IT Job Scarcity

No problem. The one thing I have learned is that the person you ask to help you out with getting a job at their company is to be carefull that, that person you ask is on the good side of most people in the office. Even tho I never have work in an office environment I am sure office politics play a part in getting a job. And I agree that there are a fair amount of people that are self taught now a days with information so easy to get now.

I hate office politics. I only dealt with it once, and that was enough for me. I never knew people would stab you in the back just over a title.

I have always been a dominant worker, so I moved up through the company in a month, where there were people with 2 years. They still received more money, and had less responsibility. All the time the screwed up because they were high, I covered for them. I lied to my boss to keep everything at piece, only to find out they were talking BS behind my back. I even stood there fighting with my boss to let everyone keep their job, and little did I know.

Anyway...I quit, came in to get my stuff, they fired me...whatever makes them feel better. I came in at 3pm, had a flight to NY the following day. My computer was gone and everyone just got all quiet. The stupid thing was I was bringing in the only revenue working with other webmasters. The company went under about a year later. I had several job offers after leaving there, but my boss made sure I couldn't take them.

Live and learn...my friend in NY used to say...kindness is a weakness. People will abuse that.

It is easy to get info today. I have books all over the place. I have not opened one in like 2 years. If I forget a command or code, I google it. If I can't find it there, which is odd, then I hit the books, but I been programming perl so long, I either know it, or I take it from some code I wrote before.

DBL

DBL

I was just in the hunt for the last week for a graphics person for a small job. I interviewed a couple. Most were so arrogant that they actually though the site would not run without them. DBL

There most be alot more multimedia jobs out there than there are here, because I certainly can't afford to act that way during an interview. If anything, I'm not assertive enough.

I worked with a couple of artists and from what I notice is that the ones that think they do great work, but actually do so so work are way too arrogant. Before I meet with them I look at sites they done, I read through codes they put up, and I test the sites in several browsers. This gives me an idea of how knowledgeable they are in develpoing graphics for websites.

I worked with one REAL artist. I mean this girl is gifted. She is a good friend of mine, and I know I cannot afford her, but for a charity site I worked on she donated the graphics, and I had 0 issues with her. Seems you just don't run into problems will real artists. They should already know what you need, what is best, and how you will use the piece. Most importantly they know how to speak to a client.

What area do you live in and what work have you done for your portfollio?

DBL

I live in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. Not much of a market for Multimedia here in the midwest, and I've found that out the hard way. I've been told several times that I might have to relocate, but I can't afford it right now.

As for my portfolio, I have several examples of Photoshop, Flash, Director, AfterEffects, 3DStudioMax, and some digital photography. I also have a couple of those little CD-business cards with an interactive digital portfolio, as well as a CD showing off some short animations I made. I think I should make a CD showing off what I can do with HTML.

Do you have any suggestions as to what I should add in my portfolio?

Things I noticed that most companies ask is if you know how to use dream weaver. Ironically I don't know how to use that! I right RAW code. I would suggest you learn how to write code from scratch if you don't do this already.

Even though companies don't seem to require this as much, but it makes trouble shooting a lot easier. You should definitely show off your skills on HTML and CSS.

You may also want to check out Elance

You can bid on small jobs there.

For a resume tip. When I applied to a job, I make the criterias they request into bold letters. This way when the HR, Recruiter, Manager looks at your resume they will see you have the skills they are requesting right away. I sent out a lot of resumes and I received the most results from the larger companies making key words bold, and using a bulleted list in place of a descriptive paragraph of my experience. I had a lot of calls for someone with no education on their resume.

Here in Florida I see a few graphics jobs in my area. Not sure of what experience they are asking. You should do a jobsearch on careerbuilder

Hope that helps

DBL