>>It is difficult to say where you might find long term employment, if such a thing still exists. As programmers we have our issues and an industry that is a bit similar is the Visual Effects Industry (VFX). People in that industry typically do not belong to a union and work long hours. Working in VFX takes a lot of training and experience.
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>>Rhythm and Hues is a company that is well known for its VFX work, most recently for Life of Pi. About a month ago the owner said that paychecks would be late. On February 8th, the owner called everyone into a meeting and said that employees would be paid on February 15th. As usual, the employees worked long hours on Saturday and Sunday February 9th and 10th.
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>>At 9 PM that Sunday, hundreds of employees were telephoned and informed they were no longer employed. The next morning the company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Some employees have been retained to work on committed movies, and as of this time no one has been paid.
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>>My daughter was watching the Academy Awards last night and noted that the scenes shown were the ones she helped to create. She was one of those discharged by Rhythm and Hues. Now she is looking for a new career. Her first career after receiving her degree in English from UCLA, was in teaching. That is not a stable career nor does it pay a decent salary. So she went into her second love – VFX. Now she is searching for her next career.
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>>I told my son and daughter to always be prepared for a new career. I had to go from being an electronics engineer to a programmer. So always be ready for new things in your life.
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http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/vfx-oscar-protest-workers-pound-the-pavement-to-plead-their-case/>
>I think one of the winners was actually mentioning something about the financial situation of that company during their acceptance speech but got cut off... my daughter and I both heard it and were shocked.
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>Found it:
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http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2013/02/25/rhythm-hues-gets-oscars-shout-out/Thank you for finding that link. I will send it to my daughter, who told me about that event. It was interesting how Mr. Lee rambled (it seemed) longer than anyone in the history of the Academy Awards, stopping, looking up, down, to the side, and there was not once an attempt to get him off stage (loud music, etc.).
