Problem puts you on the spot.

Have you ever felt like no one notices you? Well… problem changes that. Everyone's watching you to see how you deal with it.

The way you handle the problem can show what you're capable of.

Darkness creates opportunity for a small flickering candle to shine.

Recently, a friend of mine who just assumed a technical director at an internet company told me that they're looking for an interactive art director.

They're looking for someone who are familiar with both the design and technology aspects of web projects. In addition to that, since they're trying to get into a foreign market, they need someone who has experience of managing an offshore production team.

The last portion of the requirements was the reason why he reached out to me since he knows that I've been doing that in the past few years.

Unfortunately, I don't think that opportunity is for me, so I recommended someone else who I think have all the above.

So I approached that person and started telling him about the opportunity. The first question he asked was: "How much do they pay?"

I'm not writing this to judge that person for asking that question because I think fair compensation is a very important factor for considering an opportunity. 

I know what it's like to be overworked and underpaid. Not a very good feeling. Obviously, after we put in much effort, we would like to receive a proportionate return.

Following that train of thought, I would like to suggest everyone who's considering a new employment opportunity to ask the question above, but not only considering the pay in terms of monetary value.

Consider a broader term of "payment" as anything that you could get in return for your service.  Often times, the "payment" that we cannot appraise in monetary value are the kinds of return that are more valuable than money.  Some examples of that kind of return are learning opportunity from a more experienced person, more time to do what you want to do outside work, the luxury of getting enough sleep at night or being exposed to a certain process/industry.

So ask: "How much do they pay?" But also ask: "What are the forms of payments that this job offer?"

Recently, I encounter problem with flash element embedded inside PowerPoint. Odd problem, if I may add.

If I open a PowerPoint file with flash movie already embeded in it, the flash movie won't. Upon openning the PowerPoint I got a warning message saying that some controls can't be activated.

What really odd is if I create a new PowerPoint presentation file and embed the flash object myself, it works perfectly.

My colleagues said that they encountered the same problem and they solved it by updating the Flash player to the latest version (Adobe Flash player 9).

So I tried that. Restarted my computer. Didn't work.

I thought maybe somehow the player got mixed up with the older version because I have Flash 8 installed on this machine. So I uninstalled Flash 8, then tried to install the new player again. Same result.

Today I finally stumbled upon the solution. I was trying to access MSN Video by clicking on a link from Windows Live messenger and I got an error page saying that I don't have Flash player installed on my machine.

I know for sure I have it installed because I can see flash ads when I browse the web.

Apparently what happened was I have the flash player installed for Firefox, but not for IE because I accessed the download page by using Firefox. PowerPoint uses the player(ActiveX component) that's installed  for IE. So the connection is …both are Microsoft's products.

Recently I received an email from a college student who was not sure of the direction that he should take for his career because he's torn between 2 interests: the creative and technical parts of multimedia projects. He loves to design and create artistic things, but he also enjoys making things work programatically.

He reached out to me because I'm pretty much in the same boat. Apparently I'm not alone in this journey. 

Interestingly, in the past few months, I've been contacted by few companies looking to fill positions which require exactly what mentioned above: both creative/visual and technical skills/sensibility.

But even though this kind of position becomes more and more available, many companies still try to box the role into either visual, interaction, or developer position because of the way their organizations are structured.

For young designers who have this "problem", I'd suggest to do either one of the following:

1. If you can work independently, seek opportunity in smaller companies. They cannot afford to hire specialists for each role, so you'll automatically be involved in many areas. The problem with this is you'll get many more responsibilities outside your role…including the ones that you don't want to do.

2. Find a company where you can try on different roles when the opportunity comes. This is the kind of company that emphasis heavily on learning and growth. They believe that their success rely on their employees growth so they foster it.