Am I on the right track?

[Sleepy_Shadow]

This year I have begun university after studying Multimedia at TAFE, and am now currently studying at Edith Cowan for Bachelor of Creative Industries majoring in Interactive Media Development. Should I be worried if something goes wrong with the course that my TAFE qualifications will lose their relevance to possible employers?

[indhyper]

"Something goes wrong with the course" meaning you drop out?

IMHO the best thing you can do to guarantee future employment is to start making lots of cool things now (sites, designs, etc) so that you have a great portfolio to show in interviews.

[scross]

"Something goes wrong with the course" meaning you drop out?

IMHO the best thing you can do to guarantee future employment is to start making lots of cool things now (sites, designs, etc) so that you have a great portfolio to show in interviews.

Totally Agree! Walking into a prospective employers office with a degree or a diploma won't impress them as much as a portfolio full of solid designs.

That being said, I completed my Degree in Interactive Multimedia at ECU in Mt Lawley and the most important thing I gain from there (apart from skills) that has helped me the most in my designing career is contacts and the ability to network with my peers! My biggest jobs have come from uni associates dropping my name to prospective employers.

Uni isn't only about training in skills and theory, it's also about participating in a like minded community :) The students in your class will quite often being the people you'll be working with in the industry. Networking at uni can give you a solid base to build on once you enter the industry.

[Sleepy_Shadow]

Well let just say that if the worst case situation did occur and I did end up being taken out of my current course for whatever reason, would my TAFE qualifications be considered redundant?

I mean I'm learning similar material so its not like I'm sitting at home playing video and being a bum.

[Vee]

I mean I'm learning similar material so its not like I'm sitting at home playing video and being a bum.

You need to be able to prove your skills - a portfolio is better than a completed TAFE course.

An incomplete TAFE course isn't worth mentioning unless you have a reasonable explanation - it will just make you appear uncommitted.

[Sleepy_Shadow]

You need to be able to prove your skills - a portfolio is better than a completed TAFE course.

An incomplete TAFE course isn't worth mentioning unless you have a reasonable explanation - it will just make you appear uncommitted.

I did the certificate 4 in Multimedia that took a year to do currently teaching myself MySQL and PHP. Mate I'm anything but "uncommitted" the majority of my class often handed their assignments in several weeks late (they still passed), I on the other hand always handed things in on time and to the best of my ability.

[patricktt]

I did the certificate 4 in Multimedia that took a year to do currently teaching myself MySQL and PHP. Mate I'm anything but "uncommitted" the majority of my class often handed their assignments in several weeks late (they still passed), I on the other hand always handed things in on time and to the best of my ability.

taking 12 months to do a course and teaching yourself mysql and php doesn't 'prove' you are "anything but uncommitted", it just proves that you achieved what most other students do - completed a course...

sounds to me like you have already made up your mind for "the worst case scenario" to happen, so why put yourself through the trouble? May as well not even start uni, and just try to get a job. keep learning php and mysql if that's where your passion is, and keep trying to get your foot into the industry - even if it means working in maccas while doing it...

you're not Gen Y by any chance are you? ;)

[madpilot]

A little secret: the degree/diploma only matter for the first year you are out (and even then it's only partially important). After that is comes down to experience.

Don't take this to mean "don't go to Uni" - Uni provides valuable life experience and is worth something. But at the some time, don't get hung up on whether what you learnt at TAFE is still relevent. Chances are it isn't. What is relevent is that you learnt critical thinking, and time management and how to present yourself at a interview and how important talking to other people in the industry is.

Second secret: Read that last line again about talking to other industry folk. That is the clincher.

[Sleepy_Shadow]

But at the some time, don't get hung up on whether what you learnt at TAFE is still relevent. Chances are it isn't.

Did TAFE last year so that was pretty quick.:eek:

[tuna]

Third secret: don't stop learning. As uni/tafe I hope taught you how to do this.

[madpilot]

Did TAFE last year so that was pretty quick.:eek:

Did they teach you about un-obtrusive JavaScript, Ruby on Rails or CSS3?

(I'd be suprised if they did...)

[Vee]

(I'd be suprised if they did...)

When I attempted a Cert4 Web Design course a few years ago, I was teaching the lecturers about XHTML, CSS, well formedness, web hosting control panels, etc.

So much so that I went back to my own projects and subbing for a guest speaker about 2 thirds into the course...

[Sleepy_Shadow]

Did they teach you about un-obtrusive JavaScript, Ruby on Rails or CSS3?

(I'd be surprised if they did...)

un-obtrusive JavaScript yes one of the lectures did go into it. Um Ruby on Rails isn't covered in the multimedia course and CSS3 wasn't covered because it is under development. I had learnt about it through Web Designer magazine which had a feature on it had examples of script for CSS3.

[Sleepy_Shadow]

Third secret: don't stop learning. As uni/tafe I hope taught you how to do this.

Yeah the lecturers at TAFE encouraged the student to learn material by themselves and try to learn new things for the industry.

[Byron]

Fourth secret: Dont rock up to tutes with a half finished pint from the tav.

but seriously, what do you want out of uni? I wanted to learn lightwave and flash and write a phd with heaps of spelling errors.

if you know what you want to get out of it your not wasting your time. if not, your just pileing up HECS.

(avoiding HECS payments is what they teach you if you get to do your honours.)

[Sleepy_Shadow]

sounds to me like you have already made up your mind for "the worst case scenario" to happen, so why put yourself through the trouble?


Its not that but it is very possible that it could occur, meh I'm a pessimist.

[Sleepy_Shadow]

you're not Gen Y by any chance are you? ;)

Yeah why?:confused:

[indhyper]

5th secret - just make cool stuff in your free time and show people and before you know they'll be asking you to make stuff for them for money.

[tuna]

5th secret - just make cool stuff in your free time and show people and before you know they'll be asking you to make stuff for them for money.

6th Secret - working out how to get some of this free time....

[patricktt]

6th Secret - working out how to get some of this free time....

hmm, think i need to learn that secret...

[indhyper]

6th Secret - working out how to get some of this free time....

Don't have a famliy!

[LUKIE]

Thought I might chime in. I might actually know you Sleepy, as I did Diploma of Screen (animation) at East Perth last year.

So far, since finishing six years of study, I have literally put in months of effort into effectively learning design techniques, and just generally learning flash. I am pretty happy about doing this really.

I had a meeting with a well known fellow in the multimedia area here in Perth, and he really put me in the right direction. Told me what to do, and from there I just have sourced out so many resources, and just learnt as much as I could about Flash.

A job will come... one day... hopefully. But just remember you have to put in a lot of effort outside of the courses in order to really learn in this industry.

[icon]

i sometimes wonder about people who get told to go learn xhtml, css and all that simple building stuff. i mean, it's certainly useful but it's sort of setting you up to compete with everyone on the planet who wants a web job.

i tend to think maybe it's best for people to learn css/html etc while actually making shit hot designs, or new media apps, or scripts/cms/web apps.

people who can make beautiful designs, or make strong flash sites/applets, or code well formed oo c# are ahead of the game.

[LUKIE]

That's why I am focusing on Flash. Awesome Flash designs and sites, and I have the animation skills behind me, which I think could be utilised very well.

Animation for the web is a passion :)

[icon]

That's why I am focusing on Flash. Awesome Flash designs and sites, and I have the animation skills behind me, which I think could be utilised very well.

Animation for the web is a passion :)

I'm also an animator and while I'm not really using Flash much any more I have developed a lot of Flash sites in my time.

Make sure you learn some actionscript. Also consider learning enough of some server-side language that you can pipe from a database to Flash using XML, like PHP/SQL or ASP etc.

The more code you know the more independence you'll have to create your own work. The less code you know the more you'll have to animate to someone else's schedule.

Also check out some tweening prog like http://blog.greensock.com/

[LUKIE]

Cool, thanks for the info. I have dabbled in XML, and am broadening my ActionScript knowledge. I find AS3 a bit difficult to transition to though.

I do have some tutorials on Flash/PHP MySQL stuff I need to get around to.