Just met a press photographer at a grassroot event last week, and our conversation was interesting.

—————————————–

Mr C: So you left the newsroom to set up on your own? Why? You’ve got a degree, you could have tried other medium.

Me: Ya. I liked my job (and the pay), but its was really tiring, and at this age, its just not worth all the stress / adrenaline rush anymore.

There are lots of degree-holders out in the market too. Its better to be self-employed than to be working for others, especially during this recession.

Mr C: But if you wish to be re-employed again, it will be tougher re-adjusting to an organisation. Just imagine, I used to be a wedding photographer. I could easily make an income of S$x,000 for 15 days of work in a month. If its not for my family, I wouldn’t have joined xxx (his current co) and started off with a pay of S$1,000 over. After working with them for so many years, my salary is just S$3,000 to date.

—————————————–
I felt it wasn’t too polite to be in some kind of friendly argument with this new acquaintance, but our conversation did set me thinking - how bad can it be (being re-employed), versus the flipside of being self-employed?

Honestly, being self-employed is just not about 15 days of work. There is more to it. During my off-time, I post-process my shoots / videos before the tight deadlines given, and often end up eating in front of my lappy or sleeping only in the wee hours of the night. Networking and constantly looking for business opportunities are necessary. More often than ever, my breaktime is also spent reading up on my crafts, or meeting up with other filmmakers / shutterbugs on possible collaborations or bouncing ideas from one another. And getting all administration and chasing payments in place can be a tedious chore too. All these definitely do not outweigh the simple joy of just being a salaried worker in an organisation.

There is no perfect job in this world. At the end of the day, what matters would be our personal life goals and plans to make things work the best to our advantage. It will be a great joy to work for others in the future. But I am not losing sight of my capabilities and setbacks, of which I hope to put into better use in Joabimages after so many years of being employed!