81–90 of 111 posts
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Sure, people don’t get excited and ask me more when I say I work on mortgage software. If I said I’m a game developer you can bet that’d be way less “boring” sounding.
Mortgage software actually sounds interesting and complex. Game developer working for someone else sounds boring.
It's like all those jobs - game developer, film jobs, graphic artist, artist, musician - too many young people want to do it and there's a lot of money if you're successful so it attracts sharks up the top who keep all the money. Just don't is my advice, unless you have a trust fund, which a large number of those successful have, you can weather out the early years then until you make a name for yourself.
Science is also like this.
Most people are probably best off with good jobs that sound boring but are highly demanded. Could be plumber or software engineer or accountant or whatever. People are happy to see you, happy when you do your job, and pay you well. People work as a team rather than compete. Don't underestimate the value of pleasantness in day to day interactions. Cool sounding jobs are competitive and you are likely to be treated poo…
Cool sounding jobs (e.g. actor) have an over-supply of labor because people are attracted to it on the basis of either passion or prestige instead of expected earnings. This drives down wages unless there's a regulatory body that artificially constrains supply (e.g. the case with surgeons).
There's an under-supply of tradespeople because it's gritty work, not very high prestige, and rarely lines up with anyone's passions. This drives up wages. It's also a very difficult thing to scale due to geographic and other constraints, so it doesn't have a winner-take-all dynamic. The result is many a large number of tradespeople that each get compensated very well.
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Neither Technical Director or Lighting Director are roles that would naturally progress from being an animator.
Neither does “product/project manager” progress naturally from “software engineer,” but it’s a moderately common progression in the real world.
It would be shocking if there were a large number of animators vying to be technical directors.
There are many TDs who may want to be an animator, and some animators who want to be TDs. But they're the minority. Ones a heavily art based discipline, the other is heavily tech based. There's significantly more demand vs supply for TDs than animators. It just doesn't make logical sense that they'd know multiple animators trying to get into a TD role, because it's the easier role to get. It makes equally little sense for them to know multiple animators trying to become lighters.
The person I replied to is probably commiting the age old foible of describing all people working in animation as animators.
It's like all those jobs - game developer, film jobs, graphic artist, artist, musician - too many young people want to do it and there's a lot of money if you're successful so it attracts sharks up the top who keep all the money. Just don't is my advice, unless you have a trust fund, which a large number of those successful have, you can weather out the early years then until you make a name for yourself.
I'm rather fond of the story of the Pulitzer prizewinning poet Wallace Stevens, who worked as an insurance attorney by day, and did his writing during his free time. He considered his unexciting day job to be something that enabled him to do his writing, by giving his life a stable foundation that left plenty of mental resources remaining for doing what he loved. Some choice quotes on the subject: "It is necessary to…
Most people are probably best off with good jobs that sound boring but are highly demanded. Could be plumber or software engineer or accountant or whatever. People are happy to see you, happy when you do your job, and pay you well. People work as a team rather than compete. Don't underestimate the value of pleasantness in day to day interactions. Cool sounding jobs are competitive and you are likely to be treated poo…
Specifically to software engineering and CRUD type of web apps we are just getting started. Wherever I look around I see a business process that could potentially be automated. Much of the clerical work is still repeatable manual work parts of which could be automated.
I like that you mentioned plumbing alongside software engineering because they are similar to each other in more than one way. People think software is build it shut it, but no. Similar to plumbing it also needs routine maintenance work (preventative as well as reactive).
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I’m an animator and the complex jobs == production hell. Every facet of the industry is a race to the bottom, just a matter of how insulated you are from it. Luckily I’m in medical animation where things move a little more slowly
Is it true that for TV shows a lot of the actual animation team is outsourced to countries with low income?
There is huge turnover in the mainstream animation Industry. However, One reason is that typically an animation project (for example, an animation feature) have a short production life. Typically two years.
The article also mentions in betweenness (aka tweeners). This is the lowest of the low in the animators world, usually subcontracted to developing countries like Vietnam, the Philippines. From my experience (which is limited) The expectations of these workers generally is very low. They treat it pretty much like a job in a sweatshop. Lowish wages, but low responsibility. Certainly it would not usually attract university graduates, or anyone who has been through an animation school training.
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Electronics and firmware. I'd be better off financially if database stuff didn't make my eyes bleed.
What about SQL makes your eyes bleed?