelancer, but during recent 2 years I have been earning $7-$10k per month average, making my clients quite happy and being able to support my wife and our two children. Before starting freelancing I had been working for 8 years at a local publishing house where I got from an ordinary designer to a head of IT dept serving 20+ daily/monthly editions.
Now I feel like I am ready to perform a next step in my life, in regard to my career. Recently I have received a job offer from a company in Stockholm doing a software as a service, for a position of a frontend developer. I had a talk via Skype with a couple of representatives of the company and in the end they offered me to visit their office to have a detailed talk as they seem to be quite content with skill I have shown so far. Surely they offer benefits, work permit visa and other things like a vacation, insurance.
I googled for average salaries for a position like mine there in Stockholm as well as in other Sweden cities. I have also found some more info about life there, costs, conditions, climate and so on. I know 'average salary' doesn't give much info about my specific potential salary I can get there. But at least I see the range and it's quite different from my current income knowing that I will have to pay for an apartment, likely pay more for food and other things I don't yet know about. On the other hand, may be it will be a good start for me to go networking, finding new opportunities, improving my skills.
So, please advise, what things I should consider while deciding? Did you face similar choice when you were offered with a job while you were freelancing? How did you choose to accept or to reject a full time job? What are important factors for you? Can it be a real move forward or more like a deadlock turning me into a small gear in a big mechanism? How can I setup my priorities properly not to say in a year or two I have had lost them?
I know many of the questions are subjective but I would like to hear from people who were in the same situation like mine.
Thanks!
Now I feel like I am ready to perform a next step in my life, in regard to my career. Recently I have received a job offer from a company in Stockholm doing a software as a service, for a position of a frontend developer. I had a talk via Skype with a couple of representatives of the company and in the end they offered me to visit their office to have a detailed talk as they seem to be quite content with skill I have shown so far. Surely they offer benefits, work permit visa and other things like a vacation, insurance.
I googled for average salaries for a position like mine there in Stockholm as well as in other Sweden cities. I have also found some more info about life there, costs, conditions, climate and so on. I know 'average salary' doesn't give much info about my specific potential salary I can get there. But at least I see the range and it's quite different from my current income knowing that I will have to pay for an apartment, likely pay more for food and other things I don't yet know about. On the other hand, may be it will be a good start for me to go networking, finding new opportunities, improving my skills.
So, please advise, what things I should consider while deciding? Did you face similar choice when you were offered with a job while you were freelancing? How did you choose to accept or to reject a full time job? What are important factors for you? Can it be a real move forward or more like a deadlock turning me into a small gear in a big mechanism? How can I setup my priorities properly not to say in a year or two I have had lost them?
I know many of the questions are subjective but I would like to hear from people who were in the same situation like mine.
Thanks!