Fat Pants: Epic Win, Or Epic Fail?

[TheCircus]

WORKING IN EVANS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IS THE BEST DECISION YOU WILL EVER MAKE. I KNOW I'M HAPPY.

[Simpson]

cba to listen to half the replys but... dude... imagine you being 60 in a bike shop...

Anyone can fix a f**king bike

[Revolver]

Well done, Fat Pants, you have your own thread

(sounds more sarcastic than i meant)

Edited April 19, 2008 by Disasterboy

[haydon_peter]

you can get more than that for a bog standard part time job. I know two people that work 3 days a week and are on £16K, all they are qualified to are A-levels.

To be getting over £12k per year doing part time work is pretty much impossible unless you practically do full time hours.

By any chance do the people you know that get £16k work three 12 hour days a week in a call centre on commission basis? (Sounds fun doesn't it? haha)

[AdamR28]

Anyone can fix a f**king bike

I would completely disagree with that... Even people who are 'trained mechanics' are often completely useless, even with the most simple of things!

Anyway, regarding the thread... as far as a job goes, working in a bike shop isn't that bad. As someone said though, bikes can become your job instead of your passion if you're not careful.

I'm not saying I would take the same decision (In fact I was in a very similar position and didn't - ended up with 4 A levels (proper old type ones, none of this AS shizzle ) and a degree) but make sure you consider all the other options from all angles as there may be something else more beneficial to you (and I'm not just taking about money) in the long run

[Mark W]

I would completely disagree with that... Even people who are 'trained mechanics' are often completely useless, even with the most simple of things!

With the vast majority of Evans stores, if you know which end of a Parktool allen key set you push into a bolt, you're pretty much gold. It's largely just 'completing' bikes, like just making them saleable. There are checks you need to do, but they're almost always good to go.

[Simpson]

I would completely disagree with that... Even people who are 'trained mechanics' are often completely useless

if you know which end of a Parktool allen key set you push into a bolt, you're pretty much gold

Exactly... even if Fatty does go and becombe a trained mechanic... what is he really? (no offense to anyone working in the trade) but if he gets made redundant where does he stand? up shit creek without a paddle.... and where can the job lead? becombing top in the field at fitting a front wheel and putting on pedals and doing a PSI test? nope.. doesnt sound like they have any plans of giving him day release for a business managment course so he can maybe one day run one of their outlets....

I just think that when your young you should get good foundations.... not just jump into a job with not real great promotion prospectives "cos i like riding bikes on sundays"

[nc7r]

I just think that when your young you should get good foundations.... not just jump into a job with not real great promotion prospectives "cos i like riding bikes on sundays"

Quoted for truthssssssssss

Might as well firstly enjoy being a f**king student while you can. It's much less enjoyable and harder to do when you're older I gather.

Free education is the bomb, and even paying for Uni is awesome. I know I'm gonna get a piece of paper which essentially allows employers to know that I've been trained about stuff, sat exams about it, know it well, have had a year in industry to practice this, then more exams, passed and done well, and would like a job.

Meaning they pay better than if you're straight out of another shit job stacking stuff or building bikes for Hellfrauds!

[Mark W]

Exactly... even if Fatty does go and becombe a trained mechanic... what is he really? (no offense to anyone working in the trade) but if he gets made redundant where does he stand? up shit creek without a paddle.... and where can the job lead? becombing top in the field at fitting a front wheel and putting on pedals and doing a PSI test? nope.. doesnt sound like they have any plans of giving him day release for a business managment course so he can maybe one day run one of their outlets....

In fairness, one of the guys who started on the same day as me became store manager for 2 days a week after a year or working there, so they do try and push you, BUT it's massively dependent on what their current managerial staff are doing. You only get moved up if someone else leaves the company, so it's pretty hard to do. Plus, if you're fundamentally there as a mechanic rather than sales, you don't really have any promotion opportunities apart from being the head of the workshop in that store, pretty much.

[Simpson]

But manager 2 days a week in Evan Cycles being your promotion opportunitys.... great......

At 16 i got to look after a bike shop during managers lunches.... i would say a retard could do it... but they were

[Joe Sheehan!]

ahh fatty dont sack college!

I know i have but im going back in september, at the end of the day would you rather be doing something you like and have a mediocre wage, or do something not as fun but get a bigger paycheque? i know for me it would be the second one.

[Mark W]

But the point I'm trying to make is that he's now effectively a 'manager', so he could be transferred from that store to any other if another manager left, or if the main manager from that store got transferred for a similar reason, he could be instated to "top dawg" if needs be.

Just spotted Joe's post - it doesn't have to be something you don't like to earn more money. If you like working on bikes, you might be interested in the design of them, which would suggest something like a metal-working/welding apprenticeship, or aiming for a product design degree or something, which could lead you on to bigger and better things.

[Joe Sheehan!]

But the point I'm trying to make is that he's now effectively a 'manager', so he could be transferred from that store to any other if another manager left, or if the main manager from that store got transferred for a similar reason, he could be instated to "top dawg" if needs be.

Just spotted Joe's post - it doesn't have to be something you don't like to earn more money. If you like working on bikes, you might be interested in the design of them, which would suggest something like a metal-working/welding apprenticeship, or aiming for a product design degree or something, which could lead you on to bigger and better things.

QFT.

Thats what i was trying to say, but yeah you get what i mean. There are always other (and better) aspects of a job.

[Fishy]

Epic fail.

[Tom_]

Not to steal the thread or anything, but I have a couple of questions related to marks last post, Im looking for some kind of direction to take in life and currently all my ideas seem to involve bikes, I am fully aware that this may be the death of my passion for riding bikes but currently I have little other that I can think of. My questions being: What jobs are there in the industry? I dont want to be welding them together and Im obviously not good enough to get paid to ride, so Im wondering what else there is? product design I would guess is the main one, I dont know if anyone here has any experience but I would be interested to know.

cheers.

Also fatty, dont do evans do college now.

[Mark W]

There's the media side, e.g. photography, video, journalism, magazine design (although that's stretching it a bit); there's the bike company part of it, e.g. working at a shop, working for a mail order (so packing orders, stock management, etc.), ad design and that kinda crap; working at skateparks/bikeparks (Adrenaline Alley at Corby have a job offer for someone to be their new Events manager/promoter, which you could theoretically do elsewhere too); working for bike companies themselves doing design work, admin shit, receptionist type stuff, etc.

There's a lot of scope, it's just very competitive, and you won't really be earning massive amounts of cash.

[Tom_]

Cheers man, yea I like my camera alot but dont really have the skills to pay the bills... I currently work saturdays in a bikeshop as a salesman/mechanic its ok but I would like to do somthing with abit more dorrrah involved and maybe give back to the scene? I quite like the design idea and promotion side all I have is a GCSE in art on that side of things.

Mark what do you actually do, work at pijin? You seem pretty big on the BMX scene currently.

ermmm to keep this relavent Il add another "EPIC FAIL"

[Mark W]

My brother lives in Southampton, so whenever I go down there I spend some time in the shop. I just do their blog stuff for them though, and did/do some photos for their ads.

But yeah, if you wanna work out how many jobs there are in the bike world, just think of your bike now and how it got to you. It was all researched, designed, prototyped, tested, promoted, packaging was designed for it, graphics designed for it, paint-job sorted for it, sent out, received at shops, sorted out there, you ordered it, it was dispatched, etc. - every step along the way requires someone to do it, so there are plenty of different things you can do, some of them are just more or less involved in the actual bike side of things than others.

[Gavyn.]

To be getting over £12k per year doing part time work is pretty much impossible unless you practically do full time hours.

By any chance do the people you know that get £16k work three 12 hour days a week in a call centre on commission basis? (Sounds fun doesn't it? haha)

it's definitely not impossible, but you have to be really clever or working on commission to do it.

for example my Granda works part time (he's pretty much retired) for a few hours a week doing civil and architectural engineering consultancy and he gets 300 quid an hour for it

however he has got 2 degrees in engineering.

I don't know about epic win/fail, I guess it's what you make of it.

[Tom_]

Ahh right cool, thats why I thought you were working there because of the blog.

Guess I need to think it through abit, and look for a way in somwhere..

[Max Quinn]

Looking at the title of this thread i thought we were on about just Fatpants in general........epic fail.

But yeah, if you wanna work out how many jobs there are in the bike world, just think of your bike now and how it got to you. It was all researched, designed, prototyped, tested, promoted, packaging was designed for it, graphics designed for it, paint-job sorted for it, sent out, received at shops, sorted out there, you ordered it, it was dispatched, etc. - every step along the way requires someone to do it, so there are plenty of different things you can do, some of them are just more or less involved in the actual bike side of things than others.

To add to this, i reckon the other thing is to broaden it a bit. Not speaking from experience or anything but you're into trials so could look at similair things in mountainbiking where there will be alot more jobs (i doubt trials provides many jobs AT ALL in comparison). I'm into BMX but also have a bit of a foothold in skate so i'd absolutely love to work on the art side of a skate company where there seems to be alot more jobs then in BMX for example.

Although in all industries like this it does seem to be alot about who you know to me. Networking.

[Mark W]

I'd love to do skate photography, but I don't really get the timing of the shots that they like to run. Just the whole "Get it when they get their feet back on to show how high they popped it look" - I kinda prefer the "shit's everywhere" look, just kinda makes it more dynamic than just page after page of someone doing a trick with their feet just coming back onto the board, if you get me.

[Max Quinn]

I'd love to do skate photography, but I don't really get the timing of the shots that they like to run. Just the whole "Get it when they get their feet back on to show how high they popped it look" - I kinda prefer the "shit's everywhere" look, just kinda makes it more dynamic than just page after page of someone doing a trick with their feet just coming back onto the board, if you get me.

Yer same, i always find it wierd how when i shoot local skateboarders (who may also be filmers so half into media or just generally read skate magazines more then i do) they always tell me to not time for the actual flip but for just before the catch when they slam their feet into the board I can never tell what's going on in skate photos of flips even though i'm pretty sure i know most flips.

It wasn't so much the photoography side that i meant though, there just seems to be so much more artists and designers working in the skate industry. Board graphics and just general branding and art direction is thought about much more. One of the latest books i've picked up for example, 'Concrete to Canvas- Skateboarders Art' is just something you'd never find in bmx/trials/mtb and is full of artists/designers/illustrators who got into art through skating or work in skateboarding.

Excuse my tangent, ooone to many tonight

[Danny Kearns]

But it's too late, I'm in year 12 now, on my 2nd chance and now it's gone. I got 1 C in my GCSEs. I'm not exactly gonna be able to do A levels then go to uni so i can get a posh fanny of a job am I?

yoyoyo, such as? , i'm a bit stuck, i usually need a start to get the juices flowing.

I couldn't be arsed to read all of this topic, Got to page 2 and got so angry with you Fat Pants. If i repeat anything thats been said im sorry.

Right. I come out of Year 11 with these GCSE results:

R.E - U

I.C.T - U

Science single award - F

German - E

English - D

English Literature - U

Product Design (D+T) - C

Leisure and Tourism double award - G G

Mathematics - E

I thought "f**k it", went into full time 40 hours a week, working on a checkout at Sainsburys. Didn't give a shit about school and to be honest, pissed about and couldn't be arsed. After around 20 weeks at Sainsburys, I found out the management are complete arseholes, didn't give a shit about you, just money money money. After these 20 weeks i seriously felt like topping myself. So i quit.

I've now put an application in to start college in September "BTEC First national diploma in constuction", ill do that for a year, then move onto "BTEC national diploma in constuction" for two years. Then i head off to uni for however long, But who gives a shit, Ill be what 22/23 when im qualified, at UNI im taking "Structual engineering", in that job, your either working in a office of a computer, out on site talking to the people, travelling, doing quotes, there's so mcuh variation and if you happen to become a really good structual engineer, it can pay anything up to £8000 a month. Thats serious money. I dont even know what it would be if you owned your own company.

Dead end jobs in a bike shop or anywhere are not the way to go. You think to yourself "Ive got to do this for the next 50 years". I've expirienced this and trust me, its hit me like a ton of bricks.

Just think to yourself:

Do i wanna' be working in something thats not gonna kill me off early, earning £4000 a month, company car, phone and laptop. Monday - Friday 9-2

Or

Do i wanna be working in a bike shop/any retail, killing myself off, earning £400 a month, paying for your own car, phone and laptop, monday - saturday 9-6.

Put it this way. I've chosen mine.

[Mark W]

Yer same, i always find it wierd how when i shoot local skateboarders (who may also be filmers so half into media or just generally read skate magazines more then i do) they always tell me to not time for the actual flip but for just before the catch when they slam their feet into the board I can never tell what's going on in skate photos of flips even though i'm pretty sure i know most flips.

It wasn't so much the photoography side that i meant though, there just seems to be so much more artists and designers working in the skate industry. Board graphics and just general branding and art direction is thought about much more. One of the latest books i've picked up for example, 'Concrete to Canvas- Skateboarders Art' is just something you'd never find in bmx/trials/mtb and is full of artists/designers/illustrators who got into art through skating or work in skateboarding.

Excuse my tangent, ooone to many tonight

Devon Hutchins, Sandy Carson, Mike Sieben (I think that's his name, does shit for T1 (And a few skate companies too)), Harrison Boyce, etc. - they all do art/graphicy shit outside of BMX as a result of doing BMX stuff too, so it's not all one-way traffic