Career in Flash - advice appreciated 1

[trace]

Hi,

I currently work in Marketing, producing sales support literature. Traditionally we have only used paper material, but I several months ago I mentioned to my boss that I can use Flash. She asked me if I would develop an offline CD-ROM as a sales tool. Six months later the project is finished and has been so well received they want me to do another five!

The trouble is, not only did I have to put in a lot of unpaid overtime on this to meet the deadline, they are not paying me any extra and I am expected to do my normal job too.

My question is this: Are my employees taking me for a ride? Should I ask for an extra payment for doing these projects, which are outside my job description, or should I be grateful for the opportunity and experience?. I earn very little as it is, and I have saved the company thousands by doing this in-house.

Any advice would be very gratefully received!

Thanx

 

[davdesign]

hi

Yes and no. You're saving the company a lot of money, yes, but you could shoot yourself in the foot if there's someone else within the company who can do it too. I suggest that you find out if there's anyone else within the company capable of producing cd-rom literature. If not, then find out who (if anyone) the company used before you offered your services, and what they paid for the service. Also, do a bit of local research, find out who in your town/city produces cd-rom literature and what they charge for their services (full breakdown of charges).

Be sure though that you don't shoot yourself in the foot (which I think you might), you're company might not take kindly to the slightest hint of arrogance, sending you back to your desk-job and postponing future promotions!!

Personally, my route was lengthy. I was put in charge of selecting and 'hiring' a designer to create a website for the comany I was working for. This gave me the current market information of pricing, services offered etc. A year later, after getting into 3d visualisation, Acad & Macromedia products, I hooked up with my friends who own their own 3D company. They hired me to create their website and it rolled from there. Tomorrow I'm going to buy my first company and with the affiliation to friends' company the future looks okay.

Keep your confidence up and don't be too let down if at first it doesn't go the way you want it. Just keep pluggin away. You've already got the backing of the company you work for, so if you set up on your own they'll always be there for contacts, good word-of-mouth etc.

dD davdesign@hotmail.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^