Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I did Hvac for 8 months .. Tough work but great pay .. My friend started at 18 I started with him .. He snow 4 years in making 20 bucks an hour .. Great job ... Anyways .. hopefully Humber will be worth it.. its nice to have a back up in a trade ..

I spent 20 years in IT, in that time I worked for some Large compnaies. I worked for an auto parts supplier and it was pretty common for the Tool and Die Makers and the Mill Wrights in Maintenance to be making double what I was. Catch was a good chuck of that was based on over time. Now we live North of the city and I have several friends working at Honda. 10 years ago it was the same thing, had a friend making over 90k to circle paint drips on cars with a grease pencil. In the past 2-3 years allot of those friends are hurting bad as the OT dried up and it was there for so long they counted on like part of there wages.

I have learned after 20 years in IT I would rather do what I love and take a little less for it than grind it out every day for more money. I missed the first 8 years of my kids growing up because I was gone every morning at 6am and home after 8pm and night. Weekends were the only time you could get down time on systems so they were spent upgrading and doing maintenance or being on call.

Garbage collector not having to work hard? Ask yourself again, when it's 34 outside then add the humidity or -20 in the winter. Even if the weather is good, I don't think I would classify this job as "not having to work hard". I'd go crazy after a while doing the same thing day in day out, at least with my desk job behind a computer, there's always something different to deal with at least each day.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blog ... -here.aspx

If you could afford a H4 and back solution as a student

[quote="Magic"]If you could afford a H4 and back solution as a student

I think people need to put things into perspective here. $50K is doable but it's not a lot if you're living in Toronto IMO, of course it really depends where you live. Factor in taxes, cost of living, food, transportation, savings, etc. then how much do you really have now? If you have a spouse and also making that same amount, then things are better obviously

You could be doing the same thing in a small town in Canada, and there is no way you're going to get $50K a year. It's all relative. You could make $50K in some small town in Saskatchewan and you're doing really well.

Higher education isn't always specifically about what you learn as subject matter, it disciplines people to meet deadline's, work with others, work under pressure, plan, listen to others, etc...

In my day to day job I interact with other businesses at many levels of the organization and I would say ones ability to perform the above mentioned generic tasks has a direct correlation on their level of education.

Derrick, I wish your daughter the best of luck as she persue's her dream!

Agreed. There are a lot of less tangible skills that are learnt in University that one doesn't get elsewhere that are very valuable.

You definitely spend more in Toronto than in some small town in the country

Agreed but oddly enough camera gear costs the same or more in those markets.

i spent 3 years in University trying to get an Accounting Degree just to please my parents. after moving to Toronto, i enrolled at George Brown College for a 2 year vocational degree. i'm happy making good wage right now.

i'm also in a union, and don't be fooled by it. it could be your worst enemy. i have electrician friends in the union and they've been out of work for about 2 years now. i believe if you are a hard worker you do not need a union. why would someone get rid of you if you're an asset to a company?

Doesn't matter, even if you're a non-unionized and a hard worker in a large corporate company, you're just that... an asset with a cost. if the company needs to reduce costs, they will find ways to shift your work to somebody cheaper and then let you go with a package. I see this happen on a regular basis with quite a few companies.

No question; they'll do it. More experienced workers, in such a situation, have been with the company longer and make more money. The corporate mindset doesn't allow for individual efficiency. It's all widgets out the door and bottom line. A high cost line item will be dropped in favour of a lower one.

And back to the original posting wht did you end up getting for your daughter or what are you going to be getting her? It is interesting to know what others in the program with be using. I have found out that a few people have D300's and D300s's and a few will be using D700's. So it seems that a bunch are not renting.

i guess so, but it makes no difference if you're in a union. our company just let go 70 union employees since March and the union couldn't do jack about it. i guess if they really want to get rid of you they can. that's basically the world we live in now. like it or not it will not go away.

Okay rather than start a new thread I will ask my question here and see if any of the 2nd year Humber students or graduates can answer.

If you rent/lease the 300s from the school as they suggest. Do you return the camera in the summer and get the same one back in semester 3? Or can you keep it over summer? Or do you return it abd possibly get one someone else used first 2 semesters

2nd year you use any camera you want .. They teach mainly medium format 2nd year so I'm told

Yikes, for digital, MF gets pretty pricey! How can students afford this stuff?

I don't think (don't quote me) that you don;t have to rent it? and I think its MF Film no digi backs ... Not 100 percent sure