Originally Posted by gblowfish (Post 8380015)

Send this company a resume. Its in Independence. It's owned by a guy I used to work for. I left one of his other companies for more money at my current job:

http://www.rpawards.com/

Originally Posted by lcarus (Post 8380009)

My dad has been wanting to buy the place, but he just has awful awful credit and he only makes about 50-60k himself.

Originally Posted by gblowfish (Post 8380020)

BTW: Corel Draw? Really? Really???

Originally Posted by lcarus (Post 8380022)

Cool, thank you. I will. I was looking to move back up to the KC area eventually anyway. Still have a lot of family and friends up there.

Plus....the Chiefs......:shake:

Originally Posted by lcarus (Post 8380017)

I basically manage the place as is. He's not around much, and when he is, he doesn't do anything very often. There is literally no room for growth as far as my position is concerned. I'm good at what I do and it would be hard for him to replace me considering I've been doing all of our customers shit for 10 years.

I really hate the place, and am bored with my job. Really grown complacent and burnt out. But ya know..I got rent, car payment, insurance, food. Stuff I gotta have. I just don't know what options to explore. I'm good with Corel and Photoshop with what we do HERE, but a lot of the stuff we do is pretty simple compared to a lot of "graphic artists".

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts (Post 8380025)

So your Dad makes a comfortable living, and you make around half or less than he does after 10 years. Word to the wise, 13.50 today is worth about what 8.50 was 10 years ago. They don't value you. Get the **** out.

Originally Posted by lcarus (Post 8379988)

I have worked at an awards shop since 2002. My father is the GM who runs the place, but the owners are a couple of old investors that are hands-off. My job is to design every award that comes through the door, and we do everything from trophies, plaques, glass and acrylic awards, medals, ribbons, t-shirts, hats, custom engravings, you name it. I use two laser engravers and a sublimation printer. I use CorelDraw and Photoshop for everything. A lot of times I have to design artwork for lazy customers who can't get us something usable. I have a very very good record of not screwing things up, which is easy to do.

I started at 8.50 an hour and I now make 13.50. I haven't had a raise in 2 and a half years, and it was a dollar raise. We probably do between 3,000-6,000 dollars per day in business. We only have about 7 employees currently. I was told this past Christmas that the owners weren't giving Christmas bonuses. I usually have gotten like 150 bucks or so every Christmas. We had a pretty good year...

Every time I rarely, politely ask for a raise I'm told by the owners or my father that I should be happy with what I make, and if I want more money I should help the company make more money...should I get the hell outta here?

Originally Posted by ReynardMuldrake (Post 8380033)

Dude, you have 10 years of Photoshop & graphic design experience and a rock steady work history. Make a resume and get it out there. Start applying for anything you can find. I guarantee you will find a job you love sooner or later. Don't compromise and work somewhere you hate.

Originally Posted by suds79 (Post 8379997)

Sounds like you want to leave and you've already answered your question.

If you're unhappy, start looking around.