Sounds like there is big money in internet porn. Difficult part is getting a good stage name.
Career advice: How did you find your path?
- Thread starter Peter
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Sounds like there is big money in internet porn. Difficult part is getting a good stage name.
Lots of people pivot. Not me, because I fear change and I was a lot like 2015 in that I knew what I wanted early on and pursued it. I'm in the industry I wanted but definitely not doing anything I would have figured I'd be doing when I was chasing this.
Fine Arts can be a lot of things. Do you make it? Curate it? Promote it? What were the aspects of your role that you liked? Talking with people? Creating? Business aspects? I would think you could pivot that into a number of things.
Fine Arts can be a lot of things. Do you make it? Curate it? Promote it? What were the aspects of your role that you liked? Talking with people? Creating? Business aspects? I would think you could pivot that into a number of things.
his name on CF is peter so he’s got that taken care of
funny, I went into mech engineering. Did consulting engineering (construction) for ten years and then Turned the opposite way of you and took a gig managing construction/facilities on the owner side of the government.
Graduated in summer of '82 with BS in Civil Engineering. Tough times, high unemployment and high inflation. No job offers but a fair prospect with a Texas based privately held construction company, but no offer. Talked my way into grad school and hated it. Finally got an offer in September, accepted and withdrew from grad school and went to work for the Texas contractor in October of '82. First project was a 600 MW Lignite Coal Power plant. A dream job for a new civil engineer. Over the next 36 years worked on over 60 projects, installed over 30 GW of electrical generating capacity, moved 16 times across the South and Midwest, and raised a family. Last assignment was 13 years as president of a new in house engineering company acquired and grown through merger and acquisition of 4 separate smaller companies. I was fortunate to find a good company, privately held that I could grow and succeed in.
My point is that, for me, staying put with a good company and not chasing what seems like greener grass on the other side of the fence worked well in the long run. I enjoyed my work, was constantly challenged and I enjoyed the satisfaction of being part of teams that designed, built, started up and commissioned large industrial projects. And in hindsight, what is most important, is to love the work you do.
My point is that, for me, staying put with a good company and not chasing what seems like greener grass on the other side of the fence worked well in the long run. I enjoyed my work, was constantly challenged and I enjoyed the satisfaction of being part of teams that designed, built, started up and commissioned large industrial projects. And in hindsight, what is most important, is to love the work you do.
Learn to write code, go to Udemy sign up for some $10 classes and work towards some certifications, that will get you a job.
My wife has always "chased" jobs. MIS grad from ISU and cut her teeth as an Oracle DBA. "We" started a consulting company for her back in Spokane and she was immensely happy and successful. One of her biggest clients was my employer and I talked her into joining to be part of something bigger than herself. She gave up flexibility, money and her ability to serve customers HER way for BS corporate politics. For some reason I "enjoyed" some/most parts of corporate life.
She quickly became unhappy then started chasing IT consulting jobs WANTING to be a boss and help run a company and set strategy but she never stayed long enough to get those things. She's never been out of work but she hasn't had the opportunity to fulfill her desire of upper leadership. She has learned she loves start-ups where the hours are crazy, the hair is on fire, and she has a seat at the table in the early formative periods of these companies. Once these companies start that maturation process, the creative fires seem to dim and her eyes wander.
We spend MUCH time talking about our expectations and what we're truly happy with. I had some chances at upper leadership positions but found I could best add value by owning and running special projects and "doing" the work. She's coming to the realization - more slowly than I did - about what trips her triggers and then going through the reconciliation process between how we WANT to see ourselves in the workforce vs. what are best roles are in the workforce and what makes us happiest in the work force.
Peoples personalities and work styles have to be considered. I am more like your wife, where I thrive in the hectic, crazy environment. It will seem strange, but I think my short attention span, desire to be challenged, and wanting to constantly learn new things pushes me into it. I walked into a job where I was told I couldn't not see the business, be told much about it, all I knew was it was a factory in my town and I was to manage it. It had 100-120 baseline employees and every mid-manager stayed with the parent company and left at changeover. It was a cluster you know what. I got things straightened out and made them good money, then I got bored because it I didn't feel challenged. I walked away from it after four years but did free consultant work for them off and on for a couple months (it was a non profit and I didn't want to hang them out). I had landed them a new contract which the new guy peed away and was told that he quit at least a handful of times in the first three to six months and he was given two thirds of my job.
Another manager of a sister company started within a month of me and he left a couple weeks after or before for the same reasons. Just doesn't do as well without chaos.
You hit on something for me... If I'm not adding value, I'm done. Felt that way in my accounting role but when I interviewed for my now current natural gas job, I said I wanted a job where if I didn't perform, the company suffered financial harm and I would be fired. I needed that connection to our customers and had to see where my efforts made an impact beyond being a good office guy.
With your background and wanting to live in your hometown, I'd find a job in sales. Investments, real estate. Really anything. Be prepared to jump jobs when your networking tells you where the money is.
I'm right with you, buddy. Current job I'm in started off with lots of great stuff. I do BD work for a construction company, so started off just jumping in and helping with proposals all over the place. Helped the company win over $500M of work in my first 18 months (as part of a team). The last 18 months, I've somehow been relegated to a support role. I'm formatting resumes and doing compliance checks on text. And it's not performance, because I keep getting raises and big bonuses. I put up with that enough and now am on my way out. I can't get fired up for a job when I feel like what I'm doing makes no difference. Though, it does make it easy to quit when you feel like your engagement at a company is having zero impact.
I'm also in a bit of a weird position.. Got a Computer Engineering degree and worked as a software engineer for a number of years. Always felt kind of "meh" about writing software, wanted to work in something that combined the arts and tech (as those are my two main passions), but there is precious little of that in Iowa and job applications on the coasts are a black hole.
Fast forward we move to the east coast for my wife to get her masters to teach theatre, and she convinced me to apply to grad school for a music tech program, after I was still unable to get the type of software job I wanted and feeling a general career malaise. After I got laid off at my healthcare startup, I went for it.
3 really rough years later, I do tech support at a university (a job that kept us afloat during said rough years, and am eternally grateful for), while trying to build my career doing audio stuff, and generally trying to figure out things. All the steady work in this area is in New York and California, neither of which I think we want to move to long-term, so I'm not sure what to do. It seems likely I'd have to big time build a business and probably rely on having a home studio if we move back to the midwest (which is what we'd like to do) if I want to actually make a career out of this thing rather than it just being hobby. But nothing is for certain in this world, so it's scary. Especially right now. I was supposed to sound design an indie film out here, but of course SAG guidelines kind of put the kibosh on filming this summer, so.. that sucks.
P.S. Chris (or anybody else reading) if you even need somebody to do some audio work for podcasts or other media, I'm available.. sorry for the shameless self-promotion.
Fast forward we move to the east coast for my wife to get her masters to teach theatre, and she convinced me to apply to grad school for a music tech program, after I was still unable to get the type of software job I wanted and feeling a general career malaise. After I got laid off at my healthcare startup, I went for it.
3 really rough years later, I do tech support at a university (a job that kept us afloat during said rough years, and am eternally grateful for), while trying to build my career doing audio stuff, and generally trying to figure out things. All the steady work in this area is in New York and California, neither of which I think we want to move to long-term, so I'm not sure what to do. It seems likely I'd have to big time build a business and probably rely on having a home studio if we move back to the midwest (which is what we'd like to do) if I want to actually make a career out of this thing rather than it just being hobby. But nothing is for certain in this world, so it's scary. Especially right now. I was supposed to sound design an indie film out here, but of course SAG guidelines kind of put the kibosh on filming this summer, so.. that sucks.
P.S. Chris (or anybody else reading) if you even need somebody to do some audio work for podcasts or other media, I'm available.. sorry for the shameless self-promotion.
I was told that you can become a pilot or grow up but not both. So hear I am as a pilot.
Well I don't get paid to do it but that ruins the joke. Honestly I am still figuring out what to do when I grow up. Currently in the debate of do I want to go into management or just stay at the working level. Will probably work towards management.
Well I don't get paid to do it but that ruins the joke. Honestly I am still figuring out what to do when I grow up. Currently in the debate of do I want to go into management or just stay at the working level. Will probably work towards management.