AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Hi all,

Earlier this year I started a new job with an electronics company. The money is good, but the atmosphere is oppressive, my boss is from another planet, and despite the fact that I'm a fully qualified design engineer I'm spending my time doing jobs that are, frankly, beneath me.

Thing is, I can't help wondering whether I'm being unreasonable in wanting a job that I enjoy AND which pays well. Do they exist Should I really be bothered by the fact that I'm not really developing professionally?

I'm not doing any of the sort of work that keeps my knowledge and skills up to date. It's quite possible that the longer I stay in this job, the less employable I'll become.

Some of you may know already that what I really enjoy doing is taking photographs - I find it a great way to relax and be creative, and seeing a great image gives me a sense of satisfaction that I miss at work. I've considered packing in electronics and turning pro, but then I'm worried that I'd just spoil a hobby I really enjoy and take a massive pay cut into the bargain.

Has anyone made such a radical career change? Did it turn out to be a good idea?

Advice please - I think I have a big decision coming up.

Ta
Andy.

Freak

well
i could have got a 'regular' job/career

Instead, i chose to pursue djing.
Now i am in the position of getting paid a lot for doing something i love and would do (and had to do when i initially started out) for free....
I am thankful and very lucky to be in such a position- but i also work very very hard- which is made easier by it not feeling like hard work because i enjoy it so much (if that makes sense)

You only live once, and a large percentage of that time is consumed by work- so you might as well enjoy it

if you dont- you will always wonder 'what if' etc..
But by the same token, the grass is always greener etc..
What you gain in job satisfaction, you lose in security (particuarly in something to do with creative things), and potentially as you noted, income.


just my 2 euros worth-make of it what you will

Im sure others will have different opinions



[Edited by Freak - 8/27/2003 9:08:48 PM]

skoosh

Andy, does your' hobby enable you to make any extra cash at the moment, outside of work?

Perhaps collating a small portfolio may be the start. When I got married, the photographer was hired by word of mouth and seeing my mates really good pics, this could be a start.

It's also worth considering approaching local bands for a bit of live experience when they're gigging, I know quite a few photographers who started out this way.

Not many people get the chance to live their dreams, follow them mate and if you're any good everything will turn out right and you won't have any regrets.

Best of luck m8.

Skoosh - semi-pro drummer who wishes he had the ***** to go pro, but has a family to support !

darlodge

Andy,

I am very happy in my current job. Money is good, people and environment are great

I have always thought that the people are what make a job, after that you have the role/tasks and then you have money. That's just my opinion but that's the way I look at things.

I know you can't pay bills without money, but if I had the option of being in a job with no goals and with people that I hated for 10k more than a job with people that I liked and goals that paid 10k less. I'd choose the second job.

Can you not try and sell some photos privately before you try and go all out?

Darren

[Edited by darlodge - 8/27/2003 9:14:32 PM]

7 Foot

It's a toughy isn't it.

I was made redundant about 4 weeks ago. To be honest I didn't realise quite how unhappy I was at work until I didn't have to go back and deal with the atmosphere in the office and the petty politics. A weight certainly has been lifted.

At the moment I have simply registered with a lot of agencies and just asked them to find me temping work whilst I have a good long think about what I want to do for work.

In your situation I certainly think putting a portfolio together and testing the water would be a more sensible way of doing things before you knock the steady income on the head. That said, who's to say you can't afford to do just that.

BOB.T

Andy, you're work is stunning, go for it!

Best of luck

PG

Love my job.......never going to make me rich (do a job that interests me but pays alot less in my free time to help though) but I feel priviledged that I can get to look forward to going to work

Mr.Cookie

Andy

I used to work with a bloke calledfrank blackburn's missus, he's semi retired now but he quit a job admitedly long ago to do something he enjoy's and never looked back

Si

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the encouragement (especially Bob - thanks mate!). I am trying to (slowly) put together a portfolio and (more importantly) get my name known - I gather that's one of the most difficult parts of getting into the job.

I've had photos published in True Grip, and one of my shots is being used to promote this site for a printing firm. Over the next few weeks I'll be covering Trax, the Isle of Man trip and doing some other work for the SIDC. It's all for free, of course, but I need the practise and CV points.

Quick poll: have you ever paid for professional photos? What were they?

7 Foot

Will be buying some photos of me on track @ Japfest as soon as I get a job . Other than that - never.

My girlfriend has on one of those make-over/beauty days.

My sister had a terrific photographer at her wedding - she is a model and had seen a some of his work before hand, he took a lot of pictures that weren't as staged as a lot of wedding photos are. Most of the time you didn't have a clue you were having your picture taken........maybe that was more to do with the Champagne

darlodge

A mates step mum is a photo publisher in London (Canary Wharf area I seem to remember). She would regularlly buy photos that I thought were run of the mill for thousands One picture of a waterfall cost about £2500. Its a fecking waterfall. I am sure if I blasted rolls and rolls of film at it I could get a semi decent photo (granted not one that I could sell )

I had a pictures published when I did work experience when I was 16. One was of a CCTV camera!! Loads of fun

Lets see some of your pictures then?

Darren

AdrianFRST

Andy,

I've seen some of the stuff that you've done and you definately have the skills.

Do you use digital or 35mm?

I'm in a vaguely similar position, I work as an IT bod in an office and I'm bored of seeing the same places and the same people day in, day out.

I'm really starting to get into photography and I'd love to do it for a living, but I'm worried that it'll end up the same. ie. I use to love to mess with computers but the passion is all gone now.

It also seems to be that the "accepted" way in to the business is to start as an assistant and learn the trade that way, rather than as a hobby. Especially so with digital, which I think is still looked down at.

Richard Askew

I love it!! Drink coffee, smoke tabs and talk to peeps about motorbikes

Boring as hell sometimes though and its in the wrong part of the country

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Sure

SIDC Isle of Man trip 2002
Tenerife, Xmas 2002
Southwest USA 2003

I have a load of shots from Monday's BTCC meet at Brands too, but unfortunately can't publish them. Samples on request by email

Andy.

Ray_li

Andy.

Im in a similar position to you but not doing aswel as you mate.
I graduated as a product designer a year ago and only got a job a month and a half ago.
Im a designer but my job role is CAD Operator at this company which dont pay well at all (they say I have little experience).
They give me very very little designing to do and I spend allday doing CAD which is a waste of my talents.

They gave me some designing to do 2 weeks ago because they dont have a designer. I love the work but I cant help thinking they got me very very cheap to be designing. I feel if I carry on with this company to long I will be wasting my career doing CAD but I cant go because I need the money and experience.

Ray

Mr.Cookie

Andy

I've paid for oval circuit racing photo's a mate used to race

Friends have paid for wedding one's and christenings

Si
Ps i swear in one of your photo's (dragonfly) it's smiling

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Adrian,

I mostly use digital, especially for action shots like motorsports where taking lots of photos and weeding out the fuzzy ones is the only real way to get enough 'keepers'. I'd spend half a race changing films otherwise, not to mention bankrupting myself!

For landscapes and other things that don't move, I do use 35mm - I love the colours in Fuji Velvia and get more detail than my (now slightly dated) Canon D30. Also there's no other way to get really wide angles, thanks to the difference in sensor size.

Andy.

IanW

Almost exactly 1 year ago to the day I would have said no I didn't! A situation arose at work, and I saw that as my perfect excuse to 'Jump Ship'.

I used to (and still do) hate office politics, the fact that the work I was doing was so mundane, and was not offering me a challenge. I ended up doing almost the same job for every customer that I was dealing with, the only main difference being the language that the client was speaking to his colleaguges in.

1 year ago, when I had my oppertunity to get out, I did, and I have not looked back in the slightest!! I took a few weeks out of it all to have a think about everything, and decide what I want to do. My dream job, has always been to be a Police Officer with the Metropolitan Police, and I decided that while I had no real commitments (wife, kids, mortgage) that I was going to go for it! I knew that this was going to be a LONG process to get into though, so said to me self that after my birthday (end of January) I would find myself some temporary work until it all gets sorted one way or the other.

I am so much happier as a person now! I am a lot more relaxed, and this has even been noticed by my friends. OK I am not earning the money now that I was this time last year, but I am covering my bills, and that is all that I need! I have now completed and passed all of the Police Recruitment stages that I have any control over (Exams, Interview, Fitness Tests etc...) and I am just waiting for a date to start my 18 weeks training at Hendon. I now know that this IS what I want to do with my life!!

If you have something that you want to do Andy, go for it! DO your photography in your spare time, no matter how tempting jacking in the day job is. Your photographs always looked good to me! (might be something to to with you having such a good looking car in the pictures though )

All the best too you!!

Ian

7 Foot

Andy - when you do use 35mm who do you use to develop them?

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

http://www.peak-imaging.com/

BOB.T

Andy, I didn't tell you I sold some prints did I!! I'd forgotten about that!

I went to a trackday with some mates, snapped them, got bored and started to snap at a few other cars, anyhoo I got chatting to a guy in a well spanked up 205, got his email, sent him some pics and offered to get some prints at a reasonable cost...he bought 3 off me at 8 x 10 for 20 quid

BOB.T

Blimey, just looked at the peak imaging site, 12 squids for a 36 exp film....I thought 7 squids was expensive! Still might giv em a go though

lpski1

I wouldnt say bored. !! got in work at 7am, fini at 3pm, went to pub for some time, then out for dinner with some work peeps, now back in the office till 6am, !!!! hmmm, still, got lots of music and tomb raider 2 and matrix reloaded to watch, now to find the plasma screens. !!! looking forward to the night ahead, now i am half cut.

psst: dont tell my boss. HA HA HA HA

darlodge

Andy,

There are plenty of wicked photos on your site. The Tenerife ones are the best IMO.

Do you have a preference on what you snap?

Darren

Crush

Do I enjoy my job?

Well, When I left school, I was really into playing golf, so I went to college to train in Green Keeping, which I'm now qualified at. But I couldn't get a job in it. So I've just written of those years of my life & moved on.

So I got a break with the company I'm at now. I started doing fund administration, which is anything from compliance, reconcilling unit trusts, dealing, tax, pricing. The whole lot. I can do so much compared to other depts in the company. So now I'm qualified to work in finance, and I'm studying for another exam, then another after that, which will mean I'm FSA competent I don't hate it, but I hate the drive in, and having to repeat the same stuff over & over sometimes.

You would think I was keen to work in finance huh? Well I'm not. The truth is I don't know what the hell I want to do. I love rally more than anything else, and I would love to work somewhere in the sport (all the photo's on my wall at work ar rally cars FFS!).

But you don't just phone up Peugeot or Ford and tell them that you're gonna be starting on monday

So ATM, I'm saving up a little money, then I'm going to do something with my life, and try out a new country.

I just don't know what the hell my future really is

7 Foot

Thanks Andy - I'll give them a whirl.

pslewis

I can safely say that I have NEVER woken up in the morning and thought, "Oh, god, I don't want to go in today"!!

If that morning happens I will get outa there!!

In the meantime I shall just keep on designing, every day is different, Electronics today, Pneumatics tomorrow, Nuclear Physics the next day, Hydraulics the following Friday, Mechanical Packaging on wednesday and some PCB Design for good measure. Using 5 different CAD systems and Managing a Design Office .... then after lunch I'll call in the IT geeks and wind them up (so, so, easy to do!! )

Oh, yes, the moneys cr4p - £80k - but someones gotta do it!!

Pete

rik1471

I'd happily take less salary for postive job satisfaction.

I'm lucky - I actually look forwards to going in to worl

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Bob: Yes, they're expensive. So is travelling halfway round the world to expose the film in the first place You get what you pay for, though - remember the moon shots?

Darren: I prefer shooting anything that doesn't react to my presence. Pulling out a camera the size of a four-pack tends to distract people and make them uncomfortablem, and that comes across in the pictures. Cars and landscapes don't stop what they're doing, point, and say 'ooh, that's a big one'!

A.

Markus

Do I enjoy my job? Yes, I do, don't think I'd be at the same job for 9 years if I did not like it.

Yes, if you know me, you will know I moan like hell about my job, about going on-site, about dealing with silly customers, about, this, that, and the other. But in general I like it.

I am VERY fortunate, and I sometimes don't realise this and can sound big-headed when I talk about my job, I'm not being big headed, I'm just used to the way things are.

In the past 3 years things have turned around amazingly in the company, I've got a decent wage now, espeically for what I do. I am very good at what I do, mainly as it is very specialised, put it this way, there about 6 people worldwide who have the knowledge that I do, but then this is 9 years worth, so it's to be expected. I've travelled quite a bit. not just in the UK, but as most know, I flitted between our UK and St Louis office quite a bit, sometimes staying out in the USA for up to a month at a time every couple of months, plus on-site visits in the US (I am usually found in Louisville every few months), so I've seen a bit of the USA, and now I've had the opportunity to up-roots and move to Canada to work and live, and right now, with the ecconomic climate and anti-motorist standpoint in the UK I'm glad I could get out when I could. Yes the UK is still sort of my home, but I'm making a new life here.

My job is pretty rewarding too, as said, there are few people who have the knowledge I do, and thus I do pride myself on resolving peoples problems quickly and efficently, and I have had many people compliment me on the excelent job I do, but I don't take compliments well, simply as I don't see myself as doing anything speical, ok, big headed sounding I know, but if you know me in the real world you know I'm not really like that.

yeah, I'd love more money, who wouldn't but that might come, the next year or so is going to be very interesting for the company, and as part of the core of the company, I could benefit very well from it, will just have to wait and see.

all in all, I do like my job.