Is it better to Jack your way to the middle, or should you Suzy yourself into the hot seat?
I have two suppositious friends in this business. They are Jack Genner and Suzy Ciffic. I respect both of them equally for their exemplary work ethic. They are both able to hold down a family life and great jobs. They are both educated and easy to get along with. Their stories have been spread through the cement floors of our industry in many ways.
Both Jack and Suzy have chosen separate and distinct paths to their own comfort level in our fine industry. I would like to take time to tell you both of their stories in an effort to let you decide which path you most identify with.
Let’s Talk About Jack
Jack grew up in a small town of about 4,000 people. He joined theater in high school as a sophomore, chasing after a girl who was a senior and an actress. When the girl graduated, Jack realized that he loved theater much more than her and knew that he had found his calling. He started making flats out of one-by-fours, muslin and paint. He enjoyed hanging lights on battens suspended by hemp ropes. He could clean a 6×12 ellipsoidal with an alcohol swab while teetering on the top rung of a fully extended 24-foot A-frame ladder. He hung speakers with the audio crew, he did props, he filled the dry ice machine and he loved every minute of his gig. After high school, he went to a repertory theater, where he did lights for one show, sound for another, props for a third show and costumes for a fourth. He wanted to learn every facet of the business. After two summers of rep theater, it was time for him to move on. He got a job in the big city running followspot for the ballet. He grew bored of the monotony of followspot and asked to be transferred to deck crew. After only six weeks of deck crew, he was offered a promotion to stage manager, and he accepted. After the ballet closed, he went across the street and took a job as a stagehand in the local union. He was last on the list, but he took every gig that was offered. He swept stages, he pushed boxes, he organized microphone packs and he coiled cable. He was employed in the entertainment biz and he loved every second of it. He moved up quickly.
Because he is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none, he is always employed. He makes $XX amount per gig and he spends the rest of his time with his family and friends. He hasn’t had a Saturday off since he had his kids, but food is on the table, and his wife understands his hectic schedule. She even lets him slip away from the dinner table when he gets the occasional last minute call for a load-out. His tool belt is large, clunky and always ready to go out the door. His laundry consists of two loads; old black clothes for work and new black clothes for play. His crescent wrench is weathered, and his knuckles are calloused.
What About Suzy?
Suzy also grew up in a small town. She joined the theater because her mother was an artist, and theater was the only art program left at her high school. She immediately fell in love with lighting, and knew that her path was narrow and focused. She wanted to be on the forefront of the lighting industry. She immediately started researching moving lights, beam angles, color correction, DMX protocols and any manual that she could get her hands on. She did four shows at her high school and never varied from lighting.
After high school, she went straight to college and got a degree in theater with a specialty in lighting. After college, she found some training classes through her local distributor and learned the ins and outs of the newest consoles. The teacher of the class recognized her potential and asked her to intern as his assistant. She sat on tech support phone calls, and soon she became the technical support lead for the distributor. She was the one who was willing to answer phone calls on her private cell phone and Facebook messenger at all hours of the night. She became the after-hours go-to person when other professionals could not figure out why their Art-Net merge was speaking to the lighting rig and the media server, but not to the ninth node on the automation truss that controlled the aerialist winch. She was patient, kind and understanding on the phone, and her peers trusted her lighting expertise.
Today, she has left the distributor and went freelance as an independent media server programmer who also dabbles in projection mapping. She doesn’t work a lot, but when she does, she charges $XXXX per gig, and her clients are willing to pay for her business class flight. They know that the job will be done right and their clients will be happy to see her. Suzy gets phone calls, to this day, from other top professionals who can’t figure out their own network flow. Nowadays, she charges for her answers, and business is good.
The Bigger Picture
The story of Jack and Suzy is a thin veil for a much larger story. The difference between Jack and Suzy is the difference between being a Jack-of-all-trades and being a technical specialist. Our industry requires both Jacks and Suzys to work in unison daily. Production managers are constantly looking for hundreds of Jacks and two Suzys. Sooner or later, you will have to make a decision if you would like to follow Jack or Suzy.
Jack’s path leads to lots of work in different venues. Jack leads a fulfilling lifestyle of new adventures, new people and a learning curve that eventually plateaus. Jack works twice as much as Suzy, but earns half of what she does. That doesn’t bother him much, because at the end of the month, their checks are about the same. He enjoys his black collar gig and jokes about how Suzy could be doing things better if she asked him about how to lay out the cables better on the next gig.
Suzys’ path leads to long hours sitting in front of numerous computer monitors spread across 12 desks staring at tiny thumbnails and linking ones and zeros to infinity. Her learning curve will never plateau. As soon as she masters the current software, it will be revised in a week. She will constantly be drowning in a sea of USB sticks, software updates and high-pressure situations. Suzy primarily gets called into gigs when it’s an emergency. She works half as much as Jack, but makes double his rate. She spends her free time learning new software and taking classes to keep up with demand.
Both paths are vital to our industry. Both paths are equally fulfilling for the right person. Hopefully, this article will help you decide if you would prefer to be a Jack or a Suzy.
