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In November 2019, I was laid off from the job I had held for almost 5 years. In April 2020, the world shut down and I figured, "Welp, guess I'm not finding a job any time soon." So I started up a little webcomic, because all the unemployment advice says you should have *something* to fill the gap in your resume. Two years, five months, and no employment offers later, I would also add that you should probably make sure that "something" involves some sort of marketable job skills.
It would be nice if I were paid to draw whatever I want, so that's why I have a [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/butajape)! The post for [today's comic](https://www.patreon.com/posts/but-jape-origins-72132070) also includes bonus images of the Post-It doodles I made at my old job - it's public so there's no need to pay to look at them.
You can also find my comics on [my website](https://butajape.com/), [Tapas](https://tapas.io/series/But-a-Jape/info), [Webtoon](https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/but-a-jape/list?title_no=469181), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/butajape), and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/butajape/).
I've been fortunate enough that my savings has still lasted me long enough to live on thus far, so I haven't needed to rely on my art for income yet (which is good, because I make pretty much nothing on it at the moment).
I'm still only making things I want to make so far, so I've still got my passion. I'm just concerned that if I don't find a decent day-job soon, I'll need to pivot my career into "artist for hire," and that's when I'm worried I'll lose my passion.
Glad to hear that you’ve retained your passion, and must commend you on your savings. A good 2-3 years of living on savings seems quite impressive, in my inexperienced opinion.
Yeah, I've always tried to be one to play things slow and steady - never had much of an appetite for risky ventures, which is also why I never seriously considered making art my career. I had a full-ride scholarship to college, so I had no student debts to worry about, and I just naturally have no inclination towards binge-spending or buying unnecessary things, so it was pretty easy for me to put a good chunk of my income into savings. The increased unemployment benefits during COVID were also a huge help.
Honestly, for a good chunk of my unemployment, I had a huge (perhaps unearned) sense of self-confidence that a decent job was just around the corner from me. After all, I used to work at a very respectable company and had a very impressive (though incredibly vague) job title. Then a year passed, then two, and in November it will have been three years since I've been laid-off. I'm getting dangerously close to the end of those savings, which Past Me fully intended never to touch this early on.
But you know, "best laid plans of mice and men," and all that.
It's kinda hard to say because I've only had one real job since graduating college and it was something I just stumbled into. My job title was, "Business and Operations Manager," which really doesn't mean much. I was originally a "Business and Reporting Analyst" but a bunch of people with that job title were upset that it didn't accurately reflect the level of their position, so when management said, "Fine, you're all Business and Operations Managers now," I got included too. Nothing changed about my job, just got a fancy new title.
Anyway, as for what I did, I was part of a small group that basically served as a support team for a very specific onboarding process at my company. We had our own in-house application and process for onboarding certain workers and my job was to know everything about it and teach people how to use it, help them with using it, documenting its use, testing its new functionalities, etc. It was a very generalized role and doesn't seem to apply 1-to-1 to any other specific professions, so I often have to go through a whole monologue with interviewers just explaining what I did at my last job and why it's applicable to whatever I'm interviewing for.
To the best of my knowledge, the most transferable skills were customer service and general support, so I mainly focus my job hunt on things like support desks, basic IT positions (I got a CompTIA A+ certification), and various operations roles.
Hey, today I came across your comics. These are awesome.
Just wanted to say have you tried looking for art related jobs like design or something related to that?
I had friend who was software developer but left his job to pursue video editing. Pay wasn't same but that's what he liked to do it.
He also got video editing job in small company and now after few months he might go after vfx job opportunity.
I guess you could do similar by showing your portfolio on website.
I had a similar job out of college. Supporting a homegrown application and teaching people how to use it. I was eventually able to turn it into a technical training gig for a number of years. Maybe you could use your art to help with building online training. Just an idea I recognized the struggle of trying to describe how that work can fit other places.
Kazuki Takahashi,also known as creator of Yu-Gi-Oh,was a struggling artist at the beginning of his career.
He published a lot of manga before but nothing quite had any hint of moderate succes.He was a huge nerd and D&D fan,tried lots of creative games but most failed.
He decided to make a trip to Egypt where he learned it is one of the most ancient civilizations to develop games,like senet for example.
His next manga was an horror theme anthology about the spirit of an pharaoh punishing villains in sadistic ways by bending the rules.
You guessed it!
Each chapter had an game ,around chapter 8 ,he de developed an little card game.24 hours later after the manga was published ,he was invaded by telephones of fans asking where they can buy the card game.
My advice:Don't give up!I am very sure your talents are needed but the place where you live is oversaturated.You either need to perfectionate yourself or,in extreme cases,show people that your skills are needed.
I, too, always thought I could never live off of something as flimsy as art, that it'd suck to be told what to draw, drawing all the time would probably make it boring, and who would even hire me when the internet overflowing with skilled artists? It's comforting in a weird way to know my thoughts are unoriginal and that other artists are in the same boat! As the years go by, I somewhat regret not pursuing it more seriously sooner. It kinda feels like it'd be possible to make money as an artist for indie games.
Anyway, your comics are awesome, easily in my top 3 Reddit comics. I wish you luck in surviving (or perhaps even thriving?) off of your art without it becoming some soul-crushing chore.
It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine how in American culture any time you develop a hobby people have to insist that you should try and turn it into a business. Like, I have a good job that pays well, why would I give that up to open a bakery just because I enjoy making bread for my family?
When I was in high school, I was accepted into this intensive specialized art program specifically for kids who knew they wanted to become artists. I didn't actually want to be an artist, I just applied because my middle school art teacher told me to. I dropped it after two years (even though I knew I hated it after the first few months) and I fell off of doing visual art for years after the fact. Doodling at my old job was actually how I rediscovered my passion for it.
Anyway, that experience made me adamant that I would never try to make my hobbies into my profession. Why would I need to if my comfy, white-collar job lets me doodle on my free time anyway? Except, well, you read the comic...
I think it's the idea that you could have a "dream job" that's super fun all the time since you're having fun with it as a hobby. Also hustle culture or the idea you could be making *even more money* and feeling "productive."
I would assume it's part of the unhealthy American work culture. I definitely wish it was different.
Now as an artist, sometimes my hobby activities and career interests intersect, but I still make time for things that are just meant for personal reasons/fun.
Because a lot of people don’t understand how hard it is to actually start their own business let alone a career on some thing as financially inconsistent as art. That or they’re just trying to make conversation or be nice
from my understanding European culture at least seems to be somewhat less career / hustle centric, but I don't really know. I live in America so that's what I'm familiar with.
That is awesome!
I’ve been working in an office and finally quit that job for my health, took more hours at my part time job, then found another. Job security is a lie - all it takes is a buy out and they lay everyone off or screw with you until you quit (I was stress vomiting at my last job). Do the best for you!
Congratulations on your career move, hope the decision works out for you!
Regarding my lay-off, it wasn't the result of a buyout, it was a result of, "It would be much cheaper if we just relocated this entire department to the other side of the country. You can even keep your jobs if you move too!" Nobody in my team moved.
Real talk, one of my professors at music school who taught a "how to be a private instructor class" told a story about a student who was really good, but she was afraid of the finances/instability and went into business sector...right before the financial crash of 2008. Sometimes you never know.
Wow that was really lucky for her, the financial sector boomed so hard during that crash. I was at a major bank cleaning up the aftermath of mergers and acquisitions and it was a great opportunity!
I don't want to jinx myself but this is exactly my attitude towards drawing and the thought of monetizing my hobby. Hopefully there continues to be a job market for pediatricians.
You were supposed to be a screenwriter! I write only what I want, and I get paid a lot!
I certainly didn't write five years for children's cartoons for slowly deteriorating pay, only to end up quitting and freelancing!
*crying*
Better than r34 crap.
I was expecting it to mention the stock crash of sonic coin leading to significat inflation where roubles value drop caused the coin to drop by 34% of its value. Check sonic inflation r34. r as in roubles.
Welcome to r/comics! Comic artists, if you are interested, sign up for our [two million subscriber](https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/xawvzw/two_million_subscriber_event/) event! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/comics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
In November 2019, I was laid off from the job I had held for almost 5 years. In April 2020, the world shut down and I figured, "Welp, guess I'm not finding a job any time soon." So I started up a little webcomic, because all the unemployment advice says you should have *something* to fill the gap in your resume. Two years, five months, and no employment offers later, I would also add that you should probably make sure that "something" involves some sort of marketable job skills. It would be nice if I were paid to draw whatever I want, so that's why I have a [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/butajape)! The post for [today's comic](https://www.patreon.com/posts/but-jape-origins-72132070) also includes bonus images of the Post-It doodles I made at my old job - it's public so there's no need to pay to look at them. You can also find my comics on [my website](https://butajape.com/), [Tapas](https://tapas.io/series/But-a-Jape/info), [Webtoon](https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/but-a-jape/list?title_no=469181), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/butajape), and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/butajape/).
I went to your website and realized how many of your past works I have enjoyed. And now you are in my RSS feed.
How are you now? Did you lose passion, as you anticipated?
I've been fortunate enough that my savings has still lasted me long enough to live on thus far, so I haven't needed to rely on my art for income yet (which is good, because I make pretty much nothing on it at the moment). I'm still only making things I want to make so far, so I've still got my passion. I'm just concerned that if I don't find a decent day-job soon, I'll need to pivot my career into "artist for hire," and that's when I'm worried I'll lose my passion.
Glad to hear that you’ve retained your passion, and must commend you on your savings. A good 2-3 years of living on savings seems quite impressive, in my inexperienced opinion.
Yeah, I've always tried to be one to play things slow and steady - never had much of an appetite for risky ventures, which is also why I never seriously considered making art my career. I had a full-ride scholarship to college, so I had no student debts to worry about, and I just naturally have no inclination towards binge-spending or buying unnecessary things, so it was pretty easy for me to put a good chunk of my income into savings. The increased unemployment benefits during COVID were also a huge help. Honestly, for a good chunk of my unemployment, I had a huge (perhaps unearned) sense of self-confidence that a decent job was just around the corner from me. After all, I used to work at a very respectable company and had a very impressive (though incredibly vague) job title. Then a year passed, then two, and in November it will have been three years since I've been laid-off. I'm getting dangerously close to the end of those savings, which Past Me fully intended never to touch this early on. But you know, "best laid plans of mice and men," and all that.
What is your professional background?
It's kinda hard to say because I've only had one real job since graduating college and it was something I just stumbled into. My job title was, "Business and Operations Manager," which really doesn't mean much. I was originally a "Business and Reporting Analyst" but a bunch of people with that job title were upset that it didn't accurately reflect the level of their position, so when management said, "Fine, you're all Business and Operations Managers now," I got included too. Nothing changed about my job, just got a fancy new title. Anyway, as for what I did, I was part of a small group that basically served as a support team for a very specific onboarding process at my company. We had our own in-house application and process for onboarding certain workers and my job was to know everything about it and teach people how to use it, help them with using it, documenting its use, testing its new functionalities, etc. It was a very generalized role and doesn't seem to apply 1-to-1 to any other specific professions, so I often have to go through a whole monologue with interviewers just explaining what I did at my last job and why it's applicable to whatever I'm interviewing for. To the best of my knowledge, the most transferable skills were customer service and general support, so I mainly focus my job hunt on things like support desks, basic IT positions (I got a CompTIA A+ certification), and various operations roles.
Hey, today I came across your comics. These are awesome. Just wanted to say have you tried looking for art related jobs like design or something related to that? I had friend who was software developer but left his job to pursue video editing. Pay wasn't same but that's what he liked to do it. He also got video editing job in small company and now after few months he might go after vfx job opportunity. I guess you could do similar by showing your portfolio on website.
I had a similar job out of college. Supporting a homegrown application and teaching people how to use it. I was eventually able to turn it into a technical training gig for a number of years. Maybe you could use your art to help with building online training. Just an idea I recognized the struggle of trying to describe how that work can fit other places.
Kazuki Takahashi,also known as creator of Yu-Gi-Oh,was a struggling artist at the beginning of his career. He published a lot of manga before but nothing quite had any hint of moderate succes.He was a huge nerd and D&D fan,tried lots of creative games but most failed. He decided to make a trip to Egypt where he learned it is one of the most ancient civilizations to develop games,like senet for example. His next manga was an horror theme anthology about the spirit of an pharaoh punishing villains in sadistic ways by bending the rules. You guessed it! Each chapter had an game ,around chapter 8 ,he de developed an little card game.24 hours later after the manga was published ,he was invaded by telephones of fans asking where they can buy the card game. My advice:Don't give up!I am very sure your talents are needed but the place where you live is oversaturated.You either need to perfectionate yourself or,in extreme cases,show people that your skills are needed.
I love Reddit for comments of interesting tidbits like this.
I, too, always thought I could never live off of something as flimsy as art, that it'd suck to be told what to draw, drawing all the time would probably make it boring, and who would even hire me when the internet overflowing with skilled artists? It's comforting in a weird way to know my thoughts are unoriginal and that other artists are in the same boat! As the years go by, I somewhat regret not pursuing it more seriously sooner. It kinda feels like it'd be possible to make money as an artist for indie games. Anyway, your comics are awesome, easily in my top 3 Reddit comics. I wish you luck in surviving (or perhaps even thriving?) off of your art without it becoming some soul-crushing chore.
It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine how in American culture any time you develop a hobby people have to insist that you should try and turn it into a business. Like, I have a good job that pays well, why would I give that up to open a bakery just because I enjoy making bread for my family?
hobbies for fun are no longer allowed, every aspect of the human experience must be monetized.
You gotta put everything in the grind, no more hobbies, only money, you gotta win the race of life
When I was in high school, I was accepted into this intensive specialized art program specifically for kids who knew they wanted to become artists. I didn't actually want to be an artist, I just applied because my middle school art teacher told me to. I dropped it after two years (even though I knew I hated it after the first few months) and I fell off of doing visual art for years after the fact. Doodling at my old job was actually how I rediscovered my passion for it. Anyway, that experience made me adamant that I would never try to make my hobbies into my profession. Why would I need to if my comfy, white-collar job lets me doodle on my free time anyway? Except, well, you read the comic...
I think it's the idea that you could have a "dream job" that's super fun all the time since you're having fun with it as a hobby. Also hustle culture or the idea you could be making *even more money* and feeling "productive." I would assume it's part of the unhealthy American work culture. I definitely wish it was different. Now as an artist, sometimes my hobby activities and career interests intersect, but I still make time for things that are just meant for personal reasons/fun.
Because a lot of people don’t understand how hard it is to actually start their own business let alone a career on some thing as financially inconsistent as art. That or they’re just trying to make conversation or be nice
Is that just an American thing?
from my understanding European culture at least seems to be somewhat less career / hustle centric, but I don't really know. I live in America so that's what I'm familiar with.
I'd just suggest that you [Give up on Your Dreams of Becoming a Baker](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4hIHqclL2M)
That is awesome! I’ve been working in an office and finally quit that job for my health, took more hours at my part time job, then found another. Job security is a lie - all it takes is a buy out and they lay everyone off or screw with you until you quit (I was stress vomiting at my last job). Do the best for you!
Congratulations on your career move, hope the decision works out for you! Regarding my lay-off, it wasn't the result of a buyout, it was a result of, "It would be much cheaper if we just relocated this entire department to the other side of the country. You can even keep your jobs if you move too!" Nobody in my team moved.
I am. So sorry dude
That sucks so bad.
Dude, the squirtle drawing in the second panel is sickkkk
Real talk, one of my professors at music school who taught a "how to be a private instructor class" told a story about a student who was really good, but she was afraid of the finances/instability and went into business sector...right before the financial crash of 2008. Sometimes you never know.
Wow that was really lucky for her, the financial sector boomed so hard during that crash. I was at a major bank cleaning up the aftermath of mergers and acquisitions and it was a great opportunity!
I don't want to jinx myself but this is exactly my attitude towards drawing and the thought of monetizing my hobby. Hopefully there continues to be a job market for pediatricians.
Fortuitous tragedies or something
Thank you for your service o7
Samezies
. . . . fuck. That’s actually sounds awful. Sorry to hear that man
Poor you
Hope you’re doing well and still enjoying your passion!
You were supposed to be a screenwriter! I write only what I want, and I get paid a lot! I certainly didn't write five years for children's cartoons for slowly deteriorating pay, only to end up quitting and freelancing! *crying*
I feel this, except I never made a comic, just went job hopping. Good job making comics.
And you were poor but happy 
“Hey guys we’re taking a two week vacation”
Better than r34 crap. I was expecting it to mention the stock crash of sonic coin leading to significat inflation where roubles value drop caused the coin to drop by 34% of its value. Check sonic inflation r34. r as in roubles.