RE: FLASH: Selfish (Sidenote)

[Top-Link Tech (Charles Moulton]

Dan,


I didn't see the job post you speak of, and although rude, it's not really

selfish. But, it is the nature of most businesses (not just ours) these

days. All the ads say 2+ years experience, but, none of them want to give

you (you meaning the newbie, not you specifically) that experience.


But, that's unfortunately the way life goes. Especially in the world of

business.


The alternatives are many.


The most viable one being, go out, grab the bull by the horns, and do like

many of us have done and EARN the experience. The mistake too many people

make is they want to jump right into a Flash job. Sure maybe they'll take a

small account, or a simple task, but, its got to be a Flash job. Whatever

happened to the mailroom mentality? When you might've wanted to be the CEO,

but were willing to take the mailroom job and make your presence known,

learn the ropes and work your way up?


I'm looking for entry level designers right now.....but not Flash designers.

No, I want to know you can handle much more than just Flash, and I want you

to prove yourself to me first before you work on the cool stuff. Sounds

mean, sounds rude, sounds selfish.....but I've got a design department to

run, and clients to keep happy, and that's what's important, not whether or

not you can do the coolest stuff on the web.


But I get designers in here with their noses in the air. I do graphics but I

DON'T do code. I do Flash, but I don't really want to do HTML.....and these

people have no experience, and their coming to me straight out of school and

expect a job? I don't think so. People want an entry level job, but, they

don't want to do entry level work.


Let me tell everybody. I started as a nothing. I was a simple coder,

crunching out HTML all day long hoping to move up to design and programming.

(Now keep in mind that at this point I had several years of real world

experience using graphics programs for print design but I wasn't allowed to

do actual online design.) I had to prove myself, I paid my dues and moved up

to designer. (To put this in Flash perspective....this is BEFORE the release

of Future Splash....remember that?) I busted my ass and moved up, left that

job and went to CNN in NYC as a Senior Designer. Busted my ass and moved up

and now run my own design department here.


But, I didn't get to start out doing the cool stuff. I started doing scutt

work, and watching others do the cool stuff. I learned, and eventually put a

couple of those people out of a job.


The other alternative, and by far more rewarding, but, tougher one is create

the experience YOURSELF. Go and freelance a couple of gigs. But keep it

simple and don't bite off more than you can chew, or you'll end up worse off

than when you started. Do a few small jobs, and then SHOW THOSE JOBS to the

companies you want to work for as your experience.


If you want a job doing Flash for a living, you need to walk in with more

than a couple of class projects and stuff you did on the weekends at

home....or you need to have that stuff be the greatest ever seen. Most

companies don't have the time to hire a person  to fill a position and let

him/her learn on the job, we need a person who knows enough to come in and

get right to work with relative ease. That's why companies ask for

experience. That's why they say 'No weekend warriors'. It's not selfish.

It's business.


~Graveshow

(Also Known As)

--------------------------------------------

--Charles A Moulton

--Director of Multimedia Development

--TopLink Technologies, Inc

--1763 East Route 70, Suite 221

--Cherry Hill NJ 08003

--tel 877 TOP LINK

--tel 856 489 4194

--fax 856 489 4197

--charlestltechnologies [dot] com

--http://www.tltechnologies.com

--------------------------------------------

"I swear by my life and my love of it that

I will never live for the sake of another man,

nor ask another man to live for mine."

 - John Galt

--------------------------------------------




-----Original Message-----

From:

ownerchinwag [dot] com

 [

ownerchinwag [dot] com]On">mailto:ownerchinwag [dot] com]On

 Behalf Of Daniel

Guerrier

Sent: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 3:48 PM

To:

flasherchinwag [dot] com

Subject: FLASH: Selfish (Sidenote)



At the risk of alienating myself right of the list, I

have something to get off of my chest.  I've noticed

that many (not all) of the more advanced flashers on

the list are extremely selfish.  How you ask?

I've seen many newbie to intermediate flashers post

messages that ask for some sort of internship or

mentoring that would give many flashers what they

need, real world experience.  Yeah we read the books,

and visit the tutorial websites, but lets face it.

99.9% of the books don't go beyond the intermediate

stage, and for some, learning by looking at complex

fla's with little documentation can be a daunting

task.

   However each time a request for experience in a

live

production environment is requested.  It either falls

on deaf ears or is answered with a condescending reply

that comes short of saying "go to hell."  A recent

posting to the list for a job said, and I quote "If

you're a newbie, or someone who read the books and

worked with Flash at home and are looking for

experience, don't call."  Where do we go after the

books and home study if nobody is willing to give a

person a chance to move up in the flash world?  I'm

not

saying that you should grab any knucklehead off of the

street and put him/her on a high profile account; not

at all.  Give him/her small personal assignment that

illustrates an aspect of flash that may that is not

covered in books, you know, show him/her the ropes.


   My only question is why?  Why are you so selfish?

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