The Cellar - View Single Post - College is not where you find a career. College is where you have fun and drink beer

Undertoad · 04-17-2013, 09:49 AM

I taught myself web design, is what I did... founded a small company to do microsites for small businesses.

Turned out there is not much call for it round here. I know you don't believe me. Ask bluecuracao. And when they hire 'em, they hire fresh-outs, not 49-year-old fat guys. Because they can pay the kids nothing and ride their ass to work a shit ton of overtime.

So I picked the wrong thing to learn. Or maybe I did what I wanted, and the money didn't follow because the economy.

Also I forgot, again, that people do not hire generalists to work in IT. IT is always specialists. I thought, surely I will be invaluable to someone, as a guy who can do a little of everything: web design, web programming, system administration. But IT prefers to hire three different specialists for each of those things.

But I guess I overstated my problem because I don't think of it as a problem. IT managers, around here, routinely suck, and tend to make your life a living hell. The only way I escaped that was to try building my own businesses. I imagine that I will be much happier, at this stage of life, working as a pharmacy assistant or behind the counter at a vet hospital. We will see what happens.

I do know that I was unable to learn anything while working full time, having two hours of commute each day, and J on weekends.

04-17-2013, 09:49 AM	#25
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	I taught myself web design, is what I did... founded a small company to do microsites for small businesses. Turned out there is not much call for it round here. I know you don't believe me. Ask bluecuracao. And when they hire 'em, they hire fresh-outs, not 49-year-old fat guys. Because they can pay the kids nothing and ride their ass to work a shit ton of overtime. So I picked the wrong thing to learn. Or maybe I did what I wanted, and the money didn't follow because the economy. Also I forgot, again, that people do not hire generalists to work in IT. IT is always specialists. I thought, surely I will be invaluable to someone, as a guy who can do a little of everything: web design, web programming, system administration. But IT prefers to hire three different specialists for each of those things. But I guess I overstated my problem because I don't think of it as a problem. IT managers, around here, routinely suck, and tend to make your life a living hell. The only way I escaped that was to try building my own businesses. I imagine that I will be much happier, at this stage of life, working as a pharmacy assistant or behind the counter at a vet hospital. We will see what happens. I do know that I was unable to learn anything while working full time, having two hours of commute each day, and J on weekends.