"Could you put together tomorrow's prospects and run the planning meeting at 12?"

It was a perfectly reasonable request, but this was at 9am on my third day of working in television, and it filled me with terror. True, I had several years as a radio News Editor under my belt, but I hadn't worked in broadcast news for four years, and this was my first foray into national TV. What if they all fell about laughing at my attempts to produce a list of next-day stories for them to chase? Who was I to even suggest what they might want to follow up? These were real telly people, for goodness sake.

Going back to radio or TV as a freelancer can be a daunting prospect. I sidled out of mainstream broadcasting, as so many women do, when children came along. It's not easy to reconcile being on 24-hour call as a News Editor with the perfectly reasonable nursery opening hours of 8am-6pm.

Working in online may have its own frustrations, but lacks the urgency of broadcasting and can be done from home, so I sheltered there for a few years until a reshuffle made me look again at my options.

When you go back into freelancing after a break or a staff job, you approach it from a different angle. You're not as desperate to fit in as when you first wanted and needed a "proper" job, and you put up with far less. My own intentions were simply to prove to myself and the rest of the world that, as a prospective voice trainer, I could still hold my own in a newsroom and on air.

I made all the mistakes that I've been telling students over the years not to - mainly not doing my homework. I wasn't familiar with the times and durations of the bulletins, hadn't a clue who the target audience was likely to be, didn't swot up on current affairs beforehand, and didn't prepare a list of useful contacts.

But guess what - going back after a break gives you a few major advantages over the wannabes, and the key one is experience, not just of the sector in which you're working, but of life itself. Radio and TV are full of journalists in their early twenties with shiny degrees and no responsibilities. They may be keen and clever, and fit into ridiculously tiny clothes, but they lack the confidence and resourcefulness that only comes with years of sweating over a newsdesk, and building a network of family and friends.

It's not all going to be plain sailing of course. What was once second nature, I now find myself having to think carefully about, and allow extra time for. Phone numbers are different, systems have moved on, conventions have changed.

The strangeness itself can give nervous freelancers a confidence boost. After 12 years of differing roles in one organisation, which felt very much like home, it was liberating to walk into a completely different organisation, do a good day's work, have fun with new colleagues, and be paid at the end of it.

So, don't be afraid to give freelancing a go. What you lack in some areas you will compensate for in others. You'll be less afraid to contribute, and have more to offer.

Did I survive my planning meeting? Well, they didn't laugh, and they booked me again at the end of the day, so I can't have done too badly.