# new in chicagoland



## vguard420 (May 24, 2005)

joby here doing the first post things...im in hs and im really into lighting but can do it all... i did sound for our v show and ended up working the hog III for our musical.. i really want to get into automated lighting after hs.. anywho im hear to learn and help if i can


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## dvsDave (May 24, 2005)

Hey vguard!

Welcome aboard! I am your host ...err... webmaster, dvsDave. There are quite a few members from chicagoland on CB. so many in fact, I should probably just rename the site ChicagoBoard.com 

...except not :wink:

Anyway, hope to see you around the site often! There is something new to see everytime you visit!

-dvsDave


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## DJErik07 (May 24, 2005)

Hey WELCOME!! Hope to learn from you. The official welcome waggons should be around soon.


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## avkid (May 24, 2005)

(flourish of trumpets) The Welcome Wagon is here. I am so jealous, a Hog III in a High School!! Have fun and post often!!!

-The OFFICIAL WELCOME WAGON (part 1 of 2)


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## Peter (May 24, 2005)

Hey welcome to CONTROLbooth.com!

(not ALL of us are from Chicago!) 

Sounds like you have some cool equipment to work with! Enjoy it! It would seem you've read some of the other welcomes and have already basicly stolen my line about learning and making posts too! 

Welcome to Controlbooth.com!
--The Official Welcome Wagon (part 2)


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## bdesmond (May 25, 2005)

There's a good sized handful of folks from the city and the suburbs around here. I think most of them are actually referring ot the suburbs when they claim to be from Chicago. I happen to actually live/work in the city. Welcome!


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## ship (May 26, 2005)

Yes but given Glenview, I think that's another Cub's fan on the list.


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## vguard420 (May 26, 2005)

cubs.. psh... i'd have to actualy care about baseball to be a cubs fan..lol


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## ship (May 26, 2005)

Don't have to care about baseball to twist the dagger in Daves Red Sox based hart.


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## Peter (May 26, 2005)

Hey, be careful ship.... there are alot of people from MA here too... and the Red Sox are from our back yard


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## len (May 27, 2005)

vguard420 said:


> joby here doing the first post things...im in hs and im really into lighting but can do it all... i did sound for our v show and ended up working the hog III for our musical.. i really want to get into automated lighting after hs.. anywho im hear to learn and help if i can



Then you should be calling on Upstaging, Performance Lighting, and ILC, which are in the northern suburbs.


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## vguard420 (May 29, 2005)

alredy tring to get a job at ILC but i dont know how well thats going


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## ship (Jun 1, 2005)

Good company, if you get the job you will no doubt learn a lot. 

-Work hard - it's only a summer and it will fly by. By the time you get a handle on it, it will be over. 
-Never be better than the task in need of you, we all start somewhere, and always ask to learn more and more. Learn your job, your crew chief's job and his boss's job and qualify in each. You get given nothing, it's only what you earn. If pooper scooper, be the best darned pooper scooper you can or you will never advance beyond it.
-Don't know something ask - never assume. 
-Never hide or cover up your mistakes. If you are not sure to the extent you have screwed something up, don't downsize the extent of your fear because it will backfire. Much better to have to sart over and inspect all that you have done than to have something show up later you said should be fine. People make mistakes, small people don't admit to them. I accept mistakes and expect them, I despise a liar or hack work. Never send out hack work unless absolutely told it's fine in a "cover your ass type of way." Not just your career in question as more seriously hampered by your lack of owning up to a mistake, but people's lives depend upon your professionalism or admitting to a mistake. Everyone makes them especially while new. Hopefully they are caught before hand given proper supervision but never be afraid to stop the process and ask or verify. Verify in fact on everything you do as it might change instance to instance and from person to person.
-Judge your friends and those you rely on or learn from not by who is most cool or similar to you but on their worth - their real worth in that which you suspect. What do you want drinking buddies or teachers? Them that wait to be directed instead of asking most often are not very good in training others fully and correctly or much of value to associate with in depending upon. Chances are if you work hard you will make them look bad anyway in a - "busting the union" type of way. Work hard, be nice, but never get caught standing around doing nothing. Looks worse for you since you don't already have a reputation as useless. If waiting for the word, grab a broom. This given speficic down time is at times acceptable to lay low such as on a job site. At these times while watiting for a task, it is often better for a group of people to wait than to wander off. Never wander off without people knowing where you are. If more than a few minutes, report in that change. Don't make your crew chief search for you.
-Do not get lax or complacent in punching the time clock. Go getters get somewhere - working hard is a good trait as long as you get your work verified as correct and it is correct and always correct and neat. Always ask for verification until you are specifically told it's not necessary any longer. 
-Nothing wrong with good honest work be it washing dishes or following the horses during a paraid with a pooper scooper. Do it well, do it right and do it in a timely way and such crap jobs won't lasat. You will still learn a lot and than get to go to school for a vacation.
-When not busy or a job complete report back ask what's next and when it does not seem your department is busy request to see if you can help elsewhere - especially where you want to be working. If you are doing a good job in your area, chances are you will be given opportunities.
-During lunch, spend part of it bag lunching, the other part sitting at a moving light or desk in learning what you wish to learn but don't get a chance to otherwise. This will also save you money and train you in what you won't have as much time to be trained in while prepping shows. It's going to impress people and they will most often spend time in training you.

-Don't get offended by being called "kid", "boy" or what ever in a lack of respect for your being an adult. You will a kid be for many years in professional experience. It is a term of endeerment for those with the gull to say or think that of you both in a apprentice like slinging of abuse at you that you get by way of tradition, and it's a way of considering you under their perview for passing on their knowledge. Take if as long as they are not an idiot. If idiot, it's a choice of what to do about it. 
You will not get abuse if you are below their notice or flying under the radair of being noticed or cared about. That I notice and abuse you means I care. Heck, a "kid" that is a post graduate college and later staff ME from a state school that just joined our company, is still a kid in my way of thinking - a lot to learn but potential. He might have been the ME for the school and did a decent enough job of wiring and understanding stuff there but as compaired to what we do in finess and detail he is still one step above amature. Just because you have a degree and even some experience does not mean you know the details of the next place you go. Do not get a big head - you are a college graduate but not above sitting at a drill press in drilling holes weeks on end. It won't last for ever, but by the time it's over you will absolutely know accuracy and the proper drill press speed and technique. That he is given attention means respect because not all get the instruction or refinement of their skills. You are going to be a kid for many years to come even if a crew chief, at first you will still be the kid. Love the kid looking guys as crew chiefs. It's always a good intimidation for their first show that "them union boys are going to eat you alive." Those even with baby face sufficient to be crew chief on the other hand normally do just fine. Accept it, live with it, than years later either pass it on to the next generation as I do, or decide not to. Decide such a thing later once in the situation. There is no spite, just abuse. Accept the paddle, it very much is tradition.
-This summer is one big apprenticeship or applying for a job. Keep this in mind. You are not a perminant employee nor a pro yet. Don't act like one in being too big for your britches or some old timer might get really offended, or get complacient in the ease of your job if you want to come back during winter and spring break, much less next summer or for a real job. Impress now and perhaps by the end of summer you will be trusted to go out on shows or even tour. If not early next year it's possible. After a year or more you might even while in school be as if salary staff if you keep your nose to the grind stone and strive towards mastering the field.
-Be on time/early and expect to work late.
-Off time from work can be spent having fun, but should also be spent studying. Study the manuals for the gear, study design and the programs used for it, study electrical practice and the NEC. You won't have anywhere near as much time in school for this, study now and it will not only help you at school but help you for work. Have a goal of at least one book a month if not one book a week while in off time from school and the 9:5. Is this a career or a job?
-Remember that we all have to start in this career somewhere slinging cable. Get it out of the way now when young and stupid so that after graduation your time will be better spent in making money and doing what you are trained in once the apprenticeship is over. Minimum of 9 months is a good figure for an apprenticeship. Each new company you work for probably sets you back a month in this but also broadens your base of experience. Once out of school live even with a crap job for six or nine months to master it or it don't count. 
-Don't expect a bag of gold at the end of college or in summer work. Work is hard, but takes years to pay off. Unless you work hard, learn and advance it most likely will never pay off beyond breaking even. The more money you make, the less you have to spend. That's reality also. 
-Keep an open mind that while you hopefully will find a good thing with summer job in coming back during breaks or next summer, that you should work for a few companies during these chances to get your feet wet in as broad a base as possible. If possible, if lighting tech person, spend a summer pulling conduit for an electrician or stringing Cat 5 in setting up networks for a contractor. Get employeed by a second company similar for a summer for a similar but different experience. If nothing else, go to the home center and spend a summer in the electrical supply area. You both need a broad base in skill, and a base or field of knowledge into how one company rates to another or what else is out there. Since it's only going to last a few months, experiencing such things now will for a career only help you focus more when you do get a perminant job. 
Were it me, I would pull conduit or work in the home center the first year between high school and college. Fairly easier to get a job in that field initially as compared to in the lighting industry. Perhaps not so easily ut should be tried for. Have any uncles once removed? On the other hand you have nothing to loose by applying and if you get a job in the industry, don't pass it up. One summer in the lighting industry, than either a second summer with them or better yet with a different company in the field. This will give you a base. Than either a completely different career summer in the alternative field of study or with say a third lighting company. Fourth summer a second year with your favorite lighting company. This as game plan would give you a decent amount of base of experience into the career to find a job after college. It's a plan for summer work as career goal related with a few choices. Keep your eye on the ball of your career as opposed to just settling for one place in ambition and dealing with less or only that base for experience. Apply early and often. Remember that after a few months what impresses becomes just a job while doing so. Do not fall under a spell, keep to your goals.
An alternative to say the home center or third company might be a summer as a lighting designer's assistant. Such applications should be asked about while at school by your instructors. Get a apprentiship/assistant to summer with a pro-designer and it's worth more than a summer slinging cable. It's about almost worth you paying for the chance. 
-There is no after graduation, "I'm here, where is the world famous lighting designer job waiting for me?" You need to work for it with time in grade, skill and knowledge.
Expect that by the time you finish college or a few years after you start your career, you will have changed fields at least once. Cross train in at least one other field at school if not even work in that field for a summer. Might not happen but is very possible that your career will change. Get that cross training or you might stagnate. It's a very broad career and even as a stage electrician if you never have to build a flat, that knowledge of how to run a table saw due to professional training will allow you to build road boxes for your lights when necessary. The more cross trained within and alike in field and into similar fields you are, the more value you will be to the employeer. This given a mastery of your primary field of course also. 
Some shops lay off employees when not busy. If you have skills above the basic ones, perhaps the front office needs some drywall installed that if qualified will provide a steady income while waiting for work to pick up. Can you install the drywall even if moving light tech person?

Most important, nobody is going to just give you the personal hand tools you need to do your job. If you get the job and need tools to function or do a task that is reasonablely something that's a personal hand tool, you have say one week to get them initially and subsiquently it's unreasonable for it to be more than a few days for other basic tools. Highly un-professional to come to work without the tools necessary to preform your job - especially those tools you constantly have to borrow. While a summer help student there is some leeway given primary task might be in slinging cable you would need less, but if assigned to prepping Lekos for say a week, within a day or two you would need personal hand tools of your own. Get recommendations from those you work with on brand and what you need. Could be minimum quality that will function, or could be pro-quality best to be specific in asking.

Hope it's a union shop (don't remember if it's ILC or TLC that's union. Performance Lighting is I know but it's not local #2. I out of college was trained by #2 and it was good and bad but mostly good.) While you might be taken under someone's wing from the union, you also won't be allowed to get away with as much in my observation. 

Engrave your name on your tools! Don't care what color paint or tape you use, if it's purple - that does not tell me who it belongs to when found at the opposite side of the shop. I won't mention never to leave your tools laying around even during break or lunch, or your tool box open in an open area. Keep your area both in your tools and what you are doing constantly neat. That's something you will learn to do in replacing missing tools. Loaning is ok, but do not give a blanket offer to anyone in helping themself. This is money and to tools of your trade - not the tools you buy that are are the tools of someone else's trade. Believe me that if you buy quality tools and the screw driver comes back stripped, it's your own fault for loaning it out.

Remember that if you borrow, it's something someone spent their own personal money on at a time they probably were making no more than you did. It's imparitive that you return the tools at the end of day if not at least ask to continue borrowing them for the next day if not returning them. Don't make someone track you down! Never reach into someone's tool box without specific permission each time you need something, there is no blanket order where personal tools are involved in the end when stuff turns up missing. Don't put what you borrow away if an organized tool box and not absolutely sure where you found it. - That makes it as good as being lost to the owner when they open up the drawer it should be in and don't see it. 


My soap box for the day given today's events with some people that have no clue especially about the points about tools or career. This is career and no longer something you do in your free time. It's different. While fun hopefully, focus on the professionalism first, than have fun while doing so.


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## ship (Jun 1, 2005)

vguard420 said:


> alredy tring to get a job at ILC but i dont know how well thats going



You should know yes or no as a form of conclusion or ansewer. In things you don't have experience with your parents or mentours no matter how at times if estrainged should be relied upon for advice on how to. There is formulas and theories on how to accomplish getting this answer so you are not in doubt tactfully, but it's a experience type of thing. Your parents no doubt have this and it is very necessary to pull from it.


End result is that the longer you wait to know an answer, the less chance you have of getting another job that's equal or better. Press too hard or in the wrong way and you might not get the job. Seek the answer but get advice on how to do so tactfully so you get it but don't get No as the simple answer. Very important because it's very late in the season to be attempting to get a summer job.


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## vguard420 (Jun 1, 2005)

thanks for all the advice... this gives me a good mental starting block for going into this.... its nice when people come out to help the new kid.


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## avkid (Jun 1, 2005)

That's what we do best, help out those who need it!


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## Peter (Jun 1, 2005)

That's really great advice for not just this job, but basicly any summer or first time job! Thanks ship!


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## wemeck (Jun 1, 2005)

vguard420 said:


> thanks for all the advice... this gives me a good mental starting block for going into this.... its nice when people come out to help the new kid.



Well I hope you enjoy the summer at ILC.


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## vguard420 (Jun 1, 2005)

szpisjak.. thanks you so much for the help... (just dont tell rich i said that lol)


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