The fine line between the ideal and the reality of the next job opportunity spans the time most creatives are reluctant to discuss. The freelance years. In your search for a full-time position, it is common practice in this business to worry about being pigeon-holed into a specific industry. It is a more common misconception to believe you have avoided the same pigeon-hole with a nine-year record of freelance work on your resume. Creative Directors will see this almost-a-decade as time spent with feet glued to the flypaper of advertising life. At this point in your career—especially if you want to make the transition up the ladder—the privilege of picking and choosing your ideal agency may not be an option. If you are in a situation where you have exhausted the freelance market you live in and still have not yet been hired full-time, you need the stability and experience of working at an agency to bring you back into the game. Notable freelance work can be a great way to make a living. As a double-edged sword, it is also a great way to work yourself into an extremely niche genre of the ad industry. When a pedigree shop needs a shiny new Creative Director to lead their team, they are going to choose the strongest candidate with not only the most killer book, but also with the most solid and stable background of agency experience. Pedigree shops want pedigree people, and while those people may dabble in freelance occasionally, they do not use it as a means of limiting themselves. Freeing yourself from the flypaper requires a humble solvent. Begging recruiters to help you find full-time work and then demanding we submit you to the agencies of your choice are merely a way of becoming very unpopular, very quickly. To add insult to injury, most recruiters carry a big fly swatter around in their back pockets. If you are looking for a smart career move, consider the simple one from the freelance life back to the full-time agency environment. Get your foot back in the door before you determine what accounts would be ideal or what agency would look best on your resume. The reality is the experience of working at an agency. Preferably, where there is no flypaper whatsoever. Jeff Goldblum would agree.