Most of us at some time or another have wondered whether the grass is greener on the other side.

If we are in a corporate environment, collecting our weekly paycheck working for the man, we daydream about freelancing – setting our own hours, staying in our PJs all day, dealing with clients, not bosses.

On the flipside, freelancers have pangs of jealousy toward their peers who get that regular paycheck; along with paid holiday and sick leave, retirement benefits and 9-5 hours.

To decide which is the best career path for you, designdrops suggests you look inwards to find the answers to the following questions.

1/ Do you like working with suits? If you answer no, you might think that this means freelance is a better fit. But you would be wrong. Even if you work from home and your business attire is the tracky pants with no holes, you still have to go out and meet clients. And these clients are likely to be wearing suits. Unlike inhouse designers, who have built a relationship with their bosses and internal clients, a freelancer needs to impress people immediately at that first pitch meeting. Depending on the type of organisation that needs your service, this may well mean not only dealing with suits, but wearing a suit yourself.

2/ Is a regular income important to you? A good freelancer may well, in time, make more money than most inhouse designers, but that money is unlikely to be regular. In fact, sometimes it may mean waiting several months – and sending several nasty emails - before you actually get paid. And in the intervening time, the bills still need paying, food needs to be bought and the children need clothes. Being inhouse, while the earning potential may not be as great, does offer the comfort of a regular paycheck.

3/ Are you seeking work-life balance?Again, you might think that freelance work offers more freedom to choose you own hours. And it does, but those hours are likely to be anytime of the day or night and, if you are working on deadline, may mean missing important personal events, such as birthdays, school plays or weddings (hopefully not your own). When you work at home, it is also quite tempting to just “have a quick look at my emails” before bed, and still being on the computer three hours later. Working inhouse will mean little flexibility with hours (although some organisations are getting better at realising that staff have a life outside the office), but, as a designer, you are unlikly to be asked to work until midnight on a Sunday.

4/ Do you have good business acumen?Let’s face it, as an inhouse designer, you don’t need to worry too much about budgets, business planning, Human Resources, profit and loss statements or legal requirements. If you are freelancing, good business sense is, arguably, more important than good design when it comes to longevity. You’d be crazy to even start without a business plan.

5/ Are you easily distracted?This a a curly one as it depends on what you are distracted by. The trend towards open plan offices mean there are many, many more distractions at the workplace these days. But if Facebook or World of Warcraft is your Achilles heel then working at home, with no one to look over your shoulder, may become an issue.

Hopefully, once you can answer these questions you will know if you are better suited for freelance or in house work.

(There is, of course, a third option – working at a design agency. This, depending on your point of view, can either be the best or worst of both worlds and will be the subject of a future post.)