Change Your Career - Go Back To School...
Aman Singh reports in today's Wall Street Journal that more and more companies are being attracted to employees who opt out to go back to school. Companies are recognizing that the drive and passion that fuel their desire are the very talents they're looking for in the workplace.
Why take a chance on employees who stay at the same job for decades, or take a risk on a younger employee you know little about? Finally, companies are starting to get it. A person's willingness to change says a lot about their chances for success. If you're an employee, make real changes in your life, because people notice. If you're an employer, look for the members of your team that are open to change, and aren't stuck in the same old way of doing things.
Loyalty is great, but not if it leads to stale thinking. Look for the rebels. The people who want to try new ways of doing their job, and the people who are regularly hot on the trail of creativity and innovation.
I was able to find the main cookepictures.com website during an online search that I was doing for animation/broadcast graphic design studios in the local Los Angeles metro area--and then I found your philcooke.com site as a related link to the media jobs marketplace subsection of cookepictures.com on the "About Us" area.
About me: I am currently an animation/SFX/motion graphics student at Santa Monica College's AET (Acadamy of Entertainment Technology) program over on Stewart Street. I am also a veteran web graphic designer with about 5+ years of experience and a believing Christian. I am hoping to one day transition out of the internet/web side of creative content development and move into television production/title design and broadcast visual graphics.
Thomas W. in Los Angeles, CA
Christian television does not want rebels. Period. They want faithful conformists. Step out of line, off with your head. Over and again I have encountered ministries that ask their creative staff to either copy/mimic what another flashy televangelist is doing or to cookie cut the same show of speaker, microphone + pulpit the ministry has produced for years. God bless the rebels!!! Phil, I completely agree with you that tv ministries need to let a breath of fresh air into their programming and try something new, creative and innovative. But most leaders fear change. They are often surrounded by managers with little or no experience in media. They wouldn't know a creative idea if it walked up and said BOO!
Going back to school is a two edged sword: you will have achieved your purpose of growing, stretching and advancing your career and knowledge. That is a completely GOOD thing. BUT you will now have an advanced degree greater than your boss or boss's boss. Be careful. They will either applaud you or fear you. Insecurity is rife in television management specifically and ministry leadership generally. Overall, the secular world gets it - they understand an advanced degree in tv, film, screenwriting or communications; the Christian world is still catching up. Having just taken time off to get a Masters from a prestigious film school I am now better at my craft. But it still remains to be seen if a higher education will mean anything to the certain ministries out there that perceive me as overeducated and overqualified.
It seems much of what the Christian tv world wants these days is a inexpensive 25 year old that can edit on Avid.
This article, "Change Your Career ... Go Back To School", describes my current situation exactly. I am a 40-year old Christian graphic designer who has returned to college in order to gain the right software skills and move my career into the genre of motion graphics/animation and broadcast television production and design. I had long been relying only on those software titles and design skills that I had been taught during my first go-around through college years ago and it has been recently that I am finally pursuing my desire to become proficient with other industry-standard production tools because I see just how much they are essential to design professionals of all stripes in this current mass communications marketplace.
Thomas W. in Los Angeles, CA