Letters to the Editor
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I never keep a job longer than a couple of months...
they call it freelancing, and it's great for people like us.
It's not offices that are stifling -- it's the people. It's just like being in elementary school or prison. Folks who work in the same job for years develop attitudes for surviving such an unnatural situation -- keeping their head down, maintaining cordiality with incompatible individuals, withholding deep opinions, trying to make their way through to some far-off promise of betterment (promotion? retirement? And then what? By then you've bent and perverted your personality.)
I haven't had "a job" in more than 14 years, but when I drive through downtown San Francisco I see literally dozens of buildings where I've showed up, met my co-workers, rolled up my sleeves, and got some work done.
There are benefits to always being the new guy... Probably the best thing is you get to raise your rates much more often than your office-bound peers (with me it's been close to 20% per year). You also get to try out new career avenues, keep up on best-practices and skills, etc.
Anyway, the best thing I ever did for myself was to quit school and start working! And I keep that feeling going every time I finish a project! Quitters of the word unite!