Originally Posted by bbattle

Occupation: Mad Scientist

I'm in the R & D department for a company that synthesizes DNA.

Originally Posted by oldfixguy

Civil Infrastructure Project Management - other people work their asses off and I get paid to pass that little fact on. I have on occasion been known to do things like ask others to research how someone else did similar things (thus teaching me how to do it) and with unquestionable authority label it "historical research findings", show people drawings made by someone who actually knows what they are doing accompanied by contrived, industry buzz words to throw off any attempt to embarrass me by asking a real question or God forbid say the word "detail" (this is why meeting rooms are so full. The people talking know nothing. Those sitting quietly give real answers on the rare occasions that is business appropriate), pass off months of other peoples research and findings along with arbitrary inflation as "my" preliminary (great word preliminary - it the business equivalent of "pulled out of my butt") budget estimate, convince all sorts of people that I'm a better caretaker of sometimes enormous sums of their money than they are, ask dozens of people when they would like to begin doing something for a change (this requires one to promise the chance they will be paid money should they decide to actually work) and forward those vague and barely committal ideas as a "schedule". There is more. But, usually around that time it's lunch. I think of afternoons as "me" time.

Originally Posted by riot2003

Awesome post. I love when people are realistic about office positions, I am about mine. When did you realize this is how things worked?

Originally Posted by 2su

ha ha ha.... I hate-hate-hate PM's. I work in Corp Finance

Originally Posted by Noobert

I need to learn how to drum riot, got any suggestions?

Originally Posted by Nietzsche

I'm a cashier at whole foods. I went to school for photography and freelance on the side but there's less of that lately.

Originally Posted by ottothecow

Keep with it and don't settle for rock bottom rates like a lot of young guys! Your services are worth it, especially since you actually went to school for it. Leave the bottom of the barrel pricing to the "guy with a digital camera and photoshop" and let clients realize they are paying a little more for true professional service.

It might take longer and be harder to get going but in the end it will be worth it to not have a client base that expects everything at a discount (e.g. don't sell full usage rights to your photos! license them for what they want the photos for...if they want to reuse the photos for something else in a year, they have to pay you again)