mentor

[glorybound]

OK. I work for a company that has 7 AIA's and 7 CAD Techs. Prior to me all our presentations were 2d floor plans and elevation. We hired a very talented marketing guy, who is also now an owner, and appreciates graphics. Do I teach the architects what I know or do I keep the knowledge to myself. I don't see any of them having any interest anyway, but part of me wants to keep what I know with me so I am more valuable. Am I thinking wrong? Currently I also manage the building information modeling and web development. The fear is I will not have enough time to do everything.

Just a question for you'll to help me thing through.

[mikeh]

interesting...i always assumed you were a consultant to a lot of firms.
anyway, having been there, i think you answered your own question when you said none of them have any interest anyway. They are struggling as it is, why burden them with more "useless" info that they'll forget because they don't do it on a regular basis. Most cad people (in our office anyway) have a set of about ten to fifteen commands they use all the time and anything else is generally too much of a burden for them to remember. The 3d "magic" is way too complicated with too much stuff to remember.
I've encountered people in my office who expressed a desire to learn and, without exception, they give up almost immediately once they are faced with all the memorization.
3d and 2d graphics are a pain in the rear end that only the dedicated and insane will put up with. Let them live their normal lives without all this nonsense adding to the daily grind.
mh

[dellis]

I would say let everyone play to their strengths! Let them be architects and technicians. Be the "go to guy" for the pretty pictures!

[glorybound]

I agree, but the powers-that-be are asking me to teach. I love to mentor, but only if people have the passion. Another part of me thinks I might be working myself out of a job, but the powers-that-be say that I need to move up to more important things.

Over the past 20 years I have purchased my software, assets, and plug ins. I purchased the hardware and did my own training. Over the past 2 years my full time job purchased everything I need and I have stopped doing my moon lighting, which funded my software, hardware, assets, and plug ins. The only way I kept my skill up was by moon lighting on jobs that had budgets and they appreciated what graphics can do for them. If I were canned today I couldn't hit the streets running. With my full time job I'd be lucky if I get past the gray scale images that I do while they are not looking and place it on their desk hoping they'll ask for more. Everything we do here seems to be cost driven. If they can get a shaded Revit view that is free they will not budget for something nice. Anytying I post here with color is after hours and weekend stuff I do to keep my skill current.

What to do?

[Sawyer]

I think you need to teach to show your commitment to the company - but I dont know if you need to worry about giving away your information. I dont think that most people will have any follow through with actually understanding what you are teaching. But it is good experience to teach to a group. I think it helps you in your resume and experience.

[dellis]

If they are that cost sensitive then i would be a little leery about their motives for having you teach. Not that its some nefarious plot but they could be idealizing the situation. They tried that here years ago, figuring that since they were engineers that they could do what i do better and faster...since i am not an enginerd i must surely be less efficient and effective. It was a waste of time! They quickly realized that you can't just jump into this stuff and be great at it...it takes practice as well as some creativity...which, typically, engineers have none! Do what you have to do at work...be accommodating but by all means keep yourself as sharp as you can in the time you have on your own...i think they will see your worth when they realize how long it takes the "students" to catch on. Then again...they may blame the teacher!

[glorybound]

I am also leading our building information modeling effort and managing our web presents (SEO). They see the BIM side being priority and think that when the ball starts rolling I'll be overloaded. I guess I have to decide if I want to be a starving artist or a Manager of Design and Construction Technology

[Alan Iglesias]

Go ahead and teach them. If you do it well and their attitudes are how you describe, you will very likely be teaching them not so much about how to create killer 3D graphics but more importantly that it is something that they would never want to get involved with!

I'm sure that in all the years of corporate training I've done, my lessons have made it clear to folks that they have no business doing this just as often as I've inspired someone to pursue it and be great at it.

The bottom line is that education and people helping one another is almost always a good thing, and that sometimes the lessons you are teaching are not exactly the ones expected!

As has been pointed out, only the "crazies" will want to do this anyway! Folks that are "more sane" will leave it to us in the end.

Best of luck,

-Alan

[flino2004]

like many places and companies they will see how talent you are when you are leaving them then they will offer you the sky and stars then you get more money and vacation!!!! ...or they will call you later after seen that you were the guy there, without you it's very difficult selling their ideas then you will become a consultant charging them more money than you current salary and working half of the hours....it's not a good deal?

life works in that way....sometime you have to be out of you comfort zone to see who you are, and how many people really is willing to work with you because they know you as a professional (and no because they pay you a salary)

Fernando

[sea2stars]

I say don't bother. I've been there.

The powers that be talked me into training one of the designers years ago. I ended up spending way too much of my time, during and after office hours, only to have it wasted because it's not something they could keep working at. Six months later when they double clicked on the Max icon again they'd be back to square one.

If they want to learn let them do it on their own, but offer support if desired.

Oh. And when they give you a Sketchup model, please let them know that they're not doing you a favor.

Woot! Off to Maine; for a week by the lake, no cell reception and no rendering buckets.

[EricCamper]

I love this... What to do... Are you worried about your job? DO you think someone there could possibly get up to speed to the point where they would be better than you...
I agree with all of the above... YOu can not possibly turn them down and tell them NO... But offer any and all advice you can... We all know how many years it takes to up to speed, so I dont worry bout such things... Frankly, the last guy I trained in MAX and a little bit of vray... He ended up convincing the architect in the other office, that SU was just as good. The honest answer was he couldnt keep up with Max and he thought VRAY was WAY TOO COMPLICATED and could not figure it out. So I had to deal with " Hey...Mike did this model in Sketchup, but now we want it rendered out "like you do", Could you make these changes in SU and then render in that program you use" LOL...

He then got laid off and got a new job using MY 3D WORK in his online portfolio... He told me he could not remember what he helped me on!!!

And on the other hand... Do you walk up to the Architects and ask them to teach you everything YOU KNOW? I think not.

My boss went from sketching his ideas on bumwad, then getting me to model in CAD/MAX, printing out images, then making changes and etc... Now he models his ideas in SU, brings the laptop to the meeting and does all this without me... My coworker was like "DAMN... now HE is taking work away from you" But I would much rather work this way... that is what SU is for...

Bobby, our talents are are very valuable and most likely they know that.. Plus... how many websites and bookmarks do we all know by heart on where to get maps, models, plugins...
What the hell is wrong with this last bucket??? stuff like that...

[glorybound]

Thanks Eric. No, I am not fearing my job. I have been trying to teach everyone my whole career and I haven't found anyone who cares to learn. My concern is teaching them something like SketchUp, Revit, or PhotoShop renders and they think that is good enough. I implemented Revit 5 years ago and not one person has clicked the render button yet. The architects draw floor plans and the cad tech's draw CD's I can take a Revit model, bring it into MAX, mask everything, and paint it like a water color in PhotoShop in about an hour. They (marketing) want me to teach it so everyone can do it. If I do they will not think taking 3 days for a photo-real is requires. When I work for outside architects they pay for quality.

[dellis]

I've never really understood this whole mindset...the sketchup/basic revit render type quality. It just seems to me that what they gain in efficiency ($$$$) they lose in effectiveness. I'm not talking early in the design process but the final renders. I'm seeing more and more crap on billboards outside of major projects. I just wrote an article for a magazine that was given out at siggraph about this. The total budget hit for some of these renderings is such a small price, overall, when compared with what the renderings bring to the table...i mean the ones that provide an insight into the experience...not just illustrate what the design will look like! I don't want to hijack here...so i'll just say again...keep your wits about you, most of these ideas that employers have are driven by efficiency, not effectiveness!

[glorybound]

hijack, please. Can you post your article?

[Morne]

Yes, please post a link to your article Dwayne.

Bobby, something related in a way, when I was in IT and I had to approach the Financial Manager one time for funds to replace a crached hard drive, I was told: "Why? you know you're just a luxury here and don't realy need to be here"