So, I managed to nab a couple of days of work last week. Always nice to pick up another client (although that has happened less than I would like of late).

It’s fairly obvious the market is shifting. The demands of clients are changing again. It’s a lot like it was in the late eighties and early nineties when the desktop computer first appeared on the scene.

Back then, before the computer made it’s impact on the workplace, there were all these other jobs in the graphics industry. There were typesetters, stat camera operators, board people (not bored people - even if they usually were), comp artists and a bunch of other professions which are no longer in great demand.

The group of guys I get together with occasionally for coffee are all storyboard artists and their profession is also in the process of undergoing change. I have peers close in age and out of work who are finding it hard to get another job at the pay scale they were accustomed to.

Things have changed...

If there is one sure thing a person can bet on, it’s the likelihood some aspect of their professional life will undergo dramatic change. A person has two choices, they can either try to foresee the change coming and take steps to confront it or ostrich like, they can hide from it until events are beyond their control and they are carried along by it like a piece of flotsam in a tidal wave.

When I got the my first computer, it was a new toy plain and simple and it held all the allure a new toy holds. Fifteen years later, I find myself struggling to keep up as the rate of change increases with each passing year.

Just as I get to the point of being comfortable with a program, boom! Here comes another upgrade making the damn thing the swiss army knife of all programs.

It seems it has become all about making it easier and easier to do things in terms of program upgrades. I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with that if it meant that things worked better but, in many instances they don’t. It’s more like giving an automatic weapon to someone who doesn’t know how to use a popgun. They just manage to create a bigger problem which will have to be fixed at some point.

Well, I digress...

So, we have all this new equipment, all this new software and now when you see a job listing you’re basically supposed to know every package, be the world’s greatest designer and be able to mop the floors when there is downtime... cause we can’t have any waste nowadays in the corporate world, you know?

I just find it interesting I’m hearing the same complaint from a bunch of different people.

The curious thing is, have wages gone up? Not really, if anything there appears to be a downward pressure on wages these days. One friend was commenting on how he finds clients calling him at the last minute, expecting him to be on site at the drop of a hat (meaning he has to live in Manhattan) but ironically a lot of these jobs don’t pay enough for someone to live in Manhattan.

So, things are changing again...

As I’ve said in the past and in conversations with friends, when a person is caught up in the bubble of the present, it’s hard to see the bigger picture. When a trend is going on, you have a lot of trouble seeing it because you’re in among the bushes not high up on a mountaintop.

So, last week I was down among the bushes again. I was reminded what a small world this industry is (which is really bothersome). When you’re confronted by change, you have to change along with it to survive but, the hardest thing there is to change are people’s perceptions of you.

I worked on a project, it was fairly straight forward and afterward the person I was working with came over and expressed their surprise (I was matching a layout and setting up a word template - not really rocket science). The person was surprised I had done such a remarkable job matching their layout (???? Huh?).

It was a compliment to be sure but, it reminded me once again, how hard it is to combat people’s perceptions. Once you’re pegged as being good for something, it’s hard to branch out into other areas (or make clients think of you as a resource for other projects).

It just makes me realize I have to put in more time and do a better job at marketing myself and my skills and I’m probably not alone in that either.