Desktop publishing

Does anyone do desktop publishing as a career, or know someone that does? since being laid off I have an option to go to school AND have it paid for. I was thinking maybe this sounded good. Supposedly this field is going to be growing. I am well acquainted with the internet and it would seem like fun to make layouts and things on the computer.

I don't do desktop publishing myself but use people (through agencies) that do. I have two folks working for me right now in fact.

Also I a friend of mine also works freelance in desktop publishing and has been employed part time throught this entire economic slump.

It's a great skill base and if you're creative it's also a way of kicking off your skills with graphics which can give you options in design. Printing quality designs is actually quite technical and very important for advertising and marketing in particular. And FREE sounds like a very good reason to give it a try :flash:

I used to work as a graphic/commercial artist, which involved some desktop publishing. I would mainly design signs, graphics, etc. on the computer, but then I also made them. So probably a little different than what you're looking at, but maybe a little similar?

I really enjoyed the computer design part, and I think if you have the interest and the opportunity, it could be a good career. And like Tobycat mentioned, it is something that can be done freelance fairly easily, which could give you a lot of flexibility in the future.

I would encourage you to learn graphic design as well as desktop publishing. We used to use a desktop publishing service, then I learned to do that for myself. I have pretty good basic skills, but I am finding more and more people do their own text layout as word processing programs get more sophisticated and include desktop publishing features. Personally, I don't like the look of the word processed documents, but they work well for people who used to pay someone else to do that work for them.

But good graphic design is always needed, and not something that a "lay" person will have the time or patience to learn. I do all of our desktop publishing stuff, and still pay a service to do the design work.

Depends on where you live, rfox, please check with an employment center near you to see what kind of job openings there are. I wanted to go that route when I was unemployed and the government would have paid $3000 to train me as a displaced worker, but down here in San Diego that kind of job is even more difficult to find than advanced computer support jobs (which are practically nil, I had to start at the bottom again, this is the 3rd time in about 4 years I've had to work my way up to 2nd level tech in the same darned field and the same kind of software!). They do, however, pay well if you have the jobs available.

A government employment center should have documentation on current openings (or recent ones) in the job market in your area. Ours here indicate that entry level support jobs are wide open (and they are, but you can't have any experience) but they don't pay very well. Desktop publishing had so few that there were hundreds of people competing for each opening. Not what I was looking for. They should also be able to assist you in getting training and finding the jobs that are available in the area, for free.

hmmm...thanks everyone, I will look into it a little more. definitely will check out what the hiring rate is for my area.