[Tim Wilson]

[Mark Suszko] ” If you REALLY work your hardest”

I don’t agree at all. People in this business aren’t losing jobs, or unable to find them, because they’re not working hard enough.

All job markets are not equal. Some places are growing, some are shrinking. Sometimes opportunities only happen if you move.

Part of Jacob’s interest in moving is motivated by quality of life. THAT part of it: all signals are go. Do it. I’m a fan. Everything works better with an occasional reboot. Your family’s life will be richer for it.

In that sense, wanting to move is reason enough to do it. Ignore the rest. You like Texas? Go. No kidding. You can figure stuff out once you get there. If a move looks interesting to you, that’s a good sign that it will work out. I’ve done it a bunch of times, and that’s exactly how it has gone. Good things can happen if you’re happy where you are.

That said, in a parallel universe, the one where Spock has a goatee and I make short posts, I could probably have limited my previous post to the last sentence:

If the viability of your move depends on keeping current clients, they have to be 100% on board with you moving.

I’ve worked with clients a lot further away than Dallas/Austin to LA. It can be done, but it’s hard.

One reason is that even clients who love you can be susceptible to the charms of somebody who’s around them all the time. Long distance romances CAN work…but there’s a reason that the default assumption is that they CAN’T. They almost never actually DO.

The larger reason is that travel is a bitch. The miseries of travel will definitely eat into your quality of life, and, to the extent it means you’re not at home, into your family’s too.

At one point, my father was actually commuting by airline: left pre-dawn Monday, back home Friday night. Why? QUALITY OF LIFE. What? NOBODY’s quality of life was benefiting from that, except maybe the airline stockholders.

We all agreed in retrospect that, no matter what we’d have had to face in the towns where he was actually working, we’d all have had a higher quality of life if we’d just moved. Or he’d changed jobs, which is what he eventually did: took a job that let him stay home. In fact, he changed CAREERS to make it happen.

At a certain point, you realize that “quality time” has become a euphemism for “LESS time,” eg, “I’m not home as often, but when I am, it’s QUALITY time.” When in fact, you’ll find that “quality time” equates to “MORE time.”

My father’s was an extreme case, but I had something similar happen. One of my clients was 1700 miles away, and as the job got bigger, I needed to spend a week onsite every couple of months. One week out of eight — that ain’t so bad, right? But all we had to do was move, and we’d be together six more weeks a year! That’s HUGE! So we moved.

Which is why I’m a fan of moving.

A little less so if the move is the thing that causes you to spend less time with your family.

Unless you WANT to spend less time with your family. LOL Hey, it’s your life, man. Do what ya gotta do to stay sane. Sanity is part of quality of life too.

[Tim Wilson]

I lived in Texas for a while, went to college there, and have also lived in 5 different states since then. Overall, I’ve moved 22 times in 28 years, and probably another dozen when I was a kid.

I also traveled like a demon for some industry companies, and got a good sense of the jobs scene up until a few years ago when I got out. So, some general thoughts as a former Texan, a traveler, and a professional observer of the media production industry.

— No matter what else is true of Texas, the pool of opportunity is smaller. Dallas-Ft. Worth is the #5 market, but that’s deceptive because of how many small towns comprise it, and HOW small they are (closer to Mayberry than Glendale), with nobody else to claim them as part of THEIR market. Outside a crowded center, long stretches of freaking NOTHING.

(BTW, this is where I lived for part of my teens.)

Austin is the #49 market, right behind Memphis, and just ahead of Louisville, KY. Wonderful place…but dude, Louisville.

The good news is, both of them are very livable cities. You and your family can make nice lives for yourself in either one. You might also look at San Antonio, which is in one of the prettiest parts of the country. (Google Image search Texas Hill Country wildflowers.)

— Unless you want to start a manufacturing facility or something, forget phrases like “business friendly.” California leads the country in non-government job creation — not just more than Texas, but more than TX, VA and OR combined….but what did all those new jobs do for you? Nothing. The same as Texas’s much higher poverty rate will do for you. Nothing. Or that Jerry Brown’s approval rating is 60% and Rick Perry’s is 40%. Means. Nothing. for your work prospects.

— Bob is right: you’re going to be floored by how much less you make. Your money will of course go further. But wow, you’ll make a LOT less money. This takes a while to wrap your head around. Start now. 🙂

— Note that Dallas and Austin are both among the country’s leaders in inbound migration. A lot of it from California. This is especially true in Dallas, whose boom is meaningfully fueled by tech migrating from Silicon Valley. You won’t be the first guy from LA that your prospective clients will have spoken to.

That’s on top of the local guys who have already been working in these high-pressure, world class markets. They’re not all chumps.

— So, no matter how you shake it, fewer opportunities, all of them paying less, and no matter how much experience you have, you’re going to have to push your way through a lot of other people who already have the clients you want…and a lot of other immigrants who want them too.

— One of the things that can jam you up in Austin is a huge media program at the University of Texas. It’s one of the best anywhere, and by big, I mean 4500-ish students in the School of Communication alone. Baylor (my alma mater) has a big, strong program an hour and a half a way, as does Texas A&M another half hour away. Now, obviously, everywhere has a lot of colleges and a lot of students, and not all of those media program kids will look for work in Austin — but a lot of them will, as will students from other parts of the state. Why not? Austin is a FANTASTIC place. More attractive than Dallas in quite a few ways.

So imagine 2000 freshly minted graduates from top-notch media programs pouring into…Louisville, KY…looking for work every May. Plus all the people from all over the country who hear that Austin is a vibrant media center…which it is. Totally.

But not as easy to break into as it looks, for exactly that reason.

— A lot of people are going to tell you that they’d kill to get out of their markets and into LA. Be prepared to tell them why you think that they’re wrong. LOL

Personal notes:

— As a kid who moved a lot, I do encourage you to think about it, just to enrich your kids’ life experience if nothing else. I loved it. I’ve obviously kept it up. LOL I think it’s a good habit to get into. Who cares if a move doesn’t work? Move again. There are so many great places to live, it’s a shame to limit yourself to just a couple. In my experience, the trouble comes when you stay too long.

— A couple of months ago, my father actually apologized to me for a) moving the family to suburban Dallas, and b) not getting out sooner. It was easy to accept that apology. I got out mostly alive, so no harm, no foul.

I mentioned this to my mother later, and she said, “He apologized? Good.” It’s been 30 years since they left, and my mother is obviously still, let’s say, annoyed by it.

But hey, plenty of other people love it, and like I said, most people err by staying where they are too long — including LA. All the more reason to consider moving.

Final tally: lower cost of living and general quality of life: yes for Texas. More job opportunities: absolutely not.

If the only way you can make it work is keeping your LA clients, you have to talk this through with them first. They may be the only work you have for a good long while, and if they’re not okay with this, you’re in for a rough ride.

[Tim Wilson]

We normally don’t do this, but I like the sound of your specific thing. I also really appreciate you taking the time to ask. That alone tells me that you’re somebody I’d like to help if I can.

To try to pin down the right forum, tell me more about the work you do, and who you think will benefit most. Be specific. I know the goal is “everyone” but you have to start somewhere. 🙂

Thanks,
Tim

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW

[Tim Wilson]

JMR, Small Tree, Facilis, Western Digital, AVID, Maxx Digital, Tolis, Studio Network Solutions, Areca, CI Design and ATTO all call for Enterprise drives.

Does that mean that I have to use them? They’re pretty expensive, Bob.

(Just trying to save some time until somebody else posts this question for real.)

[Tim Wilson]

This is a long way from being a trend. As the Chicago boys have also noted, they’re much more indicative of macro economic trends (eg, we can’t make more than we spend) that have nothing to do with iPhones.

[Scott Carnegie] “The business is constantly changing”

The WORLD is changing, and focusing on just part of it misses the point.

To Ned’s earlier point, I’d been thinking recently that one irony of the mobile web is that it favors words over pictures. Look at how many mobile versions of stories don’t have pictures at ALL.

Even when they do, the value of photos on the mobile web is inversely proportional to their value on the tethered web. On the tethered web, give me as many pictures as you can. Make ’em as big as you can. Click to enlarge, baby. Otherwise, all those words are too hard to read. It’s just not fun without pictures.

On the mobile web, maybe one, as small as possible. Otherwise, they get in the way of the words. Anything longer than a Facebook post, CERTAINLY for a news article, I’d rather have no pictures at all, thanks. (Hey, and thank YOU Instapaper.)

Not that I don’t love pictures. Saying that this is in my blood is an understatement. I started as a photojournalist, and was only one of many in my family. I also had a great-uncle who taught it, one who was a lifer with the AP on Capitol Hill, another whose work as a war photographer was featured in a special exhibition at the Smithsonian when he passed. A cousin spent his career at Newsday. These relatives cover both sides of my family, btw, and I’m leaving some out.) My sister has a degree in photography, as does her daughter who has been a professional photographer for quite a few years now. And while not a photographer, my father was an award-winning publisher of 7 newspapers.

And, true confession, my current online addiction is tumblr, a social media platform that’s pretty much ONLY pictures. The mobile version is amazing.

And I’d rather not have a picture in a story I read on my phone.

Ned also mentioned that, at its broadest, this is a generational thing. I remember hearing my great uncles lament that 35mm SLRs marked the end of photojournalism as they knew it — but it was inevitable, they admitted. The pictures weren’t as good, but the cameras were dang near foolproof and bulletproof, definitely smaller and cheaper. Not that you couldn’t still do good work with one. In many ways, it was HARDER to do good work with them — but boy did they love their Nikon system cameras! How did we ever live without these?

Any of this sounding familiar? Pros lamenting the end of “real” work, while buying much of the same gear they’re lamenting?

It’s hard to think of any job that’s not going away. Even here in what’s functionally becoming the COW’s Geezer Lounge LOL, almost every one of us benefited from the same dynamic on our way in. Doesn’t make it any less noteworthy of course…

…but it doesn’t make it an easily described trend, either. It’s not a trend at ALL yet, and there are no broad conclusions to be drawn. It’s enough for now to say that it’s a shame the Sun-Times can’t find its way anymore and leave it at that.

PS. You want to talk about a grim sign for their future online? I just did a quick check, and 5 of their top 9 search terms, including the top 3, all have Roger Ebert’s name somewhere in them. Despite a huge spike in traffic in April (guess why?), their web traffic is down by over 50% in the past 6 months. The next round of job cuts will be more than dudes with cameras.

.

[Tim Wilson]

Did we pass? Did YOU pass?

[Tim Wilson]

No, the point of the Friends thing is so that you can track the posts of all your favorite people on one screen, even if you don’t visit the forums they post in.

We’ve avoided having a direct email link because we want to encourage conversations IN the forum. I get personal email all the time asking me about how to set up their computer for editing, it used to be FCP vs. Avid, nonsense like that — and I hardly ever post. I can’t even imagine what kinds of crazy stuff people like you and Walter would get…and probably do anyway.

Our assumption is that if people want to get emailed, they’ll put their contact info either in their sigs or their profiles, and it has generally worked out pretty well. Hence people getting ridiculous emails.

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW

[Tim Wilson]

[Evan Thompson] “I just needed to know the balance between getting a degree or bypassing it”

Okay, here it is taken to the extreme:

“Dammit I’ve learned too much! I know so much about so many things, and have so many options that it’s keeping me from being a good editor.” LOL

There are noooooooooooooooooooooo disadvantages to getting a degree. None. None. None.

Now, if the question is, can you do what you want in this life without a degree, the answer is obviously yes. But less so by the second. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were college dropouts. Wanna guess how many they hired?

To once again say it in the extreme: not having a degree creates obstacles. Having a degree creates opportunities.

So, how much do you love obstacles? How much knowledge, experience, and potential are you willing to sacrifice in the name of an obstacle-laden career with fewer opportunities? That’s crazy talk, man….but then again, maybe that’s exactly what you want.

I’m not being condescending. Getting a job is a challenge under the best circumstances, and some people need extra challenges in order to excel. Maybe that’s you, in which case, go for it.

[Joseph W. Bourke] “I started my education as an English major….transferred to music school…”

Opportunities.

I’ve told the story here many times of beating out much more experienced people, as well as many people who charged a lot less, for a natural science-related TV show with a 6-figure budget because I knew biology and geology. I lost the gig when I more than doubled my price….then got it back a few months later at my new asking price when they realized that the new guy, whose work was really pretty — arguably prettier than mine — just didn’t know enough science. They’d gotten spoiled by what my knowledge brought to my work, and never actually aired the episodes they’d paid him to create.

I was also more than a shooter/editor. I was a co-producer because I had the experience to manage a lot of moving pieces that had nothing to do with video. Almost all of it came from doing the day to day stuff that students have to do, irrespective of the content of the classes — preparation, pacing myself with a million things on to-do lists for different people with conflicting needs, delivering on time no matter what. Word problems. Pretty much every problem you’ll face will boil down to a word problem. That stuff gets easy with practice.

The fact is that you’re going to start any job pretty far down the food chain. I didn’t step into a management job. But I had experience in things besides shooting and editing that made people think of me when management jobs became available.

Again an extreme example, but even if you want to gallop straight into a video production career, you never know what’s going to give you the edge. It might even be the one thing that “you’re never going to use in real life.”

[Joseph W. Bourke] ” web tutorials”

I know that you and I agree on this Joe, so I’m going to just expand a bit on this.

We obviously post a bunch of tutorials here at the COW, and I’ll put ours up against anybody’s on the net — but no amount of online training is good way to teach yourself anything big. It’s a great way to help answer specific questions or teach specific techniques, but even something massive and comprehensive like lynda.com or fxphd, both of which will teach you good stuff — if I saw those on a resume, I’d toss it out. I don’t want to know what books you read or TV shows you watch either. That’s not the BASIS of anything.

It’s also worth noting that the number of people who finish online degree programs is somewhere in the 30% range. It’s one reason schools love them so much. They’re like gift cards or subway passes. The school keeps all the money without having to provide all the service. One of the great false hopes of our time.

On the other hand, actual certifications from Adobe, Avid, etc — THOSE are good. You pay money, you take tests, you have to PASS them. When I was working in that field, the goal was a 50% failure rate. If more than half the people passed the test, we failed as test-makers. You could retake the class for free until you passed, but these certifications are far from gimmes. Certifications tell me that you want RESULTS, something that will last longer than the latest cool preset you downloaded.

[Joseph W. Bourke] “It’s the knowledge and experience you’re after….”

Yep.

Most of us geezers have been talking about straight-up liberal arts degrees. I certainly have. I loved mine, and loved the long, twisting route it helped me take to everyplace else I’ve been.

That may not be fore you. There are many different, equally valid approaches. There are technical and business oriented programs, both of which also provide plenty of production opportunities on the way to potentially different career paths.

I’m also a HUGE fan of programs like Full Sail. As well as 4 year and Masters degree programs, they offer a 2-year associates degree jammed into 13 months with a massive range of internships at major companies, many of whom sponsor programs there. You have to hustle like a ninja demon to get through that thing. Another of my favorite things is that you take drawing and painting classes before they let you touch a computer — but it’s a hardcore focus on doing the WORK, a true gauntlet for people who know what they want.

There’s a heavy seminar component, which brings up another advantage of formal education we have’t really talked about — working with, competing against, and being inspired by passionate, driven peers. You may even find some of them more valuable to you than some of your teachers.

Being around other students will open your eyes to what’s possible, and sober you up that you’re not just facing “the market,” but people more skilled than you who want the job more. If you don’t have blood dripping from your fangs, you have to find a way to get ahead of the people who do. You can, and this too comes with practice.

I want to also be clear that everything Bob Zelin said is absolutely true — and it’ll still be true after you have your degree. You will still have to be a dripping fangs ninja demon, and like I said, if you’re not one naturally, you’re going to need to figure out how to beat them at their own game, or somehow change the game. School’s a good place to do that.

And it’s fun. LOL

[Tim Wilson]

My father once suggested that I spend some time with want ads, find jobs that looked interesting, and see what kind of skills and achievements those jobs required.

This was hella hard work back in the day, because my small town newspaper didn’t advertise a single job I wanted. LOL And the regular dailies from nearby large towns didn’t have much either.

Today, this is painless. Start with jobs.creativecow.net, plus wherever else you can think. Find something that sounds interesting. They’ll TELL you what they want.

Of course, the other thing is, not everybody finds one career and grooves into it from the outset. This was one of the great things about growing up with my father — he jumped from industry to industry without blinking. I love that I’ve been able to do the same, and am kind of annoyed that I’m still here. LOL Not for long, suckas.

But if all I’d done is follow the specific path for the exact thing I was thinking about doing when I was younger — generally summarized as costumed superhero or gigolo — I’d never have actually wound up with a career in video. And hey, not like I’m ruling out the others either. I’m just saying, I get that some people choose careers, or even individual jobs, that they stay at their entire lives. That sounds worse than tragic to me. That sounds more like, “I’d kill myself, but I’m too sad to work up the energy to pull the trigger.”

The grain of salt to take with all the advice you’re getting is that, other than Kylee, most of us (including me) are old enough to be your father. Many of us are OLDER than your father. And just as with your father, most of what we say is worthless. LOL Or maybe it was perfectly worthwhile advice 25 or 35 years ago, but simply not as applicable now.

Anyway, doesn’t matter who you know if you’re not the kind of applicant somebody is looking for, for the kinds of jobs you’re interested in. Start by looking at the job requirements for those, season to taste.

[Tim Wilson]

[Bob Zelin] “I don’t work for Apple”

Which is why, in the long run, they’re doomed.