totally new profession

[ericlee]

I have found out that my GI bill is still valid. Its not the standard GI bill which is only good for 10 years after completion of service, it's the post 9/11 bill. I have been out of the service for 10 years and 6 months which disqualified me for the standard GI bill. The post 9/11 bill is good for 15 years after completion of service as long as you served for 90 consecutive days during 9/11 and I have.

I do not want to take advantage of this opportunity and have a wasted education in a field of my liking and want to make a career of it but there's no demand or the area of my profession is too competitive.

I would like to completely rid myself of the duties I have been doing since 1999 involving national and public safety and utilize my artistic qualities that I have neglected.

My interests are free hand sketches, painting, sculpting, writing poetry, photography, fucking, music production, recording, guitar, bass, drums, and journalism.

Where would you go if you have this opportunity and living in NY?

[ericlee]

I also have 2 years experience in the field of design drafting but my last course was in 1992 so I have much catching up to do with that but I don't mind.

[ericlee]

And I want to rid "totally" from the thread title.

[ms.peachy]

Interesting question, and great opportunity. For me the question is this: do you want to study something that you hope will be a new line of work that will pay you a living wage, or would you be happy to pursue something that is a passion but that might mean you need to keep doing the same sort of work you do now to pay the bills, at least for some time.

I know this will sound trivial, but bear with me: if you watched the TV series Frasier, you might recall that at one point Roz was dating a guy who was a trash collector. And she was having a hard time coming to terms with this, because she wasn't sure how to introduce him to people who would judge him on his 'career choice'. Basically he told her 'look, I am not ashamed of what I do, it's a job and it pays decently, and the best part of it is once the day is done I am free to do the things that interest me 100%, without having to think about work.' And there's a lot of value in that I think- look at how many people are attached to their phones at all hours of the day; they leave the office but are always on the lookout for the next email, the next text from a contact, whatever. There's a great thing in having a job you can just clock out of at the end of the shift, and then you are free to go paint, compose, write, sculpt, whatever. And maybe someday you can leave the day job altogether, if the planets align and your talent is recognized by someone who is positioned to help you advance in that world. So what I'm saying is, take a little time and think what you ultimately want out of this chance and decide if you really need a complete change in the sense that you have new and different paid work, or if you are looking for something that will fulfill you on a soul level but doesn't necessarily need to be the thing that keeps the lights on.

[Burnout18]

Hmmmm hmmmm graphic design?

[camo]

Hmmmm hmmmm graphic design?

Yeah, if you love working insanely long hours to incredibly tight deadlines on a miniscule wage :mad:

[Freebasser]

Yeah, if you love working insanely long hours to incredibly tight deadlines on a miniscule wage :mad:

(y) +1

[Bob]

as someone who knows nothing about graphic design, i feel like it's one of those arts where the people paying you to do it don't understand anything about the work involved and so for some reason don't feel bad about not giving you enough time to do it and then complaining when the work looks hasty

quality, speed, money, pick 2 etc

[Freebasser]

That, plus you could also end up stuck working for someone with a superiority complex who has even less idea about graphic design than his clients.

That would suck big time.



:(

[Bob]

a graphic designer friend of mine once spent a bunch of time designing an email signature for his company, then his boss went and switched it to comic sans without asking him

[Dorothy Wood]

I'm self-taught, never done professional work, but redesigned our company logo and business cards and shopping bags for my boss and it was a nightmare. Oh, you want me to replicate the design you made in word with a different font and the wrong size? Hmm, ok, that should only take 30 seconds and won't be a problem at all, sir! *throws MacBook in the dumpster*

[camo]

a graphic designer friend of mine once spent a bunch of time designing an email signature for his company, then his boss went and switched it to comic sans without asking him

My suicide note would be set in comic sans and kerned quite badly after that.

[ericlee]

I'm going to a presentation on the 9th at the A.I. for web design. Let's see how that goes.