Hi not sure if anyone can give me some advice
I've been working in Reprographics/Print for 16yrs on a 4 night shift in London earning 30k, the night shift hours are starting to age me
I don't mind the job but it only pays well on a night shift.
I'm 44 and live nr Rochester, I could do with a change in career and happy to try most things, but need to earn around the same money as I have two boys in university, I would love for a Mon - Fri 9-5ish
Any help or advice welcome
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good luck.
Good luck.
insane and as a non tube driver, depressing!
what a carve up
If you switch jobs because in order to take home more money - or the same money for better hours - it won't take very long before you start to regret it. It will be great at first. Exhilarating, even. But then you'll soon remember it's only work; you're only doing it for the money; and the money isn't worth the change.
There are two people I have heard about, you should learn from. I will tell you about them.
But first, you should forget work, forget money and forget hours. Instead, try to think about the one thing you have a passion for. The one thing that makes you tick. The thing that you would *really* like to do. And then find a way of earning money by doing that. Only by doing what really pulls at your heart will you earn the right amount and work the right hours.
No-one can tell you what your passion is. But whatever it is, follow it.
You might have to invest time in doing that. For instance by taking a lower salary for a while. Which will mean living within your means. It will only be for a short while, but you will enjoy the investment of time you put into your new career, far more than you "enjoy" the hours you're doing now. Think of it like putting in some graft now, perhaps for a few years, in order to earn yourself the right to walk in to a great job, on a good salary.
The two people are also doing that. They'll spend the next few years with very little money, but spending a great deal of time preparing to make a great career for themselves. I think that's what you should do.
(I think you know which two people I am referring to).
Good luck Mark!
Learn something new in the same industry whilst your still earning
Mark needs to earn a decent wage straight away to pay for his two boys.
I would suggest any risky adventures take place after they have left Uni and can look after themselves.
That is why when tube drivers go on strike they win.
When fire fighters go on strike they get shafted.
When the tube goes on strike it costs the city millions.
As for the fire brigade it doesn't cost the city fuck all apart from a few people unlucky enough to be involved in a fire.
Nothing against tube drivers earning a decent wage good luck to them.
As for the gready bastards in the city who earn millions.
Fcuk em .
I taught myself FCP7 and freelanced through existing family contacts and got work for 2-3 years building up reference content for cheap fee's editing digital video media. I had to work extremely long hours that I couldn't fully charge for, because my learning curve made tasks take much longer than companies will allocate funding for. These family contacts eventually dried up, a couple of my clients closed down completely and I was left competing on the open market for work - and got absolutely nowhere.
You will find yourself competing against other new start-up creatives who will work for cheap/free in order to build up their credit/references. Lots of production companies will deliberately exploit the next batch of 'creatives' and drift from one cheap new start-up to the next. I saw a video once of a school classroom where a whole room of 15yr olds were being taught editing software on new computers. Every year you will be competing against 100's, if not thousands of new young wannabies having to work for cheap/free to build their credits. Everyone and his dog likes to think they're creative in some way, whether writing a blog, editing software, making jewellery in their home study or just taking Photo's, there's a whole ton of people out there dabbling in hobbies that they'd like to earn money from. In my experience, making a successful sustained career from being 'a creative' is really, really hard - you need an element of either luck, or family/friend contacts to succeed.
Teaching yourself software from online video's is possible, but it can be extremely frustrating. It can be done, but I found that tutorial video's whether free on youtube or paid for through sites like Lynda.com never quite match what you're looking at infront of you. I guarantee it will take an absolute age and drive you nuts. Do you have the perseverance to get through that frustration and out the other side?
By the end of my 3 years, the video industry had clearly moved from Apple to Adobe with its never-ending monthly subscriptions. My Laptop was out of date and needed replacing with a stronger processor and in truth, I needed to pay for some lessons on graphic software and after effects. If you decide to re-train in some kind of creative digital media work, be aware that hardware and software will continue to evolve, you will have to keep learning new systems, buying new hardware and competing for work with the next wave of young creatives. In my opinion, Apps like TikTok should also be a warning that the evolution of automated editing software targeted at end users, will eventually devalue creative jobs.