Well, I've been out of work since Sept 2017 on doctor's orders. The good news is that I finally got a date for my surgery in March. Woohoo. Can't wait to go back to work and start earning money again... and get my life back.
Ordinarily, I'm a graphic designer. I have worked in the print industry for 10 years or so. The industry had become a little unpredictable and I got laid off from a job I adored. They genuinely could no longer afford the extra designer, but it sucked big time. Since then, I was getting permanent positions and being laid off after 6 months citing "can't afford you, but we'll give you a good reference." I saw a pattern. They were taking on extra designers for busy periods, then using the "6 month trial" clause in the contracts to get rid of us before the 6 months were up. Except, they couldn't fault our work, so they used the money excuse. Not sure how legal that is to be honest. I decided in Sept 2016, to do a postgrad in Software Development since I've always been pretty tech savvy. I already had a Master's in graphic design, so I got into a really good university, under an IT reskill scheme for professionals. I graduated in Sept 2017, same day I got my diagnosis. lol. It's not been a good year and a half, but fingers crossed after my surgery, my life will be back on track. :)
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I strongly advise graphics designers to go into UI. It's a related field, and infinitely more marketable.
Graphic design is a race to the bottom. I get my design work from people living in countries where the change I lose in my sofa would last a week. I pay them far more than they'd earn locally, and far less than I'd pay someone near me.
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Ah yes, that's why I did software development. Kinda an options thing for me. There are a lot of IT jobs in this country, so I have an opportunity now to go that way, or... go back into the UI side of graphic design.
Getting design work done over the internet is fine if you're a small company who can't really afford to go to a design consultant and get a proper marketing campaign set up. We had marketing folk to do the research on the company and start the initial dialogue, then we'd sit down with the client and discuss their needs. Design isn't just aesthetic, it's a means of communication and I don't believe that clients get a good deal out of those "over the internet" designers. Most of our clients were multinationals, banks etc, so we definitely weren't competing with online stuff. Those sites like 99 designs are cheating both designers and the clients because 9 times out of 10, it's someone handy in photoshop who doesn't know anything about business, and the client just picks the prettiest design, not the one that's going to represent their company the best.
The biggest problem is that everything is going more digital (not necessarily cheapo designers), so the company I worked for really needs to move in that direction and provide digital advertising services and send the designers on training courses for that. They might just be doing that now though. I told them I was doing an IT course myself and they were very interested in hearing more about it. I got offered a Senior Designer position under the same franchise, but I didn't accept it because I wasn't finished the course. I wanted that degree just in case I ended up in the cold again. :) Even if I had accepted it, I'd have been banished from my job by the doctor either way. XD.
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my first experience with those cheapo sites was.... a disaster. The problem with those sites is that new users tend to go for the cheapest designer, who therefore has no incentive to do well. On top of that, nobody wants to take the time, which is something I've learned, really needs to be done.
I now have a stable of designers who I know and trust. They're not the cheapest by any means. On top of that, I'll work with them, going back and forth on ideas and concepts and thoughts. It's time consuming, but no more that would be required to get good results from someone locally. And it's not the cheapest option, because I don't mind paying for quality.
likewise, I'm fairly expensive for what I do, but I am the best, and my clients agree that I'm worth every penny
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It really depends. You can come across designers on those sites who are highly qualified and will actually do their research. But as you say, they're not the cheapest. Sounds like you did seek out people who knew what they're doing.
Taking 99 designs as an example, they have qualified designers for hire, but then they have "competitions." I want to beat my head off a desk when I see that. The site used to focus a lot more on those competitions than on matching clients with designers. In those cases, everyone loses. The client is told "oh look, you get to choose from 50 different designs. YAY!" But... it's relying solely on the naivety of both parties. Many of the designers who take part are young college graduates who are being taken advantage of but think it will bring them exposure, and then the photoshop monkeys who learned to make pretty things with photoshop, but not necessarily effective designs that will work in a business environment. There can only be one winner, so in effect, 49 designers did work that they didn't get paid for, and the client has probably gone away with something substandard that they think looks lovely because they had no one to give them some professional advice.
I've checked out the "winners" in some of those and shook my head. Some make the right decision on choosing the best design, but more often than not, they didn't.
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yeah, it's kind of when a client asks for free work to give the artist exposure.
Nope, nope, nope. My general rule is I want quality, and I don't mind paying for it. But if I can get a good deal, I certainly will.
So, for any work that can be outsourced, I seek out high quality in low cost areas. I'll pay more than most people make there, and less than most people would cost here.
Luckily, my work can't easily be outsourced, because I'm bloody expensive for what I do
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That's very interesting. Mind if I friend you on Steam?
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I used to do money mumbo jumbo
now people pay me for advice
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Student, work online sometimes as a blogger and working on an indie game on my free time :D
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2D platformer - shooter, you can check it here, crealodegames.com -- It's not ready yet, but there was a gaming Expo in my city so we had to make a small teaser even tho the game's demo is not ready.
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My health hasn't been the best, so I'm currently I'm doing freelance art commissions. I'm also volunteering by walking dogs at the animal shelter. My computer died a few weeks ago, so I'm trying to get a desktop soon. I'm trying to look into making some art prints, merch, and perhaps a mini art book in the future.
Some days it's been hard, but I guess I do what I can? I'm glad that my parents are relatively understanding so far. I'm probably going to sign up for a dog trainer's course in the next few months and be more useful? Hopefully.
Computer stuff sounds stressful. I hope that it isn't!
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I used to be a developer for a large cellular service provider. Mostly worked on Oracle scripts and Java. The job was super fun and felt satisfying as I got to see my code providing services / notifications to millions of the network users. I learned a lot in that company but sadly the job paid peanuts and I moved on.
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Oracle pays pretty well and they would sure need someone like you in support. Maybe there's an opportunity there to do something different. They have support centers in all parts of Europe and the US. the perks must be good. In Ireland close to the place I worked in Eastpoint there was a support center from Oracle. A huge canteen to service them all. Usually they have free food, games and a lot of perks. Ability to work from home sometimes, its really rewarding and the progression is great.
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Sadly I could not find another database related job so I had to settle down with a QA job offer because times were tight and I really needed to move on from that company. At that time, my pay was not quite good and the expected increment didn't sound tempting either. I made a hasty decision to move on to QA side but things went well. I still miss developing all those long SQL scripts though.
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I used to teach economics (Pre-Keynes econ theory to be exact) to undergrads. It was boring as hell. I can't even hear about Adam Smith or Karl Marx again without cringing. I quit to study for a government job ~a year ago, which I hope to start as soon as possible since my bank account is running low. xD
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Worked for a software company and now I'm studying Game Engineering :)
But my real job is to spread the lewdness :3
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German Language Assistant for an international NGO.
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Software developer for 13 years. I have mostly worked with SaaS services for businesses for my entire career.
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I used to work in boring companies, pushing papers and telling people what to do, under the "management" of condescending douchebags throwing words around like "proficiency" and "synergy" and yelling at interns who didn't get their coffee right. I quit the soulless corporate world and now I cook for a living.
No yelling douchebag in my current job but obviously that's not the case in every kitchen. At least no paper pushing and I love what I do.
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Started as an intern in rally team fixing and building rally cars. And now am going with them to rallies around Europe and now and then going to work when theres things to do, because I still have some studies and my bachelors degree to finish..
But Im thinking about becoming a journalist.. Im photographer in my free time and am thinking about becoming vehicle journalist, reviewing cars..
But my future plans can go any direction now.. Kind of love cars but dont really feel the passion for actually fixing them as a mechanic..
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Film student doing freelance work and I was also part-time waiter/ barkeeper until last week but I'm moving in a week, because of a mandatory internship for the university.
Right now I'm still working on our project for this semester and I need to finish around 30 more VFX shots ....also I need to write my bachelor thesis.
Right now the only money I get (well I'm still getting paid for the part time job as I worked a bit in the beginning of the month + I have quite a few hours overtime) is from the apartment I'm renting out.
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Start working on ideas and writing that paper as soon as You got the chance. It was so much easier to write that in the first two days and afterwards having a lot more time to edit.
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I should yeah, I'm trying to finish as much as possible of my writing and VFX compositing this month so I don't burn out when I work full time next month.
But compared with my first research paper it's going to be much more enjoyable :D
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I torture young people with equations and deadly experiments.
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I currently working as junior system administrator for one startup. After I passed CCNA exam I searched for junior network technician job but with no success. Then I got call from highschool friend to maintain Ethereum mine for one foreign startup company and now I'm sysadmin (still junior). Now they want me to convert to DevOps but I will resist until I can. :D
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Good Stuff, Devops can be hard at times, but rewarding. Don't be afraid of taking a risk by stepping up. Always aim high, don't sell yourself short. Let other make the decision to hire you and don't quit on applying because you think its too hard or you can't do it. Luck protects the bold. And you can easily learn a new trade in IT these days. Its that flexible.
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Working as bartender in clubs, bars and for events. Student of final year in Analisis and Programation of Systems (currently strugling with java and php, i know, it's not that hard, my first language to master was C#, and the transition waas really abrupt), and learning from my own research Music Production. with D.A.W
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EDM, a little of chillstep, progressive house and kinda happy hardcore. But i'm still learning.
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I know what You mean. It's a neverending learning cycle when it comes to music production. Been doing that more than 10 years and there's still a lot to learn everytime I get into it.
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I run a shop in Windhelm. I used to work in Riften but the thieves guild wanted too much protection money.
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I was a NHA (Nursing Home Administrator) but decided to retire and now am a full-time player of games.
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I'm studying sysadmin so IT stuff here and there, hopefully two more years and I should be working, with my career I'm supposed to desing IT networks of whole buildings but I'm okay with being part of an IT department and do internal stuff there.
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I was working as a teacher, mostly software but I was >convinced< to teach also administrative subjects, sugar & alcohol and petrol & gas.
Now I work as an independent massage therapist, but with the economy now in my country I hardly have work. Hope someday gets better.
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I really hope the same for you, I love your country (my parents had their honeymoon in the whole Brazil, starting from Manaus in the '70s!) and it deserves to have a better and wealthier place in the world! you do and did some great jobs =)
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Thanks helevorn23!
Our country surely changed since the 70s! =D
Some cities became too big and lost it's charm due to extremely high buildings. An example is Balneario Camburiu, the beach become dark in the afternoon 'cause of the buildings.
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I'm a history student in Istanbul. This is my second year and probably i have plentiful time for starting a decent job because i have to do phd and some other things. I kinda voluntarily worked as translator and editor for couple "gaming websites" but i guess i didn't do anything since last year but want to start again.
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Yes I'm in IT. Enterprise architecture for a financial company.
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According to my education I'm a security guard and industrial computer repair man. In reality im unemployed for 5 month now and living on welfare. Before my current misery i was a sec-guard for 2 years and worked in retail for half a year in the same place before it
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Hi Guys,
Just wanted to introduce myself properly, I've been a SG User for a few Years and I haven't got the opportunity yet to start a discussion. I guess, better later than never I suppose.
I work in IT for 20 years, been an analyst and worked in support for the most time. @ the moment I do plenty of Debugging Windows OS's and sort Performance Issues for big companies as clients. Work 100% from home, so work life balance is great. Caveats would be probably the stress. It can be hectic at times dealing with several accounts.
What I like the most is Debugging and Sysinternals, grown pretty good in troubleshooting BSOD (BLue Screen of Death) issues and reviewing memory dumps.
If you have a blue screen on your computer and you need someone to look @ it, don't be shy :P
Now that I took the time to introduce myself, I encourage you to do the same?
Anyone working in IT in Steamgifts as well?
Care to share your experience?
GIbs:
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/uLaCF/aaero
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/gtteB/bleed-2
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