Hi all
Well it's been a good start to the week,
I Just spun off the roundabout of the ice and naffed up an alloy
BUT better than that
Some of you may know I work for a certain OEM.
This OEM has just annouced 20,000 job cuts.
There is a possibility I may be one of them
The question is, do I fight or do i leave to follow a passion of mine.
I'm strugling to enjoy my job at the minute, but i'm tied into the fact that it pays well, really well actually, and i need the money to get
by (mortgage etc)
I'd love to go of and be a photographer, (i like to think I'm not too bad) but i have no qualifications or know where to start.
worse than that, i spent 4 years at uni training to be an engineer, and now i'm actually upset that i don't want to do it. i feel i've
wasted my time and part of my life. and worse that i had to jump through so many hoops to actually get this job. mind you the job isn't
engineering, i spend most of my time filling numbers into spread sheets. but again it's good money for what I do
it's actually quite difficult to say all this so aologies if i'm all over the place.
on top of this i've lost all motivation for anything, i struggle to work on teh car, i don't wanna go out at night, and i need to get this
sorted soon cos i need to organise the wedding. mind you most of this is not helped by the random insomnia, but this is all by the by.
what should i do before i go crazy?
many thanks
They do say that things are rarely as bad as they first seem. You do seem to be in a tangle emotionally. Find a good, sympathetic third party to talk
to. I would wait and see what happens with your current job first - probably not the best time to consider a career move unless you are forced into
it.
Best of luck.
Martin
It can only get better- surely??
Photography presumably can be a good salary (I know my wedding photographer does quite nicely thank-you-very-much from it)... however, portraits
aren't going to be #1 priority for people at the moment, presumably artistic photos ditto and they even said today that 20% of people who were
planning a wedding may now be postponing it due to the financial situation....
You should follow your dreams but make sure now's the right time!!
I enjoy photograph and am not too bad at it,
Prob is you have a lot of competition so really it may take considerable time to get anything set up as a business, certainly using it to pay off
bills and live on may take several years to achieve and so IMO is not really realistic, but certainly worth pursuing
I’m also in a job I find mostly unsatisfying but pays stupid money for doing f&ck all, I actually much preferred driving a pubic bus to this!
Getting back to basics in your situation if you are being paid well now start putting every penny in the bank, till the situation improves,
Have you spoken to herself about this? Maybe she could help through work contacts or ideas. A wedding sounds a problem, how about putting money aside
purely for that and discussing with her exactly what you are doing so you can get an idea of the cost involved.
Also make sure your CV is up-to-date and on the web/agency’s etc, mines always is even when I’m in a job that I think is ‘permanent’
Which OEM please? Concerns me as I work for one as well and there are companies laying off and 4 day weeks all around us.
My solution would be bit on the side or going out on the town. If things come to a head I fancy a one way flight to the Carribean to watch the Windies
spank England.....
I trained as an NCB fitter then jacked it all in to drive RM's in London then went back to engineering where I have been the last 10 years. These
things go in cycles and I'm sure it will come good in time but atm its survival thats making you feel down.
I had a moment on my way to work in the snow last week and blew the front nearside tyre clean off the rim. I just howled with laughter after thinking
of my excursion into the hedge last summer.
Chin up!
Steve
Well without meaning to sound harsh, every Tom Dick and Sonia with a DSLR and tripod thinks they are the bees
knees when it comes to photography. What track record have you got in that?
Have you had exhibitions, commisions etc:
From what you say, sounds like not hence if it were me I would not throw in the spreadsheet towel to pursue this, not at this point anyway.
Fight for you job, vast majority of us do a job that is ok but does pay the bills.
In you spare time think of a plan of how to get into photograph - I have no idea what this entails but an evening class may be the first step.
quote:
Originally posted by coozer
Which OEM please? Concerns me as I work for one as well and there are companies laying off and 4 day weeks all around us.
Sorry coozer, I can't name the OEM, i don't want to give them a reason. But it is in all the press today.
Mr Whippy, your right, and this it what bothers me, the competition is massive.
however money for the wedding isn't a problem, it's already sorted and paid.
I think more than any thin i'm frustrated. I want progression and i feel i'll never be promoted, and i can't stay doing this for
another 30 years, just makes you wanna cry some times.
i just feel i was meant to do more than this?
cheers for the mental boost 02GF74.
I know this is the case, your right.
I currently sell my stock on Shutterstock. I exhibit locally, and have entered a few national comps (granted not won any yet)
Some examples can be found here, but i do need to upadte my site too
www.nb-photos.co.uk
but i guess your right, i should just be happy to have ajob, no point getting any ideas above my station
I wouldn't rush into anything. You've obviously got a lot of stress at the moment - don't let it cloud your judgement. The grass is
not necessarily greener on the other side, and given the level of knowledge and training necessary to pursue commercial photography, it certainly
isn't in this case.
I would suggest you should stick with your job and try to retain it during the recession. If you don't like what you're doing now, take
some time to figure out how to get into the type of work you want to do, and try to get the training you need to do it. Making precipitous decisions
while you're depressed and anxious will probably just give you something to regret in the future.
quote:
Originally posted by nib1980
Hi all
Well it's been a good start to the week,
I Just spun off the roundabout of the ice and naffed up an alloy
BUT better than that
Some of you may know I work for a certain OEM.
This OEM has just annouced 20,000 job cuts.
There is a possibility I may be one of them
The question is, do I fight or do i leave to follow a passion of mine.
I'm strugling to enjoy my job at the minute, but i'm tied into the fact that it pays well, really well actually, and i need the money to get by (mortgage etc)
I'd love to go of and be a photographer, (i like to think I'm not too bad) but i have no qualifications or know where to start.
worse than that, i spent 4 years at uni training to be an engineer, and now i'm actually upset that i don't want to do it. i feel i've wasted my time and part of my life. and worse that i had to jump through so many hoops to actually get this job. mind you the job isn't engineering, i spend most of my time filling numbers into spread sheets. but again it's good money for what I do
it's actually quite difficult to say all this so aologies if i'm all over the place.
on top of this i've lost all motivation for anything, i struggle to work on teh car, i don't wanna go out at night, and i need to get this sorted soon cos i need to organise the wedding. mind you most of this is not helped by the random insomnia, but this is all by the by.
what should i do before i go crazy?
many thanks
I've a friend who works as a photographer. Its a reasonably horrid job. The kit costs a fortune. He only spends around an hour behind the
camera and about 6 in front of the PC sorting out the shots, sending off to developers, getting large prints done, framing, scanning papers and
magazines for events. He covers a million miles in his car driving to events, printers, customers. People are brutal when it comes to paying for a
photo. They don't want an interpretation, most have an exact idea of what they want.
Photography is nice, but you have to aim for a market. What you going for? Library work? landscapes? news coverage? Commissions? Magazines?
Advertising?
quote:
Originally posted by nib1980
Hi all
Well it's been a good start to the week,
I Just spun off the roundabout of the ice and naffed up an alloy
BUT better than that
Some of you may know I work for a certain OEM.
This OEM has just annouced 20,000 job cuts.
There is a possibility I may be one of them
The question is, do I fight or do i leave to follow a passion of mine.
I'm strugling to enjoy my job at the minute, but i'm tied into the fact that it pays well, really well actually, and i need the money to get by (mortgage etc)
I'd love to go of and be a photographer, (i like to think I'm not too bad) but i have no qualifications or know where to start.
worse than that, i spent 4 years at uni training to be an engineer, and now i'm actually upset that i don't want to do it. i feel i've wasted my time and part of my life. and worse that i had to jump through so many hoops to actually get this job. mind you the job isn't engineering, i spend most of my time filling numbers into spread sheets. but again it's good money for what I do
it's actually quite difficult to say all this so aologies if i'm all over the place.
on top of this i've lost all motivation for anything, i struggle to work on teh car, i don't wanna go out at night, and i need to get this sorted soon cos i need to organise the wedding. mind you most of this is not helped by the random insomnia, but this is all by the by.
what should i do before i go crazy?
many thanks
Hiya,
I changed jobs within Engineering (different company, different product) about 18 months ago. I wasn't made redundant and the climate wasn't
the same, but it did me the world of good. I had only had one job since finishing Uni though. We aren't under threat at my current company - yet;
if I was in your position, I would start to look for other jobs - Gojobsite - and see what is about in Engineering. Even if its not a dream move,
it'll stop you being fed up as everything will be new to you. I would maybe look at setting the photography thing up as a sideline first while in
full time work and see what feasibility there is to make it into a business. Hope some of this is of helps. I know the current climate isnt the best
for getting a new job, but there are some jobs out there. Come out fighting.
I would wait and see what happens - I thought the news was that this OEM was planning on 20K people globally - about 8.5% of their total workforce.
Unless they've announced something else internally about the breakdown in the losses, don't jump ship. Especially wait and see what the
terms are - apparently workers at the Honda plant were offered all sorts of training courses if they took the voluntary redundancy package -
apparently there are quite a few ex-Honda plumbers around the town now.
Hope it all goes well for you, if you're not one of the unlucky ones, still look at training courses for photography - most local colleges will
do evening classes in it these days.....
Cheers
Vince
Lad i worked with got out of photography and into IT.
Said he loved taking the photos - just not all the other stuff that went with it. The worst problem was getting people to pay, he hated the chasing
and petty excuses why they wouldn't. I found that very disappointing as i love photography (although accept I'm very much an amateur.)
As for changing job - I'd say make cash while the sun shines (or it snows). Its what I'm doing. I expect to be out of a job in 12 months so
I'm saving up. I know another locoster on here is in a similar situation. In 12 months time I'll then pursue other dreams with a small lump
of cash behind me. Plus if people are leaving parts of their job will still need doing so you may get a more varied role.
For me I never really considered any job a career until later on, had loads of different jobs but didn't settle into a career until I was 32.
What did Baz Lurhman say apart from wear Sunscreen:
"the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know
still don’t."
I think you need to stay in your current job while you gain qualifications and experience in your hobby especially seeing as houses, cars
(Kitcars!!), marriage, kids, etc all require money.
When you start getting bookings and can class the hobby as a burgeoning career, ie you are starting to make good money, than you could consider it.
The last thing that you should think about is what type of photographer do you want to be.
Photography, in general, is a service industry and this is usually the worst hit in a credit crunch.
I married my wife on a shoestring, we worked hard for what we bought in, ut we did a lot ourselves and looked to save money at every turn.
We had the odd luxury, but not many.
If you are getting married for the right reasons, then you will both not mind. My sister in law often says she would have married her husband in a bin
bag! And whilst that isn't quite the sentiments of my wife, you can do it on a budget and still have a wonderful day.
Pretty easy to guess the OEM - it's on the front of the BBC website as I type.
Sorry to hear you're obviously getting stressed by the situation but to be honest most people I've met either aren't doing what their
degree/training qualifies them for - most engineers are forced into management if they want career progression.
While it very much depends on your circumstances you have to consider whether you'll regret not trying something new for the rest of your life if
you don't give it a go. A lot of people have turned their redundancy bung into the starting capital for a successful business, so I
wouldn't just quit, if the time comes there isn't anything you can do to fight it.
One area to think about is building up a stock of shots at an image library where you get paid every time one is used - you can do this while still
employed. Guy I knew years ago was busy taking pictures of all kinds of nonsense (spent a week doing pencil shavings from a 100 angles IIRC) which
was the kind of thing going into company brochures at the time.
Good luck whatever you choose.
you're probs being sarcastic but that is ok.
I am just pointing out reality ; every 14 year old kid reckons they will be playing alongside Beckham or dancing with girsl aloud but end up be
picking up litter or asking "if you want fries with that?" 
should you be grateful to have a job? I suppose yes but there is no reason to try for something you want or what you think is better.
Seems llikle you are a bit further up the line from Sonia & co. but it doesn;t sound to me like there is a regular income, certainly not one that
is enough to feed clothe, feed and pay mortgage.
I often wonder if when your hobby becomes your job, then the spark goes out of it since it then is no longer a hobby.
and as ^ says, the fun part of taking photos is a small part of the business.
To put into context, your problems are but small fry compared to what is happening to one of my friends at the mo. His cancer came back with a
vengeance last year, last week eye specialist said it has spread to his eyes and one of his hobbies is reading. Still trying to think of what to say
in response to e-mail from his wife.
You can jack it all in and go for the photography career - sounds like you are still young, 20s I reckon, so you have a lifetime ahead of you to make
up for any mistakes, should it turn out to be one.
quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
I often wonder if when your hobby becomes your job, then the spark goes out of it since it then is no longer a hobby.
No one can tell you what you should do... that's for you to make your own mind up about.
However if it was me I'd be inclined to try and follow my passion. I'm one of those people that would rather try and fail than not try and
always wonder what if. My one regret in life is not pursuing a girl I loved as much as I could have... as a result I often find myself wondering
"what if?" I forget who it was but someone famous once said "never regret what you have done, regret what you haven't" or
words to that effect.
Given the current credit crisis now might be a good time to retrain. By the time you have qualified hopefully the economy will be recovering. Your
local college should run photography courses and according to a tutor at my college "unless you did your engineering course with that college
there is no way to check if you have a level 3 qualification or not." Don't know how true this is it's just what I've been told.
It might be worth remembering that your first level 3 qualification is usually heavily subsidised by the government. They are happy to give our money
to the backs, let them give some of it back to us.
However like I said this is your decision and only you can make it. I just wanted to make you aware of some of your options.
My advice is simple; you should hang onto whatever job you have, like it or loath it, and wait until things pick up before making any big decisions!
It sounds like your suffering from SAD syndrome, which can lead to anxiety and insomnia. It's the lack of sunlight, lack of decent weather for a
blast around the countryside to get your serotonin levels up. North European humans naturally want to hibernate in winter, so what you're
experiencing is very common.
I've suffered on and off with this for years, but I find that having a project for those long dark nights really helps. Before you know it spring
and summer are on the way, and your mood lifts naturally. Perhaps a few mins per day in front of a full spectrum lightbox would help. Certainly helps
me.
Any faction of the creative arts is extremely difficult to break into in order to make a decent living. It happens more by luck and "knowing the
right people" than anything else. I wouldn't be in a hurry to leave a well-paid job for the precipice that is a career in the arts, because
if you think that you're pissed off and insomniacal now, just wait until you've no photography work, no money and bills stacking up against
you. I'm a professional fine artist,but also a committed Petrolhead. I love messing around with cars and bikes and have mates in the motorsport
industry; if I had my time again I'd be a motorsport engineer!
Don't wish to sound negative!
Cheers Chris
I think you are getting some good, and varied, advice - and as we don't personally know you I think that is right. Couple of things,
I have had 2 major careers so far, both completely different, both started interesting and then flagged.
Some people have done very well with their redundancy money, others have poured it into failed businesses, take care.
Unhappy and employed is generaly better than unhappy and unemployed, on a financial note that is.
Most people are keeping their heads down, but looking around for other options should the poo hit the fan.
Best of luck.
As usual, great advice on this site, I suspect most are correct.
Many thanks all. I'll have a think and mull it over. I guess things are always darkest before the dawn.
speak soon.
is it possible to maybe go part time, my wife is in a similar situation in that she hates the call centre job she has at the mo but with bonus etc it
pays pretty well.
So on a compromise she has gone part time as that allows her to earn enough money to pay her half of the overheads (just about) I wish i could afford
it for the both of us and gives her time to look for new job get experience etc.
She wants to be a teacher, a maths teacher of all things despite having a journalism degree! She is good at maths tho
[Edited on 9/2/09 by trogdor]
Folks,
a few people have talked about setting up a business, perhaps with redundancy. I'll now let you into a an economics 'secret'.
The gov. will support you doing this - ok thats not the secret, this is ....
The gov. really doesn't care if you succeed.
See the gov. needs people spending money. If you're spending instead of saving you're fueling the economy. If you set up a business you buy
lots of things and are therefore spending money. If you succeed - you hire people and fuel the economy. If you fail receivers get called in and
you've already spent your redundancy / fuelled the economy.
Either way, money is in the economy. So, when you hear about lots of grants and training and you think you can't fail after reading lots of nice
literature. Remember this post .... all the gov. wants is your life savings to prop up the economy.
If you're happy risking it - go for it you may be successful. Just do it with your eyes wide open & offer me a 10% discount
As a reformed photographer I'd have to encourage you to stick with engineering 
There is plenty of work in far-flung places like Dubai for
qualified engineers if it all goes to heck in the auto sector.
What others have mentioned above is sound and accurate advice -- photography is 90% sales and paperwork, 9% panicking about when the check will arrive
because the mortgage is 3 weeks late and 1% joy. It becomes a job like any other after a while.
Better to be a well funded amateur IMO, there is far more joy in shooting for yourself than for others.
T
IMO, Keep your passion your hobby.
If you get a chance to go to a 3 day week, then yes - explore the possibility of pursuing photography the other 2 days
Would appear to be out of the frying pan into the fire from a job security/ money point of view....
OTOH, I used to love IT. I now don't and wish I did something else. Trouble is I'm paid (and hence mortgaged) at a level that I can't
change path....if you can afford to do it, and genuinely believe you can make a go of it without turning it into a "oh no!" then go for
it....
[Edited on 12/2/09 by stevebubs]