Where did PrePress go?

[barney]

I have worked in prepress since 1990, and over the past couple of years I've seen places close or disappear or merge in-house with clients.
It's crazy, I wish I could just move on to another career but have so much time invested in this field.
I live in the Bay Area of California and when there is a job available, their email box maxes out or I call and they say that they are overwhelmed with resumes and now I read crap like this:
Must have a BA in fine arts ; this is not a design position .... Must be proficient in design. ; part time / freelance /contingent ; $12/ hour.

Tell me, am I the only one seeing this? or is this happening across the board?


Confused,
Barney

about me: retoucher/color analyst since 1990.

[jimking]

Yes in one form or another, 12 bucks an hour they get what they pay for. I would not recommend this business to anyone any more. And that goes for any digital imaging career including digital film editing, DVD creation etc. 3D movie special effects. The fact that imaging is digital the files can be moved any where in the world at rock bottom wages at the speed of light tells me the party is pretty much over compared to what it once was.

[C2C]

As someone new to Prepress its concerning to read posts like this.

But, Its 100% true. I cant imagine spending YEARS and having mass knowledge to find your craft being reduced to partime freelance work across the board.
I also cannot imagine knowing film and having your job slowly becoming obsolete and at 40? having to re learn everything for CTP. (as it is with a co worker)

Most businesses around here the ads ask for 2-5 years exp in a prepress environment, asking you to know all the basics and most workflows, some flash or web design, state that it is shift work and then offer a pay of 25k a year.
(12-12.50 an hr x 2000 year work year)

Its the High schools and Colleges. They promote the employment rate of this field to be 85% or greater and promote creativity and flexibility with what one can do with a graphic design diploma. (( Graphic Design Technology and Management diploma here ))



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Im going to use myself as an example:

I can tell you out of 32 people class only 4 of us have found any work in this field (and it took me 2 years of looking) The rest of them have gone back to college or uni to re-educate themselves in another field.

Now as someone with only a year and a bit of experience in there mid 20s I find myself thinking I will be able to crack 16$ in about 9 years. (( raises are 3% a year at the co. im working for now *** aka Cost of Living Increase *** averages out to about 30-60 cents depending on your base pay
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.......... Its disheartening.
Im sure there are many others who feel the same.

[Earendil]

I'm thinking about going to school to become a Massage Therapist, I already have my own portable table and there are a ton of people with sore backs out there. Sounds better than truck driving school...

[C2C]

I have a friend who went through for several things (marketing, software engineering) and has recently given up looking for a job in either and got his AZ license and is driving truck for a steel co here.

Never was what he wanted to do, but he finally has a job thats not minimum wage while attending class to get a worthless diploma.

Tech 3 of my friends with different diplomas now drive some form of Big Truck... (Tool and Diemaker.. driving truck) and Police Officer (driving Truck too)

Massage Therapist eh...

Dental Hygenists make a great wage out of school.
Should have been one of those.
Sure your bascially the only male in the course, but that just means u have many dating options

[jimking]

NT or IT work pays well and plumbers.

[pmkprog]

We're all qualified to be garbage men.

People take the position for granted. I know shops that touted themselves as quality shops for Pre-press and for color expertise and now they are hiring kids to do quality work. They figured that all of the experienced people cost them too much.

Like it was said, "You get what you pay for."

You pay for dedicated experienced workers, if you don't want to, you get high turnover rates and people that don't give a crap.

[barney]

Funny you mention that, pmkprog,
I just interviewed for a $1100 in-law apartment (200sf), because I can't afford SF any longer.
The home owner interviewing me eventually admitted he is a garbage man.
He's doing much better than I am !!!! He owns a $450k home.
WTF?

[Mjetz]

Prepress is just going in house. My town had about 8 to 10 trade shops 10 years ago. Now, none. They either got bought up by the big boys Schwak, American Color and the like. Most of the personel moved into in-house prepress at the printers. I work for an In-plant folding carton/label printer for a Manufacturing company. It a safe job. Sure they can send it out. But with lean manufacturing, just in time delivery and zero inventory; we keep busy with small runs. We deliver within 2 hours of need at the packing lines.

[GinSu]

The few, the proud, the tradeshops!

We've seen most of our competition and many of our customers go "in-house". We are still a trade shop (small, under 30 employees), cleaning up files and providing dot proofs/PDFx1a for big ad agencies, taking art from printers who haven't gone in house and generating film. We even make plates for other printers. Our large imagesetter actually gets work because of its size, some smaller printers are tired of the constant upgrade and maintenance and send their files to us–it's just easier for them.

As far as pay goes, Dad said this business would never make me rich but I wouldn't be hungry either. And that seems to hold true. I've been in digital prepress for 17+ years and make $15 an hour. While the benefits are spectacular (sick days? What are sick days?), getting time off for extended vacations (four months!) is as simple as asking.

Several former employees have quit to get get better benefits elsewhere, only to get laid off after a couple of months. I've learned that while the grass may be greener over there, if I spread my shit around well enough, my grass will be green enough.