What you did today

[Rosbjerg]

Anybody else here using f.lux? Been using it for about a month now and I love it, and it's seriously improved my ability to sleep.

 

Yep me too, I almost can't look at a normal screen after sunset anymore heh

[Amentep]

Never even heard of it before today.

[Hurlshort]

Today I drew a perfect circle.  I didn't notice until the students behind me gasped and then asked how I did that.  It was somewhat glorious.  

 

Although I do worry that we have a finite amount of moments where we do something exceptional, and I just wasted one drawing a circle on the whiteboard.

 

I felt better about it when my last class of the day split into two groups, one arguing that it wasn't perfect and the others bowing in reverence to the perfect circle.  Teaching is never dull.  

Edited November 21, 2013 by Hurlshot

[Walsingham]

I thought you were going to say "I drew a perfect circle. On an etch-a-sketch"

[Gorth]

Although I do worry that we have a finite amount of moments where we do something exceptional, and I just wasted one drawing a circle on the whiteboard.

That must be how artists feel sometimes. Doesn't matter if it's painting, song or theatre. That moment where everything comes together in ways you can't rehearse, nor repeat and you know you just did something unique and non-repeatable.

 

Did you take a picture of the whiteboard?

[BruceVC]

Check your PM. Not posting it openly because I like keeping my real and message board identities seperate.

 

Trueneutral:

 

1) If you exhibit technical skills - and I assume you want to - you are inevitably going to be told to manage people, eventually.

 

2) If you find managing people weird, it's because IT IS. Bossing people is psychotic and weird. Do not 'boss'. My advice is to learn about 'flat' management. Lead by your example. Empower your team, give them credit for what they do, make them tea. You get better results*, and you don't get as stressed.

 

3) Having management experience on your CV is good. Provided you can prove you delivered. It can also be a trap. My god, but it can!

 

~

 

My final advice would be: you're young. ****ing go for it.

 

 

 

*Assuming you do not have a team packed full of arseholes. In which case step 1 is to ditch them asap.

 

I turned it down. "Community Manager" is also not the same as team management by a long shot - if it was a team management thing, I might have taken it. I may dislike management but it's not a make-or-break issue. But there's only so much I can take from this company in skills and finishing school through the TV Show oppertunity is a much better fit for me right now.

 

And yeah, I'm not particularely fond of everyone there, there's a lot of office politics, unprofessional behaviour and the "employees haven't been paid for a few months" thing is a bit of a clincher. I'm not going to do a job I really don't want to do unless I'm positive I'm going to get paid.

 

You made the right decision, I thought you received some terrible advice from some of our esteemed members

 

In life  you really should try to enjoy what you are doing from a work perspective. 80% of people hate there jobs or just do it to pay there bills. Here you were learning a skill that you really were enjoying in a field that is difficult to get opportunities in and you were considering taking a job in a managerial position for something that you didn't enjoy? Helllllooo....can anyone see what is wrong with that logic????? 

 

Its also best to work at least a year in your position as you are basically  learning. Companies prefer consistency around the length of how long a person stays in a particular company

 

Well done on your decision young Skywalker

[Gorth]

"Community Manager"... isn't that just a professional scapegoat who gets to deal with disgruntled forumites ravings and rantings and occasionally share news that upper management has cleared for release? Not really "people management"

[Orogun01]

@TrueNeutral: a managerial position is a more stable job compared to most 3D artist jobs, unless you're right now part of a studio. On the other hand you won't have opportunities for you craft to grow. So.. pros and cons and make a choice.

[Blarghagh]

Community Manager may have manager in the title, but it's hardly a managerial position. There's no community team in place so it would have been just me.

 

"Community Manager"... isn't that just a professional scapegoat who gets to deal with disgruntled forumites ravings and rantings and occasionally share news that upper management has cleared for release? Not really "people management"

 

It was that and being responsible for communication with clients, marketing companies, etc. Essentially being a middle man for outside communication.

[Walsingham]

You mean you were offered a job with no objective standards to uphold, but limitless bragging rights, and you turned it down?

 

Sorry, but I think you made a bad choice.

[Blarghagh]

What bragging rights?

[Walsingham]

What bragging rights?

 

What's it called? "Rain Made you"

 

NSFW language video

 

 

 

 

If the community surges you can lay claim to it. No one can prove it wasn't you. There are limitless possibilities for 'pushing' your company's profile with competitions, you blogging, etc. etc.

 

Sweet deal, 'communications'.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Walsingham

[Blarghagh]

Doesn't sound like a sweet deal to me. If something good happens I could take credit and advance further into a field I have no long-term plans in?

 

I stick by my decision, in the long term this job would have kept me away from my personal goals even if the pay would have been nice. I can currently still afford to go for my personal goals.

[BruceVC]

Doesn't sound like a sweet deal to me. If something good happens I could take credit and advance further into a field I have no long-term plans in?

 

I stick by my decision, in the long term this job would have kept me away from my personal goals even if the pay would have been nice. I can currently still afford to go for my personal goals.

 

That's the right perspective, I can only assume Walsie is joking because what he is suggesting makes no sense to me.

 

Without meaning to repeat what I said earlier the best job is a job you love. You'll advance naturally in your chosen career this way. But more important  you need a few years of actual work experience in your current field. So your current job will give you this. The money can come later, the work exposure offers you an invaluable experience that money can't buy

[Gfted1]

Are you wasted on mampoer Bruce? Money will come? Advance in his chosen career? The only fact of the situation are:

 

1) He is currently an unpaid intern just hoping to get hired into an artist position and hes going into debt to do it.

2) He was offered a paid management position inside the company he is hoping to get hired into some day.

 

The rest just sounds like your usual pie-in-the-sky canned responses.

 

Surely you are familiar with the phrase: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

[Raithe]

Punting along on web design stuff.  Trying to create the css scaffolding to have 5 divs : header, footer, left, right and center, but of course the moment I try to put in the center everything goes weird. Tried to use % for all the height and width stuff rather then firm px, but that's bouncing oddly as it goes.

 

Someone advised me to learn how to use bootstrap to help me get into this, but that's a major info-dump of stuff I have no real knowledge about, so I'd be guestimating with it rather then learning anything.

 

Of coruse, getting interrupted on that to sort out mom's drugs, and errands needed to be done around the village and shopping to be picked up..

 

Edit: Hm, and my sister's boiler has apparently gone wrong, and the repairmen can't get out till the 5th of December.. Throw in her hob has blown, and she hasn't got an electric kettle.. I don't think she's quite set up for the chill of winter that's frosting the days here.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Raithe

[BruceVC]

Are you wasted on mampoer Bruce? Money will come? Advance in his chosen career? The only fact of the situation are:

 

1) He is currently an unpaid intern just hoping to get hired into an artist position and hes going into debt to do it.

2) He was offered a paid management position inside the company he is hoping to get hired into some day.

 

The rest just sounds like your usual pie-in-the-sky canned responses.

 

Surely you are familiar with the phrase: "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

 

One of us clearly hasn't understood his situation, and I doubt its me

 

He says

"For the last couple of months I've been working as an intern (required school internship) at a game design company. I can't name who or what, but they are fairly big on mobile. I was hired on as a 3D artist & animator, which is what I want to do with my life. However, when our community manager who also does a lot of marketing and client-interaction got hit with health issues, I got tapped to take over that job temporarily (mostly because of my good written language skills). Yesterday, said manager returned, and then promptly quit. Now I got offered that job full time (and industry standard pay) - which would replace exam assignments and still let me get my diploma, while giving me, you know, a full time job - and allow me fill up my portfolio with launching titles for large publishers, and I do mean large. Like, not Activision large but not far off.

 

On the other hand, I don't enjoy doing this community management and stressful client interaction stuff, I'm an introvert and I only have so much energy available for dealing with annoying people, and it is especially not what I want to do with my life. Also, this company has problems (barely ever make deadlines or milestones, titles are abysmally reviewed, employees sometimes go months without pay and then get it all in one go). Beyond that, the exam assignment I've already got lined up to do is making and generally being the creative driving force behind a 3D animated TV Show in a collaboration between my school and a large animation company. This is practically a dream assignment, but it does mean I will still be racking up student debts especially considering we've already figured out this assignment will take longer than my limited scholarship will cover. This assignment is also a daily two hour to and two hour back commute whereas the job is right here in my hometown, five minutes from where I live."

 

 

 

 

 

He has a job and he is getting paid(I'm not he is getting paid). But he is a junior so probably isn't been paid well, but he is on the technical career path that he has always dreamed about. In IT everyone needs to take a few years to specialize in a software skill and get hands on experience. This is how you become good at your chosen path, there is no other way. He has the potential now to achieve this

 

But no you think he should do some sad community management job ( which sounds absolute crap based on the status of the company) which he has already told us he doesn't enjoy for what ?? How can you compare this to the real chance he has to get  his dream job?

 

No my friend, whatever you smoking I want some nowwwwwwwwwww

[Blarghagh]

Yeah, Bruce is right. I'm not unpaid - it's a school based internship so I get paid very little, however. Gfted is correct however that I'm going into debt due to student loans. To clarify some things:

 

- I didn't take it to get hired out of the gate but to satisfy an internship requirement for my Bachelor's degree in Multimedia and to learn. Artists in this company are freelancers who are hired on a project to project basis, so a solid artist position was never in the cards. However, I'm very likely to get freelance work out of it anyway, regardless of whether or not I had taken the CM job.

 

- I have to stress again that while Community Manager has the word manager in the title, it's by far not a managerial position but an entry level position. It would mostly have been copywriting, social media, audience analytics and dealing with client inquiries. I would not be managing a team because, in this company, the CM is the entire communication team.

 

I also had more practical reasons for not taking the job than "it wouldn't make me happy" though.

 

* Other employees haven't been paid for three months and this is not the first time that has happened. I've seen unprofessional (read: scary) office politics and at least two of the regular employees confided in me that they were looking for work elsewhere after I inquired on how happy they were there. Not inspiring.

 

* Most of the projects I'll be working on in the coming time is stuff I've already made 3D assets for. Once the NDA lifts, these projects will be on my portfolio regardless.

 

* The Animated Show oppertunity I mentioned might be an unpaid assignment through my education but it's in collaboration with and closely connected to a larger and more interesting company that I would be working closely with while giving my portfolio a huge boost. I also have recently become friends with the floor manager there during preparation for this project and I have a fairly good chance this project will work out in an artist position there, or at least more freelance work.

 

* The CM before me that just quit was there as long as I've been an intern and was on sick leave for most of that. The one before that also lasted about six months. I have to wonder what causes this turnover. The few weeks I temporarily took over the job were also the most stressed I have ever been. Considering it was work I really disliked doing and it made me stress out, I don't think I would have lasted long in the job anyway.

 

* In theory, during the job I would have been able to still get my diploma. However, if it turned out that the job didn't conform to my education's requirements and I couldn't get my diploma? I would risk having to pay back all my limited scholarship in addition to my student loans, essentially doubling my debt.

 

Between these reasons and it not being compatible with my personal goals, I'm pretty confident in my decision.

 

Plus, other interns here had to pass tests while I was taken on in an interview that ended with "can you start today?" and then after I tried out something without any experience for two weeks they wanted to hire me. Beyond that I've been praised up the wazoo for my professionalism and effort. I'm pretty sure that if after school I can't find work, I can still come back here. They seemed pretty eager to keep me on. I have enough prospects to look forward to so I can justify not taking this job.

 

I think it's enough about that subject though. I already turned it down so it's kind of a moot point now. I appreciate all the input and it's been interesting to see people's take's on the situation but the bird has flown.

Edited November 22, 2013 by TrueNeutral

[Walsingham]

Well, I guess if the opportunity's passed then there's no sense worrying.

 

For future reference, though, rule one: if you can't be held accountable, take it.

[Janmanden]

Been fiddling around with this annoying auto-correct feature of IE11 and settings and yuck. I've chosen to Ignore hundreds of words just to realize that it just means that I have to keep ignoring them every time I write them in a different context.  Finally came to the realisation that I have to Add them dictionary to avoid any further encounters with them.. or just limit my use of words, which somehow seems impossible. In this short context alone I had to add five words to the dictionary. Hmmm.. wish it was possible to upload my totally messed up mixed up danrusglish Nokia dictionary to Windows 8.1 somehow.

[Woldan]

Thats what I did today. (Core rules.) Killing him the old fashioned way never gets old.  
 


Man, I can't wait for an RPG with a similar complex weapon and magic system which I haven't played a hundred times before. P:E is going to be grand, I know it.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Woldan

[Calax]

Huh, just as the guys over at Extra Credits were talking about CM's, we start talking about em here...

 

 

HHMMMMMMMMMMM.... *glaring*

 

Saw hunger games, Prepping for a work day from hell (start at 8:30, only have about 3 hours off between then and 1130 pm at night), then sleep and fly to California to pick up the new Car.

 

Then drive back here

Then work a 7 hour day on thanksgiving (woo! Time and a half!) then have dinner with a friend

Then it's off to the races at work again.

 

 

Yaaay for working in the transit business...

[Walsingham]

Had that thing, where you don't want to sleep, because sleep is like dying. Up, now. Really just cannot be arsed to go into work.

 

This 'shop floor' time is ****ing ruining me as a manager, long term. I'm never going to be able to honestly discipline anyone ever again.

 

"Simpkins, you're late!"

 

"I know, sir."

 

"I know, too, Simpkins. Here's a fiver. Just go to the pub, will you?"

[Azdeus]

Had that thing, where you don't want to sleep, because sleep is like dying. Up, now. Really just cannot be arsed to go into work.

 

This 'shop floor' time is ****ing ruining me as a manager, long term. I'm never going to be able to honestly discipline anyone ever again.

 

"Simpkins, you're late!"

 

"I know, sir."

 

"I know, too, Simpkins. Here's a fiver. Just go to the pub, will you?"

 

How very English of you!

[Guard Dog]

I thought you were going to say "I drew a perfect circle. On an etch-a-sketch"

You have to admit that would have been a much more impressive accomplishment.