5 Things That Tell Me You’re Not A Professional

5 Things That Tell Me You’re Not A Professional

on Aug 9th 2012 with 93 comments

In today’s post I’m going to do something a little different by just having a nice little sit down chat. I’ve never done this in the 3 years I’ve been running this site, but I thought this might be a nice chance for me to share a few red flags I’ve noticed that tell me that whether or not I would want to work with you more than once.

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File size: 134 MB

Here is a link to the interview with Aharon Rabinowitz that I mentioned in the video.

Here is a link to the Good, Fast, Cheap principle I mentioned as well.

Adam Everett Miller is everettoptions on Videohive
 
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I am the editor of Aetuts+. I also run Hello Studios as my 9-5 job. I'd love any feedback about Aetuts+ so don't hesitate to drop me a line. ae@tutsplus.com  

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  • http://www.gattoarancione.org Peter

    Adam, I enjoyed watching this video this morning. Just wanted to point out that I think timidity and shyness are two different things. For myself personally, I’m naturally an introvert. But timidity and expressing shyness is something I am totally able of working on. I’ve been totally screwed in the workplace by people who’ve taken the combination of my niceness and me not having any authority as a reason to take advantage. And I know when someone’s being an asshole. I’ve found it hard to have so little expected of me by idiots which makes me wonder why I’m STILL locked out of the motion graphics profession but working on it. Anyhoo… timidity and introversion are two different things. An ideal workplace brings out the best in everyone and people feel comfortable to do their best work. Not coddling, just a good environment. When you’re an introvert it’s your job to speak up and be clear. Even if you’re doing soul crushing production art that makes you want to die half the time. In a way your fifth point is basically the same as your third. Speak up, be clear. More darkly: hold your head up even if assholes are making decisions for you.

    Kind necessary or true. I like this rule of thumb. I’m wondering though if something has to be kind if it is already necessary and true. But kind obviously is always a good thing. If it’s necessary and true make it kind then.

    Thanks for the video. Great stuff to think about.

    • Adriano Lopes

      Totally agree with your comment.

  • ADRIAN

    Una lastima q no este subtitulado :(

    • jbeja

      No cariño, la lastima es que tu no sepas ingles.

      • http://www.bytedesk.com MontoGeek

        Efectivamente, no comprendo el 100%, pero entiendo muchísimas cosas. Hay que aprender Inglés :)

      • http://www.a.com tesla

        4.- Kind, necessary or true.

        It’s true but it wasn’t necessary or kind.

        Aparentemente alguien no entendió del todo el 4to punto del vídeo.

  • http://www.pilkonis.com J. Pilkonis

    This was perhaps the most valuable “tutorial” I’ve found on this forum, because it addresses so many issues that we all tend to gloss over because we’re so intensely focusing on making ourselves better as artists. The money issue, in particularly, was of great value, because it’s so alien to our devotion to our work.

    I certainly hope there are more segments like this, because wherever we are in our careers, sometimes a little outside perspective goes a long, long way.

  • seth

    cool,
    made me think of myself, cause sometimes i feel i fall into one of the categories you mentioned, especially the mony part. and sometime i do consider myself as too humble. il try benefit from the things you said and become better. but boy isn’t it hard to change the way you are.

  • http://Www.jordanmontreuil.com Jordan

    Proper capitalization, punctuation and grammar are the biggest things in my book. Nothing says unprofessional like the complete laziness of someone’s writing.

    PS. I did have to Google ‘capitalization’. That’s a hard word to spell.

  • http://no-fucking-idea.com Jakub Oboza

    You could list this 5 thing out side of video. It is night but 15 minutes is far too long :). I liked this video is nice but i lacked the list of topics because initially i thought this is about skills people lack or things they do wrong.

    • Chet

      Agreed, a summary would be great as some of the video wanders a bit. Good points though.

    • Ultirodo

      “Things they do wrong” is exactly what this video is about… People who are too negative, people who are overly critical all the time, people who are too shy or are constantly apologizing, people who fail to communicate clearly, and people who don’t deal with the money situation in an appropriate way (and at the appropriate time.

  • Matt

    All the points are very TRUE! Well done ;-)

  • ryan

    I enjoyed this video. Just like seth mentioned abbove, I also find myself in one or two of those categories. Makes me think about the things I need to change about myself to become better at what I do. Really enojoyed it and found it very helpful.

  • John

    Interesting talk. The only comment I have to make is in regards to the part where you say that someone needs to be able to give a quick hourly rate or fixed project cost. That’s great and all, but don’t forget one thing. Expect answers equivalent to the time you take to explain your project.

    I’ve had clients/collaborators talk about their project and 5 minutes in the conversation, they expect an set in stone fixed cost. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way. I’m all for being transparent and all, but committing yourself to hourly rates or fixed costs without fully understanding the scope of the project and the people you’re working with is setting up for miscommunication, skewed expectations and variable results.

    Unless you’ve worked with the person several times, which if you’re asking a question like that, you likely haven’t, you can’t expect that information to be very accurate at that point in time.

    My 2 cents.

    • Anthea

      Great comment. Totally true.

  • http://Johnnythaitran.com Johnny

    Incredibly insightful. I agree with every point.

  • Marcus

    Thank you Adam, that was valuable insight.

  • http://www.puyaweb.com Andrés

    Hey!
    Desde América Central te saludo… muchas gracias por el tiempo que te tomaste para dar esos consejos.

  • Chris

    fill those bookshelves! =]

  • Oula

    It is a good idea, I think you should do more …
    Thank u :)

  • http://tamixes.onsugar.com Tamixes

    Thanks, I enjoyed the chat.

    A lot of people underestimate the value of a good attitude. I came across a survey a while ago where employers would prefer to hire someone who had a good attitude (and didn’t have all the relevant qualifications) over someone who had a bad attitude and yet was adequately qualified.

    I’m about to read a book about Social Intelligence being the new science of success and your chat is a synopsis of what I anticipate I’ll find in-between the pages.

  • Susana

    Pretty neat points. I agree to most of them. I perfectly agree with the two first, i tend to avoid negative and over criticizing people, they just spread bad energy around… Cool video. Just that you have the tendency to over-explain stuff. You should be more straight forward and concise with what you want to say, because you know… it gets tiring after a while to just listen over and over the same idea.

    Anyway, good idea of making this video, very useful. Good luck, love the tutorials <3

  • http://groundupfilms.com Jon

    This should be required viewing for everyone starting out.

    I look forward to more videos with advice of this nature… so I hope you do more. :)

  • Jens

    Your are not a professional, when you are both negative and criticizing other…See it is a challenge to work with people you don´t like :)

  • xandercorp

    The first 4 points I think are fine, however the last one… I don’t know about that, Adam. A lot of the people just starting out – your example – aren’t going to have the experience or the financial stability to say this or that sum. If you’re looking to make money and you’re just starting out you’re not going to ask for a mountain of diamonds, I know I didn’t.

    I liked the point about “Is it kind, necessary or true?”, your father seems like a wise man. That’s always hard to do, especially when it comes to point number 2(critique) and especially on the internet – not sure of speaking about that is relevant.

    Anyway, nice ‘tut’.

  • Joe Kerman

    wow… the best tutorial around… why not Premium? :)

  • Ian

    This was right on time. This was good for me because it made me examine myself and pay attention to certain areas I can improve. Thanks!

  • http://none roland

    wow… jejeje very nice video, im a starter and just now setting things up so this video was very refreshing just to know that im starting to do things right, as you say many useful advices come from a conversation and not always from video tuts. so keep on this kind of pod-casting its good! greetings from Guatemala :)

  • Steve

    That was great man! I, for one, appreciate a sit down and chat session with other professionals. Thank you.

  • http://aepal.com Murat Erozturk

    Great talk :)

    I think all starters should definitely watch this talk, it hits some key points you have to work on or are working on when starting out as a freelancer/company.

    For me personally i had the ”timid” attitude way back when i started out when i started getting big jobs because people trusted me i would do good work, but after a good year i realized that the personality i was projecting towards certain people/clients wasn’t good for our relationship, and in the end i can’t lie i lost a couple of them not only because of this ‘timidity’ :) but i am sure it played a role in it. Self confidence is key here, i think your view is correct on it, i had to transform as a human being to not be so ‘shy’ when it comes to my work.

    Also the money part of course, not only starters, i still know people and myself included where sometimes i cannot give a quick and decisive answer because i don’t know what the work required actually is.
    So my advice on this part is when you are emailing back and forth is; Be certain with the work you will be doing, so you can scale it into hours and calculate that with your hourly rate. In short, communicate, with confidence about the work you are about to do.

    Thanks for the talk, something else for a change :)

  • http://mr-gabe.com GABE

    hey, quick question for you guys out there.

    i’m trying to get into doing music videos and i’ve done a few, most with iMovie, then i moved into using Premiere (very much a beginner). I know my way around Premiere and can make it do the things I want it to, and I’m looking into dabbling with After Effects, which seems like a totally different world.

    What would y’all suggest as the best way to learn AE from SCRATCH. Keys, mattes and all that jazz. it all just seems so confusing coming from PP.

    i get completely lost in it and it frustrates me to the point of giving up.

    Any suggestions?

    • Jiaan

      I felt like that in the beginning..as most tutorial are to advanced

      Video Copilot has 10 basic tutorials that will get you started as it is also an awesome site for tutorials

      http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/

  • Chan

    Nice! this is great topic to talk with my friends.
    Thank you for giving me ideas to make deep conversation :)

  • jimmy

    Great talk! thanks!

  • SunRunner

    #3 for me. I find I’m always having to qualify myself to be in the room. I’m always second guessing what I can do. Others tell me what I do is really good and I look at it and say, “It sucks.”
    I’m not really negative about things because I do get enthused when a new project presents itself it’s just that I’m always wondering if what I’m doing is going to be good enough. I’m always thinking people are going to hate what I do. Which isn’t really true.

  • http://xgraphicbox.blogspot.com/ TNT

    There are no subtitle! I’m Vietnamese, so hard to listion. After videos, you can make a suiteble?
    I hope so

  • sandy

    I like the points. Very interesting. But, dude, that was THE most verbose speech, in the history of the planet.

  • http://www.creativedojo.net VinhSon Nguyen

    Awesome pointers Adam, I really enjoyed these videos. You should do them more often :)

  • http://www.ss.com Kenichi

    Everytime i see you on video you always come off as a overly cocky, pompous asshole. The last few seconds of this video is proof of that.

    • Walmart

      u didnt watch the whole video, did you?

  • Ackers

    It must be great to be Perfect …..

  • http://chewedkandi.net Sharon Milne

    Great post – found myself nodding away with you :)

    • Leonardo

      That was a wannabe tutorial on 101 how to be a likable person at work. This tutorial should have been 5 minutes max.
      1 ,2 and 3 are a no brainer.
      Yet about timidity, I have some reserves on that point. Giving up on working with people that are shy is a bit of… being a jerk. most of the times you may pass on some great individuals and professional.
      I could not hire you only because of that point, but there are a couple more though…
      About the money thing, I keep it short: sometimes there is the straight quick answer, sometimes there is not.
      Most of the times when someone does not give you a quick quote is because they may not want to work with you to begin with. There, you problem of not liking such a behavior is solved.
      Then last but not the least, the 6th point that you could have never thought of: be dressed and groomed with good taste and sens of style, especially if you work on a design aesthetic oriented business.

      Yes I’m criticizing. No, I do not want someone like you on the premises of my studio.
      Take care!

      • GB.Co

        So help me getting the point here: giving up shy people is being a jerk but paying attention to how someon is dresses isn’t?

  • kkehoe5

    Are you the cop from Bridesmaids? You look a lot like him.

  • socialcancer

    Good video. Everyone sorta sucks at being a human.

  • http://www.viditkothari.co.in Vidit Kothari

    I loved this video so much. Although these are known to people but re-presenting them at regular interval is important for reminder in fast-busy life.

    I’m just a Computer Science with so much interest in Designing & all multimedia , art technlogogies :)

    I would really want to share this video with my friends (who do not have internet conn.)

  • Brad

    Nice video and view from someone with experience that can be applied to anyone in the creative digital design world.

    I think these are just some of the things we all struggle with in this field, that is always evolving and changing, and requires more than just application knowledge/experience, but how you use your mind to achieve things, and how well you can work with others who are in various stages of their careers and have different strengths and weaknesses.

  • Chuck_You

    Kind, Necessary and True. That’s life stuff there, my friend. I’m going to use this jewel in my daily and pass the lesson on to my children. Thank your Dad for me, CEE

  • http://www.karolcholewa.neostrada.pl Karl

    Thanks for Sunday morning inspiration. I respect your father’s line about criticism and I think in overall communication: is it kind, necessary, and true!

  • Reed Sawyer

    I always enjoy the tutorials. I found this video to be interesting as well. These are just basic tenets of being professional. One of the things that you might want to add is the theory of “What’s in it for the other guy?” By this I mean that a professional should be interested in the needs of the client, and not focusing on their own needs. If you keep the client happy, they will be delighted to work with you again.

    Why do I mention that? Because our clients, generally, have no clue as to how to create the things that we do. If we can dazzle them, and make them look good, they will be delighted to pay us. (If they are not delighted, they will avoid you like the plague.)

    In short, a professional is a problem solver. Solve the problem and get paid.

    Reed

  • http://www.rising5th.co.uk Gavin Jones

    I enjoyed this, there are some difficult topics here but the whole theme really works for me. Professionals can have the “difficult” conversations and be fairly dispassionate about them.

  • Alby

    always love your stuff!

    (you need some books though for your bookcases)

  • http://ninjaeffects.com/ Markus

    Your hair tells me you are not professional, but your beard tells me you are a person that I want to work with… Great talk Adam!

  • Leonardo

    I stumbled on this video by chance and I never saw this gentleman before. While watching the first few minutes of this video, he comes across as being fairly shy and insecure: the coffee mug thingy… Not mentioning that he was already belittling what he was about to say.
    Then he took 15 minutes to explain a few no brainers and some nonsense, when it should have taken 5 mins max.

    Number 3, 4? whatever…. Sure being shy does not help anybody, yet great minds can motivate and pull the best out of these people that quite often are more talented than the talking heads. If you are a good leader, you can and should motivate the people who needs some help to extract their best. Otherwise you pass some good opportunities of producing better results.

    His father was right. Was it kind, necessary, true? Yet what he produced today was far from meeting some of these requirements.

    Was that a small hotel lobby or longe? That was kind of cheeap tacky furniture for a design oriented person.
    Not kind but, a spade is a spade.

  • mark

    I kind of wonder if a real professional has time to discuss such trivial matters.

  • http://www.mjonesproductions.com MJPRO

    Nice post. While there was nothing earth-shattering about the concepts presented, they are things we all need to be reminded of occasionally. Thanks Adam!

  • Gloria Waria

    I think I may be the odd person out here, but I actually found this video not only self-indulgent, but actually very unprofessional for all the talk of professionalism. While I see the point of what you were trying for, it’s actually unprofessional to ramble on for great lengths of time about your personal stories and your opinions on things when you should be more succinct and get to the point, so that you are not wasting other peoples’ valuable time.

    The other question I have is, why did you feel compelled to tell the world all of this? You’re not someone of fame or distinction, so what makes your words worth listening to over someone else’s? What professional credentials do you have that would make me want to take you seriously? I’ve never heard of you and only saw this because of the link on nofilmschool.com’s newsletter.

    Lastly, and I know I’ll probably be alone in this, but as an older person, I find it difficult to take you seriously when you look the way you do. You don’t look professional, you look unkempt and not well groomed and it’s hard to take someone seriously who says they’re a professional when they don’t look like it.

    In the future, I think you should state why you think you’re qualified to make these judgments, and for God’s sake, please just get to the point.

    Thank you,
    Gloria

  • Edward

    Mr. Miller,

    This was an excellent way of introducing aspiring filmmakers, and reminding not so newbies, to the concept that the persona they project is paramount in being a hirable in the filmmaking profession.

    Filming, like the works of the stage, is a creative collaborative project, and as a result, anything that could hamper the creativity of all parties involved must be left at home, far away from the set; and I think all of what you describe has strong potential to do just that, hamper creativity.

    I will say this though, an unfortunate hamper to creativity that I have experienced working in the theater is an unwillingness to accept what one may consider to be “unprofessionalism.” Were you to go for instance to another country, or even some places in our own, you would find that your definition of “unprofessionalism” is different from the prevailing belief in that place. In particular, in some parts of Europe, anyone seeking creative collaboration must be well prepared for ruthless criticism, to the extent that we in our culture would call unkind, needless, and various other things you denounce in this video, however it is not meant to necessarily be taken as such.

    I do not mean to say you yourself would not be very accepting of other circumstances (where even, it is possible, following the beliefs of this video you could be called unprofessional), in fact I think based on your attitude you would be quite adept at continuing excellence in a variety of situations.

    I only say this exception for those who would perhaps follow this advice as axiomatic, to indicate that the end goal is creative enhancement, not obstruction, and overzealously following these rules has light potential to lead to snobbery.

    Thank you for an excellent video, well thought and helpful.

  • Annon

    This video describes every human out there.This is a burn to people’s personalities. I think a true professional is able to work with anyone and accept people who they are and not be judgemental. Plus criticism is a good thing, I am hard I am myself, I am sure others are too. They want honest feedback.

    Respect, Work Ethic and Communication are what describe a true professional.

    • Annon

      I respect your opinion but I think it was obnoxious and disrespectfull. It sounds like your bashing people’s personalities. Not everybody is going to be that perfect person. A professional should be able to work with anybody.

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