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This is a bit long-winded, but the background info is necessary.
I've been with my current employer for about 7.5 years, and while I can't say I love my job, I do enjoy the pay (ultimately I'd rather be a rich musician, but who wouldn't).
Anyway, back in 2003 I bought my first laptop and used it to update/rebuild these setup books that we use to setup pierce dies for the various parts we make (I'm a Press Operator, so it was as much for my direct benefit as everyone else's, and has been proven to improve production time).
This was a totally voluntary project. The old books were hand-written and not in sequence. I did them in Quattro Pro which came with the laptop (which I had to figure out how to use on my own), and did all the part diagrams in Paint Shop Pro, which I learned all on my own years before.
Since then I've been the one who maintains those books, which cover about 500 different part numbers. I use my personal computer to do it, and most of the time it's my paper and ink. I bought the first round of binders and sleeves, and it looks like I'll be buying the replacements as well.
Back when this project was first completed, I was nominated for and received the President's Award - $650 after taxes. It was a nice little bonus. Never mind the fact the laptop cost me almost $1000, then I had to learn to make a spreadsheet program do what it was never intended to do, the cost of ink catridges and paper, as well as my PaintShop talents (which can be related to a musician or a painter or anyone who has spent their time developing any other skill - it's gotta be worth something more than self-gratification). As well, all the things I know about comuters and the programs that they run, I learned entirely on my own by digging in and doing. From photo/video editing to sound recording to Office-type prgrams.
About 5 years ago I started working on a Press Operator training video series that would compliment the industry-standard training videos we already use, but would focus on how to actually run our specific equipment, since each facility has a different layout. The industry-standard videos cover the basics well enough, but at the end of the day, all anyone really gets out of them is what an Emergency Stop button looks like, how steel reacts to passing through a series of straighteners, and how dies apply enough pressure to form flat steel into parts of various shapes. They're interesting, but you can't go from classroom to production floor knowing how to run a press. My idea was to make a video series that allowed you to do that.
I used my own camera, and bought the video editing programs to do it on my computer, which over the last 5 years has needed upgrading several times - from bigger drives to faster processors and more RAM and video capture devices, and even a newer, more expensive video camera. I've learned how to use 3 different video editing apps.
A few years ago I was asked to join the Safety Committee. At first I turned it down, citing my previous employer's idea of a "Safety Inspection" which consisted of not actually inspecting anything, just checking off the sheet. They seemed upset that it took me an hour to inspect the fire extinguishers and fire hoses and emergency exits, and didn't like it too much when I pointed out all the rotted hoses, blocked doors, and missing/empty extinguishers. They took it as a personal insult.
I was informed they weren't like that and really did care, so finally I relented and joined the Safety Committee but informed them that if they just wanted someone to fill out a form and didn't really care about safety, don't waste my time. They assured me they were genuinely concerned about workplace safety, and since that time have proven that sufficiently for me.
Over last few years, we've had several Safety Coordinators come and go for various reasons. The first guy was bumped up to head a new production department, another left to take a higher-paying job somewhere else, one was rumored to have been booted due to internal politics.
The one we have now has held the job for about 2 years.
About a year ago the Safety Committee was expanded to include 4 Sub-Committees, one of which I am the head of.
These Sub-Committees are Ergonomics, Safety Audits (mine), Contractor and Offsite Safety, and Communication and Training. Each committee has its own focus, and each one interacts with each other to a certain degree.
Back in September, we participated in an OSHA program known as VPP - Voluntary Protection Programs - which includes an exhaustive OSHA inspection which we had back in September, and we have been awarded VPP status.
A large part of the preparation for that week-long inspection was that each Sub-Committee had to create a presentation about their Sub-Committee's role and goals.
The Safety Coordinator handed me a copy of the VPP application to turn into a Powerpoint presentation.
I learned how to use Powerpoint in about a week, and helped two of the other committees do their Presentations.
I couldn't get mine to do what I wanted in Powerpoint (I wanted it to be a bit more flashy than Powerpoint could handle), so I did it as a video in a video-editing program.
I only had about a week to do mine, since I was also helping everyone else with theirs.
My old 2003 laptop (which was a 2001 model) couldn't handle the video, and there was no time to redesign it to fit within Powerpoint's limits, and no time for me to learn how to do it in Flash, so I bought a new laptop - another $900+. New computer means new operating system, and Vista doesn't play nice with my old video editing software, so I needed yet another one. Luckily the company had recently bought a new video camera and were informed by Corporate that they couldn't install the editing app on the company's computers (though they did approve the purchase of the camera - I laughed, as well).
So they handed me the camera and said to learn how to use it. 5 minutes later I had it licked and sat down to learn the editor.
About 3 days into it, I was indirectly informed that the VPP application review presentation I had been working on was in fact the Safety Coordinator's presentation - I was doing someone else's work. A lot of it.
I found this out when I received a copy of the agenda for the week of the inspection.
That left me with 4 days to do mine, and I was barely started, and had already used some of my best stuff on the other one. So, I jazzed mine up even more (lots of eye candy - simple animations that impress the office folks, as well as the built-in scene transitions of the video app).
Anyway, it turned out great (for only being 3 minutes long), though I didn't have time to record the narration for it and had to speed-read it as the video played.
About a month ago, the Safety Coordinator hands me a project to create a training video for new-hires, which is one of the things OSHA said we had to improve for our VPP certification. I was told they'd like it done in a week, and was given a list of 12 topics to cover. I told them that for the level of detail OSHA expects, and the amount of material to cover, it was going to take at least a month to finish, and would be a 1-hour video.
They seemed OK with that, and it's been about a month, yet I still have over half of it to finish. Part of the reason is I'd like more video of people at work doing the things the training video covers, but they're all camera-shy. Another part of it, and what's been weighing most heavily on my mind, is the fact that this should be done by the Training committee, not me. Since I'm the one doing it, and since there are other training videos I'd like to make, I'm trying to find a way to parlay this opportunity into something better than Production Floor. We don't really have a job title that covers this sort of thing on a full-time basis, and I know that creating such a job title would first have to be approved by Corporate, and then posted openly for all interested parties to bid on. That, by nature, means that applicants would have to have some sort of proven experience, usually in the form of documentation, which I do not have.
Here's the question:
If you were in this situation, would you take what you've done and shop it around to other employers to try to get a new career going or stick with what you've got? Right now, I could probably fit the description of "big fish in a little pond" - I'm their go-to guy for things like this, and for the most part I work with a great bunch of people, but the simple fact is there's no future in it, and aside from the money, it's just not as interesting to me as it once was.
By the same token, I'm not sure I'd like to turn a hobby I enjoy into a job I wouldn't enjoy. I like video editing, and I like the idea that I'm contributing to improving the workplace, but work-related videos aren't what interests me. Maybe stuff like "How it's made" and things like that, but not so much the actual "How to do a job".
I don't really feel I have some inner muse yelling at me about being a feature film director or working in showbiz, I'm just looking for "something".
Then again, I've never had the same job for more than 4 years (shutdowns, buyouts, moving up the economic ladder, etc), so maybe it's just some inner drive to change careers again, I dunno.
Thoughts?
I've been with my current employer for about 7.5 years, and while I can't say I love my job, I do enjoy the pay (ultimately I'd rather be a rich musician, but who wouldn't).
Anyway, back in 2003 I bought my first laptop and used it to update/rebuild these setup books that we use to setup pierce dies for the various parts we make (I'm a Press Operator, so it was as much for my direct benefit as everyone else's, and has been proven to improve production time).
This was a totally voluntary project. The old books were hand-written and not in sequence. I did them in Quattro Pro which came with the laptop (which I had to figure out how to use on my own), and did all the part diagrams in Paint Shop Pro, which I learned all on my own years before.
Since then I've been the one who maintains those books, which cover about 500 different part numbers. I use my personal computer to do it, and most of the time it's my paper and ink. I bought the first round of binders and sleeves, and it looks like I'll be buying the replacements as well.
Back when this project was first completed, I was nominated for and received the President's Award - $650 after taxes. It was a nice little bonus. Never mind the fact the laptop cost me almost $1000, then I had to learn to make a spreadsheet program do what it was never intended to do, the cost of ink catridges and paper, as well as my PaintShop talents (which can be related to a musician or a painter or anyone who has spent their time developing any other skill - it's gotta be worth something more than self-gratification). As well, all the things I know about comuters and the programs that they run, I learned entirely on my own by digging in and doing. From photo/video editing to sound recording to Office-type prgrams.
About 5 years ago I started working on a Press Operator training video series that would compliment the industry-standard training videos we already use, but would focus on how to actually run our specific equipment, since each facility has a different layout. The industry-standard videos cover the basics well enough, but at the end of the day, all anyone really gets out of them is what an Emergency Stop button looks like, how steel reacts to passing through a series of straighteners, and how dies apply enough pressure to form flat steel into parts of various shapes. They're interesting, but you can't go from classroom to production floor knowing how to run a press. My idea was to make a video series that allowed you to do that.
I used my own camera, and bought the video editing programs to do it on my computer, which over the last 5 years has needed upgrading several times - from bigger drives to faster processors and more RAM and video capture devices, and even a newer, more expensive video camera. I've learned how to use 3 different video editing apps.
A few years ago I was asked to join the Safety Committee. At first I turned it down, citing my previous employer's idea of a "Safety Inspection" which consisted of not actually inspecting anything, just checking off the sheet. They seemed upset that it took me an hour to inspect the fire extinguishers and fire hoses and emergency exits, and didn't like it too much when I pointed out all the rotted hoses, blocked doors, and missing/empty extinguishers. They took it as a personal insult.
I was informed they weren't like that and really did care, so finally I relented and joined the Safety Committee but informed them that if they just wanted someone to fill out a form and didn't really care about safety, don't waste my time. They assured me they were genuinely concerned about workplace safety, and since that time have proven that sufficiently for me.
Over last few years, we've had several Safety Coordinators come and go for various reasons. The first guy was bumped up to head a new production department, another left to take a higher-paying job somewhere else, one was rumored to have been booted due to internal politics.
The one we have now has held the job for about 2 years.
About a year ago the Safety Committee was expanded to include 4 Sub-Committees, one of which I am the head of.
These Sub-Committees are Ergonomics, Safety Audits (mine), Contractor and Offsite Safety, and Communication and Training. Each committee has its own focus, and each one interacts with each other to a certain degree.
Back in September, we participated in an OSHA program known as VPP - Voluntary Protection Programs - which includes an exhaustive OSHA inspection which we had back in September, and we have been awarded VPP status.
A large part of the preparation for that week-long inspection was that each Sub-Committee had to create a presentation about their Sub-Committee's role and goals.
The Safety Coordinator handed me a copy of the VPP application to turn into a Powerpoint presentation.
I learned how to use Powerpoint in about a week, and helped two of the other committees do their Presentations.
I couldn't get mine to do what I wanted in Powerpoint (I wanted it to be a bit more flashy than Powerpoint could handle), so I did it as a video in a video-editing program.
I only had about a week to do mine, since I was also helping everyone else with theirs.
My old 2003 laptop (which was a 2001 model) couldn't handle the video, and there was no time to redesign it to fit within Powerpoint's limits, and no time for me to learn how to do it in Flash, so I bought a new laptop - another $900+. New computer means new operating system, and Vista doesn't play nice with my old video editing software, so I needed yet another one. Luckily the company had recently bought a new video camera and were informed by Corporate that they couldn't install the editing app on the company's computers (though they did approve the purchase of the camera - I laughed, as well).
So they handed me the camera and said to learn how to use it. 5 minutes later I had it licked and sat down to learn the editor.
About 3 days into it, I was indirectly informed that the VPP application review presentation I had been working on was in fact the Safety Coordinator's presentation - I was doing someone else's work. A lot of it.
I found this out when I received a copy of the agenda for the week of the inspection.
That left me with 4 days to do mine, and I was barely started, and had already used some of my best stuff on the other one. So, I jazzed mine up even more (lots of eye candy - simple animations that impress the office folks, as well as the built-in scene transitions of the video app).
Anyway, it turned out great (for only being 3 minutes long), though I didn't have time to record the narration for it and had to speed-read it as the video played.
About a month ago, the Safety Coordinator hands me a project to create a training video for new-hires, which is one of the things OSHA said we had to improve for our VPP certification. I was told they'd like it done in a week, and was given a list of 12 topics to cover. I told them that for the level of detail OSHA expects, and the amount of material to cover, it was going to take at least a month to finish, and would be a 1-hour video.
They seemed OK with that, and it's been about a month, yet I still have over half of it to finish. Part of the reason is I'd like more video of people at work doing the things the training video covers, but they're all camera-shy. Another part of it, and what's been weighing most heavily on my mind, is the fact that this should be done by the Training committee, not me. Since I'm the one doing it, and since there are other training videos I'd like to make, I'm trying to find a way to parlay this opportunity into something better than Production Floor. We don't really have a job title that covers this sort of thing on a full-time basis, and I know that creating such a job title would first have to be approved by Corporate, and then posted openly for all interested parties to bid on. That, by nature, means that applicants would have to have some sort of proven experience, usually in the form of documentation, which I do not have.
Here's the question:
If you were in this situation, would you take what you've done and shop it around to other employers to try to get a new career going or stick with what you've got? Right now, I could probably fit the description of "big fish in a little pond" - I'm their go-to guy for things like this, and for the most part I work with a great bunch of people, but the simple fact is there's no future in it, and aside from the money, it's just not as interesting to me as it once was.
By the same token, I'm not sure I'd like to turn a hobby I enjoy into a job I wouldn't enjoy. I like video editing, and I like the idea that I'm contributing to improving the workplace, but work-related videos aren't what interests me. Maybe stuff like "How it's made" and things like that, but not so much the actual "How to do a job".
I don't really feel I have some inner muse yelling at me about being a feature film director or working in showbiz, I'm just looking for "something".
Then again, I've never had the same job for more than 4 years (shutdowns, buyouts, moving up the economic ladder, etc), so maybe it's just some inner drive to change careers again, I dunno.
Thoughts?
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