I heard it twice this week, once from a casual acquaintance, once from a social networking group member.

“When are you going to get a real job?”

One was responding to my saying “No,” to helping him with a project (for free) - which I usually had time to do when I worked 9-5. The other was a tongue-in-cheek remark repeating things writers hear from people who are full-time freelancers. So that made it blog fodder for me.

The Facts:

Okay, 30% of the workforce - some 42 MILLION people - are freelancers. Freelancing IS a real job. It’s also entrepreneurial and risky and exciting and empowering, freeing and sexy. That is why many people who have real jobs other than freelancing don’t recognize it as real. They equate real with boring, tedious, soul killing, angst driven, miserable and stressful. So anything that doesn’t look like that and still garners a paycheck is suspect.

For freelancers, the first year or two of finding good clients and therefore securing an income, is rocky or touch and go at best. I’ve had dry spells that lasted months and a few months that actually gave me breathing room and enough of a budget to buy hamburger instead of Ramen noodles or Mac’n Cheese. It’s getting better, but sometimes I still sweat the end of the month - and I don’t live in high cotton with horrendous overhead. I’m still in what the US government accountants call the “poverty” strata. But I’m my own boss. If I need to go to the doctor, or the day is gorgeous I have the option of rescheduling, juggling and moving things around to take advantage of that. Of course when my computer crashes, I’ve got the flu, can’t work and can’t bill for work or clients don’t pay invoices - I’m the one who has to deal with it. I can’t just punch a time clock and go home. But the trade-offs are worth it.

When am I going to get a real job? My question is, who’d want one? At least the kind of “real job” most people mean when they ask that. I have a life that pays me for what I put into it. And that, for me, is as real as it gets!