Preserved Topic: What do you do....

ok people.. what do you do for a living? I know webdesign and stuff like that... but is that all you do? I mean? Do you have your own business? If so, how did you get it started? What were the challenges?

I work for the Oregon Fish & Wildliffe Department doing trout and salmon related population surveys. Before that I worked for AMAT turning out the HW your cpu was manufactured by. Intel was our biggest account :O

Janitor...

~Vp~

I'm a hobo. no job, no life. just me, my puters, and my newts. not to forget the black pills.

Spam is yummy
~babamba

~cough~

Is that *all* I do? Excuse me? Lead graphic artist at a company 40 hours a week just isn't enough? Harumph.


stephen

mowing lawns / edging.... does that qualify? Im really good at it! And skool.

I'm the new Calvin Kline underwear model.

at leaast I was til DG stole my undies.......

( http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum13/HTML/000026.html )

[This message has been edited by DL-44 (edited 03-20-2001).]

I have been a computer programmer since 1969. I have been a consultant since 1985. I started consulting because my family and I moved to a small town in southern Indiana where there are no programming opportunities for me and the only way for me to continue to work as a computer programmer was to start consulting with companies in other states.

The major challenge I face is that anywhere I work, I am from out of town and there is an attitude in most companies that it will cost more to bring someone in from out of town so I often have problems finding my next contract once the current one ends.

Programming is what pays the bills. I do graphics and web page design more as a hobby. Although I would like to do more of it for work.

Twitch: Only fourty hours a week . I usually put in fifty hours a week, Monday thru Thursday so I can spend the week ends with my family.



[This message has been edited by hyperbole (edited 03-20-2001).]

Teacher and cunninglinguist extraordinaire.

Twitch.. what I meant was is that the only job that you have?

I hear lots of things how much money one can make on web design. Is that true? I have a good job working as a Systems Administrator for a second largest consulting company in the world but I would like to do some side projects on web design. I mean... would that be worth it? I know designing comes from heart and you can't force yourself to do it and I am not. I just thought I could put 2 things that I like together (drawing and computers) and make some moeny on it.

What do you people think? I mean... how much money can you make on this thing?

janitor.. awwww.. into six figures.. Gawd Bless the Union....

I do web design for Wal-Mart's intranet. Before that I was the webmaster for several local daily and weekly newpapers.

I would like to start some freelance webdesign, but I'm not really sure how to get started.

Ducati ::: Well, lets be honest with ourselves, shall we? Based off of my experience and years in the field, I warrant a very large salary. I don't demand it. I love what I do, and that's all that I want to do.

Can anyone make money doing design? I certainly hope not. The reason that so many crappy sites are out there, the reason that so many crappy magazines exist is because people are under the impression that anyone can be a designer. Issue 100 of AListApart goes into this idea quite well, and I agree with almost everything that is said in this brilliant article.

So, we're left at an impasse: should you be a designer to make your money? If you have to ask, then no. Simply no. No questions asked, there's no answer other than "NO."

I'm sorry to be hasty, I'm sorry to be abrupt, but with the sheer multitudes of bad sites out there put out by bad designers that don't understand what their titles are, I can't see it fit to put another one in the field. I'm not saying you're a bad designer. I'm saying don't get into it unless your *heart* tells you to.


stephen

Well.. thank you Twitch. I am not a designer but I would like to become proficient with it so I can make some money on the side. if I don't... that's fine if I do.. great!

How much money?

Well, as soon as you ask that question....the answer is "none"

I often wonder how much of this supposed "money" people would actually make if they spent their time honing their craft, instead of trying to hawk substandard, poorly designed sites onto quick clients.


I appreciate weekend warriors about as much as anyone else would like to see a bucktoothed yokel sitting in their chair when they arrived Monday morning. "Hey Bob, we got the local retard to do your job over the weekend....sure, it looks like shit, and now when you have to go fix it, it will be ten times harder to fix than it ever would have been to build it in the first place....but hey, he made five bucks, and ended up lowering your wage too."

gee......thanks......may I have another?

Go build sites if you want to meld your art and computer work...build them for friends, for you, for family...learn...expand..grow...hone it as a craft...then see if you're worth a buck.

If you can't do that...then please, make sure to kiss my ass before you take your hundred dollar cheque.



Peter

So, um, Peter, what do you really think?

What do I really think?

"Go Dreamweaver!!"


~sigh~

After several years of tech-support, networking, and sloppy web design freelancing, I finally landed a great job at a small Internet Media company. I do "web design" but my primary job is to be creative. I'm striving to become better at what I do, because I do repect this profession highly and understand how much talent and hard work it takes to be good at it. A lot of my work involves less creativity right now than I would lke - a lot of my time involves processing large web sites as efficiently as possible and maintaining our reputation as this area's key online resource for local content. I also design a lot of banners which we sell on our media sites.

The pay? Pretty low, honestly (compared to other less rural places), about 30k. The cost of living out here is quite low, but so is the job market. It's still the dream job because I can work from home and I have a killer boss. Our business actually makes money, so we're growing, slowly. My eventual position will be Creative Director though now it is referred to more as Web Developer. I'm certain that somewhere down the line, I'll get an offer from another company that I can't refuse, but I'm not looking actively because I love the job - it's secure, open, and a very good place to be learning how to be a true professional.

- Ben

this is kinda off but, I am about to gradmuate from HS and i wanna know how / where yas first started working.... how should i go about breaking in to the working world?

eyezaer. 999. mad. sci.

eyezaer: you mean, like, you have never had a job?

or do you jsut mean a 'real' job?

If you mean to say you've never had a job...then the place to start is getting your lazy ass to the nearest place that is hiring and get working

*hands EyeZaer a mop*

~Vp~

I run a small International Trucking Company.....

I don't do part time web/graphics stuff....no time...wouldn't want to....life's too short....

Web design for a living....no inclination....never will do.....rather breed rabbits......

Lemme see I fell into this ass backwards. I studied audio production in college and that got me a good gig tending bar and waiting tables while doing scut work at a couple of local studios for free. So I decided to get a "real" job and started doing Tech Support at Electronic Arts where after a couple of months I fell into the job of maintaining their tech support website. Jumped to Excite@Home for a while for some big bucks, hated it. Left after 3 months and took a job at teechtv as a Production Assistant in their web group (for 2/3 the dough) A year later I was the Senior Production Engineer (and making 2.5x what I started at). I'm still here but because a bit of a "reorg" (layoffs) I'm now jumping over to being our lead (and only) interactive TV developer. It's a brand new technology working with different settop boxes and technologies like worldgate, wink, and AOL TV. But a lot of it is web based and I'll be working on integrating our existing web content system to be able to write docs for TV. Pretty cool stuff. I'm also cleaning up our XML based content syndication system.

Personally I'm a bit of a jack-of-all-trades master-of -none. I can do pretty much anything on the web from design, the front-end to Sys Admin. Makes me actually a more valuable employee than some "gods" who can only do one thing. I'm also really good at explaining technical issues to non-technical peeps (management) so it makes me popular sometimes.


Walking the Earth like Kane

Hey, I said I mowed lawns... geez... and did weadeating. fun stuff... can you say you have ever mowed Ice? thats some crazy junk.
okay okay... I did that over the summer untill december, I worked for a crazy person... nice, picky, but crazy. enuff of that. I dont think I can stand to mow lawns again 4 an entire summer. So, I have to get some job, or my parents will make me go back to that job (I think). I was thinking an internship with some computer thingy, cuz photoshop is about all I know well... and hanging around here I am learning that I dont know it all that well. A job would be cool though. Someday I dream of being paid to sit outside under the sun doing nifty graphix on a zippy laptop. heh.

eyezaer. 1000. MadSci.

oohh... VP's mop!!! i alwasy wanted this... *thurns it over, takes mop part off and puts it on his head as a wig* good think he keeps his mops so clean... eh... now, i can smack people on the head whith this mop handle and stay disguise my self under this wig... heeheheheheheheheheheheeeeeeeeee heeeeeeee heeeeeeee heeeeeeeee..... *eyezaer finds a shadow and waites for next victim*

[This message has been edited by eyezaer (edited 03-22-2001).]

Website design/programming at Worldviewer.... used to work at web4you... oh, not to mention HS (9th grade) hehe.

-Blitzkrieg

Some people are beginning to sound like elitist jerks. Every designer has to start from somewhere and if you were offering words of encouragement instead of put downs, Ducati may develop into the type of UberDesigner you all claim to be.

I'm positive everyone's first attempt at a web page was crap. Copied and modified code, stolen graphics, and absolutely nothing to say were the features of my first attempt. I worked hard at web design, however, and I got better. (still my idea for an online guide to being a SuperHero has yet to see the light of day.)

The sole reason I come here is to help improve my Photoshop skills. One of the many things I've had to learn to be a good web designer.

Ducati, with the burst of the technology bubble, people are looking for more quality in their design than they used to. If you believe that your work is up to par and you enjoy it, get out there and sell it.

Thanks Seneca...I agree with every word you said.

Everyone has to start somewhere.

for a living i breath, drink water, sleep, and eat. sometimes.

netmosisdotcalm n. - from latin netmosisusdotuscalmus - fuck it all.

Question for any and all. Any good ideas on how I might just get a glimpse of how the design biz runs? I mean like volunteering or co-op and stuff like that. Do design companies look, for people willing to work but not looking for money because they're just trying to learn the trade? Would I be dreaming to think that this stuff might be possible? I love all this stuff and I really want to look into doing it for a living, so any ideas even on where to look to get started?



DOG
-----
THE

Hi everyone I have missed ya'll.

I have been busy lately with class and it's spring/summer weather here and I have been having a blast. My brother is taking me crappie and bass fishing tomorrow ~YAY~

Next week it's to the beach for Spring Break ~eg~


wow what do I do? I only do graphics for fun and been into graphics for hmmm about 3 years.

I have a silver jewelry business that makes me great mad $$$ and ummmm I am in my last
year of law school.

That's a wrap !

I love how people only read one half of a statement.

Guess that makes them moderately illiterate. So , let's reiterate for the slow class.
"If you want to design...do it...do it for friends, family, yourself".

Did everyone catch that part? He SHOULD design...and keep learning. We DID all start somewhere..who the fuck denied that??

He just has to look realistically at what is there, and not try to undercut into a market that is already cutting it's own throat at times.

If anyone wants to call me elitist for seeing and knowing this...then go nuts. But try looking through geocities first, at all the "webdesign companies" there folks.

Then learn to read the whole statement first.

Peter

There are web design companies at Geoshitties? I need to get me some o that.



P.S. I set this whore on fire! Yeah baby.

DG - when are you goinig to learn that you're just plain wrong, and you can't express realistic or blunt views here? You must simply tell everyone that life is great and anybody can do anything and everything is pretty??

For everyone else -- please, read thouroghly any post you plan on replying to. Read it with an open mind, and try to actually listen to what a person is saying.
Also realize that life isn't always roses and sometimes reality actually has to be dealt with.

Ducati...

Something I'm learning is that there are two things that are increasingly important: creativity and technological skill in general (i.e. the ability to grasp new technologies quickly). I have made a personal goal to very specifically narrow my focus of learning and development on these two diciplines. Perhaps I'm narrowing my options, but it is somewhat of an experiment to determine if this approach will be effecitive in trimming the fat from a pretty weighty cow that hangs over most of our heads here- the pressure to know everything and do everything well. Let me know if you think this is insane -- I'll let you know if it's working.

Eyezaer...

I think technical support is a good entry point. It is low stress, easy, and you can get your fingers into other things while there. I reccommend you find a place that has good down time - ideally, work 3rd shift. This way, you can be programming, researching the internet (try not to work for a tech support company that doesn't allow a good bit of surfing), or reading manuals while you are at work.

Go to the library and read books on resume writing and "how to do an interview". You'd be surprised how many qualified people don't know how to present themselves properly, answer questions without arrogance or negativity, and write a legible resume.

Hi every one!, i´m not back at all, but i´m around while i finish some bussines.
I work my grandmother, you know, i stay all day in bed, and throw the trash away, jejejeje
and sometimes i do some web design, some breafing designs or logos, whatever.

Ahh, and i work as a teacher, but maybe i´ll go to Miami to live there, you know, here is too hard, whatever you do.

Wish me luck!!!!

hurmm.. i have a lot of previous works before.. but that's not important..
actually i work as a security guard at an asylum nearby... LOL ! nah. just joking..
i'm currently an university student, part-time worker at a web design company for experience, doing freelance webdesigns, a club hopper, and an internet bug.

clynn: we sound similar...
im a uni student in a scholarship who has done 8 months full time work doing conservative web design for an insurance company.
now they're having me working part time, for a relatively respectable amount of money, but more importantly, they are incredibly flexible.

uhmm... My job is to keep some of you folks employed I guess.... I work as a marcoms manager at a HW-company, but we do not have any coders/designers in-house, so we use agencies... (works great job for me! I'm no expert coder nor a PS god, but I've been PS'ing and coding for some time, which greatly simplifies my realtionship with our agency and the people there).


I also get some pocket change by cooking, design work and teaching (my hobbies )

-nimraw
If you can't convince, confuse!

[This message has been edited by Nimraw (edited 03-25-2001).]