Career Goals

[Mark Suszko]

Well, it may be early for you to have figured out which area of production gives you the most satisfaction. The older I get, the less I enjoy run and gun shooting or aerials, and the more I prefer editing, compositing, animation and writing/directing. As you age, your favorites may also change.

The industry evolves at a frightening rate. Old jobs dry up, and new disciplines emerge. There’s a lot of mergers and start-ups and bankruptcies. Demand goes up and down, client loyalty declines as they seek to commoditize what we do and break everything down to competing just on price, while quality continues to become diluted in favor of “good enough”. If you’re looking for stability in a career, this may not be the first choice, particularly as the only income for a family. It can be feast and famine, rapidly alternating, if you are chasing bigger numbers, bigger projects, bigger clients all the time. Plenty of people are wealthy and successful doing that, but they have to spend a lot of time and energy on marketing themselves.

Other than that, it’s fun!

Stick with the solid corporate gig; they are hard to come by these days, but stretch your “muscles” creatively by pursuing outside side-projects with friends or organizations, on whatever budget you can manage. This also builds your network of contacts, your depth and breadth of experience, and gives you more ideas about what it is that you really love most – that thing you’ll eventually sell all you have, just to fund making “it” real.

You might start smaller though; explore thru the corporate gig, what charities your company invests in, and suggest making some PSA’s or funding marketing communications for those charities on spec. Because it’s a “freebie”, you might explore more risky or innovative creative ideas for such a project.

[Andrew Kimery]

[David Sikes] “The only “next step” I can think of so far is either a) same job, but bigger company or market, or b) to eventually try to specialize in an aspect of production and seek a career in that (ie, editing). “

Before you can take a next step you certainly need to get an idea of where you want to go. Do you want to start your own production company? Shoot feature films? Edit documentaries? Direct music videos? Why did you get into this field? What’s your dream job?

Basically, you decide where you want to go and then work backwards. For example, when I was in college I figured out that I wanted to be an editor and I wanted to take the bull by the horns which meant moving to Los Angeles. From talking with other people in the industry and hanging out in forums like the COW I learned that a typical career path for editor was something like get a PA/runner job at post house, move up to being a logger or working in the machine room/tape vault, move up to assistant editor, move up to editor. I could spend a couple years or so at each level so it could take 8-10 years to go from an entry level position to editor.

My short term goal was how to afford to move to Los Angeles. My long term goal was supporting myself full time as an editor. In between were a much of medium term goals so I knew I stayed on pace and on course.

[Bob Zelin]

aah – the innocent, starting in our “cool” industry, with your “cool” job. You will eventually realize several things.

1) working for anyone sucks
2) unless you become SO GOOD at ONE THING (so that it is boring to you), no one will ever believe that you are good. So the only way to become a “star” is to get SO GOOD at editing, color grading, producing, graphics, audio, wardrobe, lighting, etc. and do NOTHING ELSE FOR EVER, that people will say “wow, this guy is great at XYZ”. And you better love doing XYZ, because you will be doing XYZ for the rest of your life. So long, that it will become second nature to you, and BORING. For an analogy, if you ever need open heart surgery, you don’t want an ambitious young student doing his first heart operation on you – you want THE OLD GUY, that has done thousands of bypass operations, and valve replacements. This guy, THE OLD GUY has NO IDEA about dermatology, or colo-rectal surgery, or opthamology, or orthopeadics – he is a HEART SURGEON, and he knows it SO WELL, that it is no longer a challenge to him. It’s just his job, and he makes a lot of money at it, and his only pleasure is to go golfing, or boating, or go on vacation with his wife. THAT IS LIFE.

When the stuff that you love to do is SO DAMN COOL YOU CANT BELIEVE YOU ARE DOING IT, no one wants you. When in fact you are so damn good at “job XYZ” that “everyone” knows that you are “THE GUY” and that they would be a fool not to hire you, then you have succeeded in your career. But you have done it SO MANY TIMES, that you are bored, and would rather do anything else. You don’t get to play basketball when you are a football player.

What you do is a job, and you work for a company. One day, if you continue at this, you will be independent, have your own company, and people will hire you, and pay you to do what you do best (producing, directing, editing, whatever). That is the only goal you should have. Because if you work for THE BIG COMPANY (like a TV Station or Cable Station), one day you will be fired, and they will hire some kid JUST LIKE YOU to replace you, because you make too much money, and they just don’t want people like you there anymore, because AVID, Blackmagic, AJA, Sony, Adobe, etc. are not COOL anymore, and all the cool kids (it’s 20 years from now) are using BRAND XYZ, and you don’t know brand XYZ, and you are getting paid 4 times what these kids will take, and they already know BRAND XYZ, so you are out on your ass.

Learn as much as you can, never stop learning, never stop meeting clients, including your bosses clients right now. Do this forever, and you will do fine.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Rich Rubasch]

Mmmmmm, another sweet Zelin post.

It’s gonna be a great day!

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com

[Tim Wilson]

On the flip side, I’m on my sixth or seventh career in 30 years, only half of them even vaguely related to even one of the other. The energy I spent on trying to get ahead in my then-current career, in retrospect, would have been better spent on literally anything. Reading. Cheese making. Lifting weights. Watching TV. Sex. Name it.

The thing is, I was passionate, committed, and laser-focused on each of those careers. Absolutely loved them. But the idea of picking a thing, or even a matrix of related things, to build an entire life around is horrifying to me. The irreplaceable treasures I’ve picked up along a path I’d never have predicted is my favorite thing about my life.

You have been given a gift of almost incalculable value: a steady job at a young age. My suggestion: use this period of relative safety to prepare to blow it all up before you’re 30, at the latest. Follow your interests and instincts, remembering that “career path” doesn’t mean just one career. And it may not even look like a path at all until you’re looking back on it.

It’s good that you’re thinking about this now, and I’m glad that you’re asking yourself what this job will offer you in a few years. The answer might be “Nothing.” At which point do something else.

These other fellas are steering you straight, but that’s only helpful if you want to keep driving straight. I’d just add that there are rewards that can only be found on the other side of the horizon, which I’ve always thought of as my starting place. I can SEE the horizon. Why stop there?

[David Sikes]

Everyone, thank you for all the great advice. This is all so helpful. I will certainly take the advice to make the most I can of the time I have at this in-house job, to make good work and grow professionally, so I can be prepared for the day I need to go elsewhere, for whatever reason.

It’s always healthy to hear from the experienced pros here about what a career path can look like in this industry that is changing so rapidly.

I couldn’t find my posts, but advice I received while in college is largely what helped me get this job and the jobs I had in college. Thanks to all the folks who have helped out in my career so far, and all the advice that y’all continue to share with me.

[Kylee Pena]

You’re kind of describing me during my first year (plus three more years after that) out college, like almost exactly. It’s good that you recognize that you could become stagnant. Once I realized that I was the only video expert in the whole company and I could get away with doing less than what I found to be acceptable work, I actively challenged myself to learn something new with every project. So for some, I made myself try a new technique in After Effects. With others, I tried pitching a project in a style I’d never worked on before. That mostly worked to keep me engaged for like two years.

The thing that really kept me going was using the stable job with regular hours to explore stuff on my own time and figure out what I wanted to do next. I was able to do a lot of independent film work and become a much better editor. I also directed a couple of short films and found that I liked writing and directing, but really hated actually shooting. And I did some other jobs or volunteer work that were nothing like video production work just to see what it was like. I had a lot of time to develop business relationships with people that I still work with today, on mostly fun stuff.

So with all that time, I was reaffirmed in pursuing purely post production work, and that ended up becoming my sole focus in my down time and then my next job move. It could have easily gone another way.

However, being someone that has always been really unhealthily obsessed with a linear path to career success and happiness and junk (to the point of working myself to terrible health in college just because I HAD to graduate in FOUR YEARS or ELSE), I strongly urge you to follow the advice in this thread about chilling out and realizing there may be no clear path until it’s behind you. That will save you a lot of anguish about moving forward in your career.

blog: kyleesportfolio.com/blog
twitter: @kyl33t
demo: kyleewall.com

[Richard Herd]

[Tim Wilson] “I’m on my sixth or seventh career in 30 years”

Did you have student loans?

I add: pay back those student loans as fast as possible. Don’t buy new gear. Don’t get a graduate degree. Don’t spend money a big wedding. Or a house. Or new gear. Don’t buy new gear. Pay off the student loans. Then quit the current steady job.

[Kylee Pena]

[Richard Herd] “Pay off the student loans. Then quit the current steady job.”

While it’s obviously important to get rid of debt quickly, if I stayed in my first steady job and never bought any gear until my student loans were paid off, I’d still be at that crappy gig with no end in sight. It seems short-sighted to put your life on hold until one thing is paid.

blog: kyleesportfolio.com/blog
twitter: @kyl33t
demo: kyleewall.com

[Tim Wilson]

I DID have student loans, and I DID go to graduate school. And my first three careers after school had nothing whatsoever to do with EITHER of my degrees.

I’m not saying you have to go to that extreme. I suspect a handful of careers is enough for most people. LOL

[Kylee Wall] “…if I stayed in my first steady job and never bought any gear until my student loans were paid off, I’d still be at that crappy gig with no end in sight. It seems short-sighted to put your life on hold until one thing is paid.”

My father has changed careers even more than I have, and he made quite a few of those changes while he had young kids at home. We moved a bunch. Someone might lament all that as some sign of crumbling modern whatever, but my experience was the opposite. I lived in big towns, small ones, rural flatlands and islands, from northern New England to southern California, from Florida to Oregon, and, okay, a little too long in Texas. LOL I love this whole dang country, and just about every way there is to live in it. I LOVE adapting.

(I also look at American history and see multi-generational roots as the exception, not the rule. There’s no more American trait than migration, our tragic history of forced migrations notwithstanding.)

I learned adaptation from my parents, and I assure you there was no money to fall back on. Things were sometimes tough, but it was an adventure. We had fun. I think I was very well served by my experience that there are always new ways and new places to grow.

I also think that that experience is more critical than ever, as we move increasingly into a world where career changes aren’t our ideas. If your primary stance to the world is an experience of flexibility and adaptation, then you can more quickly start to see the opportunity that lies on the other side of the crisis.

The last observation I’ll make is that 2 of my last 3 careers didn’t exist when I was in college. Preparing for them was not an option EXCEPT to the extent that I’ve been in the habit of getting into new habits on a regular basis. Who knows? My next career might not exist yet either.

Knowing that you CAN make those kinds of changes, because you’ve MADE those kinds of changes is better than getting into a situation where your career vanishes out from under you in ten years, yes?

This is going further afield that I meant to, and I’ll bow out from here. But my point is still the same. If what you really really really want is to drive straight on ’til sunrise, then go for it, my friend. I just wouldn’t want anyone looking for career advice to ONLY get advice for the best way to keep going straight.