$350 to fix my life.

[ThisIsMyUserName]

Who's allergic to cats?
Give me ice cream.

[Mikey]

can you make websites too? know any seo tactics?

[Draconis]

Have you tried unemployment agencies? Rhode Island is small as fuck, so you should be able to go in and make buddy buddy with someone in an UA, and then have them work with you to find you something at least temporary.. Or try for one that's in a neighbouring state?

[Incognito]

What kind of jobs are you applying for that you're applying for 20/day?

[jeffdrafttech]

You're young and it's a bad economy. Nothing is below you, see previous sentence.

I agree that hard physical labor is a bad idea, especially if you've been injured before. You only get one body and very hard jobs aren't worth the tear on your body unless you have kids that depend on you. there are easier jobs that can allow ends to meet.

I know a lot of graphic designers. Many of them work in the same office I do, and only their manager makes what you are looking for. You chose a career that is uber-popular. You fucked up by doing that. I'm sure that there are many who do what you do, make a large salary, and are able to live in an expensive city. For every one of those there are two or three making $27k/yr (and the ones making the bank are likely not 26 with a chip on their shoulders).

Fifteen or twenty years ago I knew lots more well-paid graphic artists who hand-painted signs and did intelligent well thought out commercial graphic art, but large-format printers put most of them out to pasture. Illustrator programs cost hundreds of dollars because they replace several workers.

There is probably freelance piece-work out there for someone willing to bust-ass and find it, if you can work in some media besides a 30" monitor. If you took an easy 40hour job for 25k and supplemented it with art work you might get close to your goal of $35Kish.

If you are truly worth much to a company, you can do more than just design a sign or logo at a workstation according to the spec laid down by a salesman or customer. If you're worth a good salary, you can sell what you do because you know it better than most people. You can see when someone needs your help, talk to them, and explain how you can help them (for a few bucks, you are a capitalist after all).

The most successful graphic artist I ever knew was a coworker and he retired after 50 years last year. He was more salesman than artist, but his value and paycheck came from his ability to express an idea graphically. His card said he sold beer, but his paycheck was a lot fatter than most of his peers because he knew how to market product using signs he designed and produced.

If you want ideas go to the library in your abundant free time and read some books about retail merchandising. A little knowledge combined with your skills will make it easy for you to see places who need your services on a piece-work basis. There are ba-billions of small businesses who are really really (really) bad at presenting their message and could use the help.

[picard102]

Whats your portfolio like?

[spooky]

Jeff has it pretty much on the head

easy money, and your approach to this problem tells me you are a smart out of the box thinker, that's employable. Trouble is, you picked one of the hardest jobs there is to get, everyone and their brother has a graphic design degree, and something like 90% of graduates never go on to get work in that field.(hehe, I started at 17 while still in high school, managed 7 years experience, 2 as art director, before I realized I hated it and quit)

On the professional end:

1. Here's your new hobby, Graphic Designer, it's called CrowdSpring, get busy and submit one design a day. It will pad your portfolio with work not done in college, which is what employers want to see. Oh, and you might actually get paid now and then.

2. Fuck digging for want ads, when I was an Art Director, I never once hired anyone from a want ad. It's all about who you know, and assuming you don't know anyone, you need to be hitting up studios in person. Any place with an in house art department, that means billboard and sign companies, screen printing, newspapers and magazines. You said you know jack about web crap, so I assume you are a print guy.

Show up, tell them whatever you need to get your foot in the door. If that means saying, "Give me a week, I will work for free, if you like me at the end, give me some work, or at least keep my name on top of your list when hiring again". Tell em you'll help the production team, just to learn all aspects of the job, you'll reclaim screens, fold shirts, run a squeegee, trim work, clean plates, whatever it takes to get your foot in the door and them to know you by name. Bribe if you have tob but get your foot in the door, get your name out there.

Next on your list of worries, you have to stop the cash bleeding from savings. That means get a job, any job, to stem the flow while you work on getting where you need to be professionally.

Get a job delivering pizza, decent enough money and flexible hours. In Savannah, GA, my take home after expenses while I was still attending college was about $450 a week on maybe 25 hours a week. They aren't ever really hiring, but they can always squeeze someone onto the schedule, so you have to talk your way into it.

Before you do this, drive around, get familiar with your city, you need to decide where to work. Where are all the gated communities, the rich white people living up on top of hills or by the water? That's where the money is, that's where you'll deliver. Don't grab the first place that's closest to your home, it's actually worth driving 45 minutes or an hour out of your way just to deliver in a better part of town.

After picking out the cherry spot of town, walk in during the day and ask when the general manager is around. Not the shift manager. Don't fill out an application or anything unless it's from the store's general manager.

In Savannah, I drove around looking for the best part of town, then got a job at Pizza Hut on Whitmarsh Island. The very first night, not knowing the streets yet or anything, I still managed to break their store record for deliveries in a single night, at the time that was 19. Turned out, the Papa Johns was the store with all the business out there.

So I showed up, asking for the General Manager, who happened to be there, and asked about working. He said sorry, not hiring. So I told him I was the best driver over at Pizza Hut, but wasn't doing well enough there because of their low volume. I told him I average one delivery for every ten minutes I am on the clock working nothing but closing shifts, that I run, hop fences, bust ass in store, that I was an aggressive and competitive driver. I even told him I never wanted a raise, to help keep labor costs in line. He asked if I would be willing to manage, and I said no, not enough money in it.

He hired me on the spot(I brought 3 or 4 $100 bills to lay out one at a time if he still said no, but it never came to that)

Next thing is, only work closing night shifts. Usually people are happy to give them up, but sometimes they want to hold on to them. Do what you have to to get all the closing shifts you can, including bribery.

I always tipped out the managers at the end of the night, $5-$10. Nobody else does, so you stand out right away. They probably won't want to take it, simply insist, be insulted if they still say no. Usually, it's the managers assigning deliveries, and you want to be their favorite.

When you are working, run on every delivery, speed as much as you can without getting caught, get free pizza for every cop you ever see sitting in a patrol car and make sure they know your name. Hop fences, when people don't answer a door, take a quarter and tap on windows(it's super loud), do anything you can to always be the guy with the most runs at the end of the night. I mentioned having 19 at Pizza Hut, at Papa Johns I decimated their record, too, which was like 38 at the time. I topped it with 54 deliveries because I was the weirdo hyper aggressive guy who always sprinted.

Anyway, it'll net you close to $20 an hour, which will keep you afloat til you get your shit together. If you get a job delivering, PM me and I will fill you in on some tricks to be the delivery nazi.

[Subsonix]

Originally Posted by picard102

Whats your portfolio like?

PICARD AXED YOU A QUESTION.

Did you answer it?

[duk3]

OMFG did Spooky kill that reply.

So yeah, get a job. No offense but no one cares if you went to school. You have to prove to someone what you can do to make them more profitable.

If you're not ready or able for that yet, just work somewhere. The more you hate it, the more driven you will be.

I wouldn't personally go straight to pizza delivery, but Spooky sure as hell made it sound fun. I had my own share of shit jobs and the simple fact is that you just need to kick ass at whatever it is. 38 deliveries in a night or whatever. You certainly can't just pay a forum $350 to get a nice career.

BUT... if you want graphic design advice, you should post your work and have it critiqued. You claim to deserve a nice salary. Let's see what you can do.

About me... I have no college degree but after like 4-5 years of intense manual labor, I decided that I deserved more. I sat home after work every night reading photoshop tutorial after photoshop tutorial on the internet. Then I moved on to flash, css, illustrator, etc. I eventually made enough connections and did enough free work to get myself a job for a concert promoter doing advertising. I still get paid hourly but its twice as much as I made with manual labor, and I have enough energy to run my own web design company after hours.

I'm not happy yet but I'm sure as hell not going to ask for help. I'm going to go learn more skills to be better than the next guy and then gun for his/her job.

The advice you seem to need is simply that you have to make your own opportunities in this world.

Where's my 350?

:P

[Lura]

Stop sending out resumes. They are toilet paper.

1. Identify a company you want to apply to.
2. Learn what they do, in detail (industry, service, product, etc).
3. Find the names of the Human Resources contacts and the manager(s) for the department(s) you want to work in.
4. Write letters to those individuals detailing how your skills can be an asset for the specific needs of the department(s). Provide examples.
5. Repeat.