The funny thing about Temping is that I'm beginning to get the impression that there are a lot of people out there, Temping in my field, without really knowing the first fucking thing about it.
I got my first inkling towards the end of last year, when I did a couple of stints with a company one of my former colleagues (specifically, my counterpart) worked for before changing his career entirely. It was reported to me that he described it at the time as "a bit much to take in", and yet I breezed through it... I ended up twiddling my thumbs and begging for more to do.
This week, I'm working at another company producing a similar kind of product, but for an entirely different market (and I learned today that the similarities could be down to the fact that half the staff at that company originated at this company!), and with a slightly heavier workload - several weeklies, supplements and specials, rather than just the one weekly (or was it two? I only dealt with one) and occasional supplements and specials. I'm tackling one all on my lonesome, and helping out my boss - Deputy Manager - with bits and bobs of hers, with the occasional screwball job coming along for extra fun.
So far, nothing unusual... Except I'm clearly far better than they were expecting - even after they interviewed me - and I'm being praised to the Salespeople on my second day there. Since my CV lists certain other of my internet-based projects, they had a quick gander at some of my art, and I was told today that their Art Department were very impressed. "Why's he working in Production?" they asked, apparently quite incredulous.
My answer (not to them - I'm not sure which one said it) was "Because it's more fun!"
I've always said I'm more of a techy than an artist/designer. I can do art, I can do design... but, really, my strengths are in ensuring it works properly.
And that seems to be what's lacking in others.
I suspect I mentioned at the time how galling it was when a former subordinate came back in as a Temp to assist on Copy Control, way back in my last job, and claimed that he'd done my boss's job. Turned out he hadn't. He always liked to talk himself up, but he'd only ever been a Senior Copy Controller. Problem is, he was also an arrogant twat, and seems to have bluffed his way into a couple of jobs since.
(As an aside, I probably should have seen the potential for this when he first joined the company - when my boss had a word with him about his attitude during his trial period, he told him "Look, I know you're going to hire me, you know you're going to hire me. Because I'm fucking good. That's all you need to know." And he was fucking good, comparatively... he just grew to believe his own hype, that he was better than everyone else.)
To be honest, I've always held it as true that Designers are ten a penny. Good Designers are gold dust. My former boss tends to add that good Designers who know how to artwork are rarer still.
So there's me... whose role it has been, for many, many years, to take apart what Designers put together, and put it back together so that it works properly. Templates are my thing. If I build a template, it's rock solid, and will work for as long as it'd used. Give me low res crap and, frequently, I can hand you back something printable.
And yet, I'm not an easy sell because I don't have a portfolio... Just a long history of getting things to press on time, and with the barest minimum of preventable errors.
Weird, innit?
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