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In February 2009, the print shop I was working for closed its doors. Since then, I have been considering numerous or even infinite options for my next career move. Unfortunately, the prepress and printing industries ain’t what they used to be. Companies who have looked at digital printing (an area of my expertise) or have moved fully into that realm aren’t interested in paying an expert fair market value for that expertise considering “the current economic climate”. These days it’s all about cost saving. The first place organizations look for “cost savings” is labor. Prepress jobs are going to younger people because shop owners are able to pay less for those people, and new automated technologies make up for their lack of experience. I have not done an ROI analysis about this because frankly it’s too depressing.
So rather than just let my children starve while reminiscing about the good old days when craftsmen roamed the land, I pursued these lower paying jobs and made the decision to get another degree in Information Technology. We’ll see how that goes. I am an artist at heart, so my math skills SUCK at this point. I’m sure I will be able to adapt. More about the whole education issue in a later post.
Thanks to the benevolence of a recruiter who knows nothing about printing (so she said) I now have the great fortune of doing my work at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, CO. I am not sure yet how much I can say about this in a blog, they don’t seem to have any policy whatsoever about this, but you can follow them on twitter!
I’m still doing digital printing. The prepress part is now MOSTLY done by content creators. I love writing this blog, but the tone will probably change again because now I am at an in-house and everything is going to electronic ( a client today needed help scanning to PDF because he “wants to be more paperless”).
Thanks to Prepress Pilgrim for throwing so many hits to this blog.
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4 Comments
I hear you, and completely agree. The whole print culture has gone down the toilet & what used to be a semi-valuable part of the whole process is now nothing more than another place for the bean counters to cut costs. We’ve been subject to layoffs, salary cuts & furlough days, like many shops. And I’d bet my ever-shrinking payjoke that those jobs and wages aren’t returning. A career I used to actually enjoy (for the most part) has become a constant source of stress & outright disgust.
Looking to re-invent yourself isn’t entirely something I was looking to do at this stage of my life, but what are we left with? I’m already looking at becoming a certified Apple Tech, either software or hardware. Those jobs seems to be increasing with Apple’s market share – at least for now.
And the next pontificating windbag that tries to convince me “Print isn’t dead!” is going to get a swift kick to the groin.
FubarGuy: thanks for the comment, I’m right there with you. I came THIS CLOSE to getting a great job as a field support tech for a company that specializes in Apple. I didn’t get it because I’m not certified like that. If you’ve worked in prepress for any significant amount of time you know the Mac really well, so that seems like a good choice. Go for it, AND HURRY! Before the rest of us jump on that bandwagon.
I love this: “And the next pontificating windbag that tries to convince me “Print isn’t dead!” is going to get a swift kick to the groin.” They need to stop pontificating and go sell some jobs for crying out loud. I’m saving my groin kicks for the Prius-driving milquetoasts who accuse me of being a tree-killer when nothing could be further from the truth.
Are you a professional journalist? You write very well.
What do you mean by “professional”?