So....
I am going to talk to the Army and Navy recruiters tomorrow. Yes, it's that bad. I can't even count the number of resumes I have sent out. Everyone wants to pay $10/hr for people with four year degrees. That is approximately $650 every two weeks after taxes. Anyone on my list living in LA able to live on that?
Several things have made me think about going back in, not just the economy. I already have a total of eleven years in, so I only need nine more to retire. The Army has two MOSes that pertain to my photographic background, journalist (non-broadcast reporting) and imagery analyst (analyzing intel imagery). The Navy has apparently combined their Photographer's Mate and Journalist rates into Mass Communication Specialist. While I have all my history with the Navy, the thought of having to compete with more than just the other photographers in the Navy to advance does not sound good to me. PH was already a "closed" rate before, I can only imagine how hard it would be to advance now.
Now, I know, a lot of you are worried that I'll be sent to the front lines. Hell, I am worried about being sent to the front lines. You know what, if it's my time, it's my time. I've had a pretty good life.
Sadly, I believe it is my personal erotic work that has hampered me in finding work. I say this knowing that even the chiefs knew my work when I was in the Navy, and most of my previous employers knew of it, but I think they were probably the only ones who didn't care. Besides, "erotica" and "fetish" imagery has been so distorted and it's substance thinned out by "people with cameras" that many in the erotic/fetish scene feel my work is no longer "erotic" or "fetish". That's fine. I've always said I do my work for myself and the model, and no one else. I don't think someone stuffed into latex like a sausage is sexy. I don't think making yourself up to look like an extra from Battlefield Earth is hot. I really was born too late.
The service is probably the last place I can work that I compete *almost* equally with minorities anymore. I made $22.50/hr at AAA, my daytime counterpart made $12/hr, hardly understood English, and wasn't fully trained on the equipment. You see who got laid off. I don't blame him. It's not the immigrant's coming in, it's the Americans wanting to pay less for labor. Don't even get me started on this whole mess, because I see both sides of it and I do not see any real answer to it.
To be honest, my heart really isn't into reenlisting, but right now it seems to be the only answer. Friends have offered rooms they can spare and what not, but I couldn't personally do that. My mental state would be completely fucked. It already bothers me that I would be retiring this year if I had just stayed in from the beginning. Who knows, maybe I'll really enjoy it. Maybe I'll get sent to Germany and meet kinky German girls...LOL All I know is, I know what the minimum they have to offer me to even think about it and I am sticking to it. Personally, I think this is all payback for not going in as a pilot as I had thought about doing since I was 5 anyways. I do miss the structure of military life, though. Knowing everyone knows what they have to do and how to do it. I really wish we had conscripted service. I think it would make us a better, smarter, stronger nation. And the smell of jet exhaust. Yeah, I'm weird like that.
Several things have made me think about going back in, not just the economy. I already have a total of eleven years in, so I only need nine more to retire. The Army has two MOSes that pertain to my photographic background, journalist (non-broadcast reporting) and imagery analyst (analyzing intel imagery). The Navy has apparently combined their Photographer's Mate and Journalist rates into Mass Communication Specialist. While I have all my history with the Navy, the thought of having to compete with more than just the other photographers in the Navy to advance does not sound good to me. PH was already a "closed" rate before, I can only imagine how hard it would be to advance now.
Now, I know, a lot of you are worried that I'll be sent to the front lines. Hell, I am worried about being sent to the front lines. You know what, if it's my time, it's my time. I've had a pretty good life.
Sadly, I believe it is my personal erotic work that has hampered me in finding work. I say this knowing that even the chiefs knew my work when I was in the Navy, and most of my previous employers knew of it, but I think they were probably the only ones who didn't care. Besides, "erotica" and "fetish" imagery has been so distorted and it's substance thinned out by "people with cameras" that many in the erotic/fetish scene feel my work is no longer "erotic" or "fetish". That's fine. I've always said I do my work for myself and the model, and no one else. I don't think someone stuffed into latex like a sausage is sexy. I don't think making yourself up to look like an extra from Battlefield Earth is hot. I really was born too late.
The service is probably the last place I can work that I compete *almost* equally with minorities anymore. I made $22.50/hr at AAA, my daytime counterpart made $12/hr, hardly understood English, and wasn't fully trained on the equipment. You see who got laid off. I don't blame him. It's not the immigrant's coming in, it's the Americans wanting to pay less for labor. Don't even get me started on this whole mess, because I see both sides of it and I do not see any real answer to it.
To be honest, my heart really isn't into reenlisting, but right now it seems to be the only answer. Friends have offered rooms they can spare and what not, but I couldn't personally do that. My mental state would be completely fucked. It already bothers me that I would be retiring this year if I had just stayed in from the beginning. Who knows, maybe I'll really enjoy it. Maybe I'll get sent to Germany and meet kinky German girls...LOL All I know is, I know what the minimum they have to offer me to even think about it and I am sticking to it. Personally, I think this is all payback for not going in as a pilot as I had thought about doing since I was 5 anyways. I do miss the structure of military life, though. Knowing everyone knows what they have to do and how to do it. I really wish we had conscripted service. I think it would make us a better, smarter, stronger nation. And the smell of jet exhaust. Yeah, I'm weird like that.