I worked abroad for 7 years. Being a freelancer will mean that you won't put anybody's nose of of joint by seeking work and experience outside of your country.

I worked abroad for 7 years. Being a freelancer will mean that you won't put anybody's nose of of joint by seeking work and experience outside of your country. To paraphrase a character in Hilary Mantel's, "Eight Months on Ghazza Street": "It was if by going away we had criticized everything about our own country". In other words, as an employee, experience working abroad can set employers against you with questions like, "Why did you leave?" This is exactly what happened to me and why I ended up out of tech and in a succession of crappy jobs for 5 years. I quit a safe, secure job to work all over the world. Do I regret it? No. Would I work abroad again? In a heartbeat. It is still a goal of mine to own a business that I can operate from anywhere in the world via a laptop and a broadband connection - to me, that's the ultimate freedom. So go! See the world, meet people from other cultures, and work wherever you find yourself. As a freelancer you already have the only thing you really need to suceed - resourcefulness. Good Luck!