Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Multimedia in a Career

I can identify at least five major career fields in multimedia: gaming and/or entertainment, web site design, computer-based training, custom multimedia software development, animation. Each of these fields has overlapping skill sets and each of these fields also have skills sets that require specialization. Taking this a step further, are there obvious skills that should be also carried over to a computer graphics engineering technology career?

6 comments:

Meghan Billings said...

When people hear the name “Computer Graphics Engineering Technology,” they assume that all we can do is graphic design, which is actually a small part of what we are educated to do. This has always bothered me, and I have started just explain it as a manufacturing engineering degree because it takes half-an-hour to explain the true potential of our degree. But as frustrating as it is to me, the fact that we do learn the basics of multimedia makes a big selling point to companies. Besides the normal forms of multimedia that you think of like web page design and video editing, we have a huge advantage over others in similar fields because of the ability that we have to model up products in a variety of incredible software packages, and then use that to present to customers in a professional form of multimedia, quickly. I think the more skills in multimedia that we can obtain the better opportunities that we will have in the future, and the more valuable we will be to our employers.

Meghan Billings said...

What I was trying to say is that people often get the name Design Graphics confused with Graphic Design. This is very easy to do, especially when DGET is not a widely known degree. Though it is annoying being called a Graphic Designer (I even caught my mom telling someone that, this summer), I do appreciate the skills that we learn in presentation that overlap with Graphic Design because they help us so much in our careers. It gives us an edge over others, especially since presentation skills is one of the most asked for training, by the local companies here in Utah.

apprentice said...

Admittedly there is a stigma that DGET students are facing. You may be labeled by society as drafters, computer operators, and graphic designers and none of which may be correct. I have seen a lot of knowledge and talent graduate from the DGET department and where they may be destined, who knows. Since this is a relatively new field it is going to take some adjustments for everyone and in a sense you are pioneers, but isn’t that what you signed up for? Can designers, inventors, engineers, and modern day pioneers be considered the same thing?

Scott S. said...

Isn't that the truth. It drives me crazy when people assume you're a glorified artist when they hear of "Computer Graphics Engineering Technology," no offense to an artist, but I'm not going to Collage for 5 years and take all those math and design oriented classes for nothing. Meghan makes some great points!! I recently applied and turned down a job offer. This job was recommended to me by some of our faculty. After learning more about this position, I realized it was only a drafting position. Again, I'm not going to 5 years of Collage for that. At the company I presently work, the Engineers are great and talented individuals, but they lack something. I feel our program at WSU is different than many others. Yes, compared to other programs it's my beleif that we're taken out of the box to develop our interpersonal and presentational skills. Engineering (and yes we all will be Engineers when we graduate) tools, machines, parts for those machines, structures, infrastructures, programs, or whatever it may be is a magnifiecent feat; however, being able to present our products or technology effectively is another! Employers should think of us as the "best of both worlds." We have the ability to engineer ideas and the interpersonal and presentational skills to present those ideas.

MeaganP said...

I have had the same problems when trying to explain the capabilities of our degree. Last year at the career fair I spoke to a few companies and none of them have even heard of our major. Like Meghan said, people confuse DGET with Graphics Design majors. I got to the point were I didn’t want to speak to anyone and just let my resume to the talking for me. Indeed, both majors are visionaries, but we experience a more technical background. How many Graphics designers can understand and read architectural or mechanical drawings or create models and assemblies with accurate precision. It has been hard to explain what I do and sometimes I just say that I am a technical designer and if questions are asked then I go into full depth of our capabilities. There is such a degree as Design Engineer and I feel I could get in trouble for giving myself that title and I don’t want to be mistaken for a graphics designer. So, Technical Designer seems to work for me.

John said...

I also found talking with employers that it’s impossible for them to grasp the idea of our major. I know that it’s even worse talking to Human Resources because usually they are the people that have no relation to the work force, and they have a certain criteria that they have to fill and if you don’t sound close to what they want they don’t take you even though you’d be fully qualified for the job. I had to finally create a portfolio of everything that I can do, and list the main classes that I have at school. I have two types of resumes. One with an Architectural emphasis, and one with an Engineering empties. I’ve found that lots of employers are looking for people that have the ability to take something that they currently have and make it better. In the Architectural field, my boss does all his renderings by hand. I explained to him that we could get the same effect using simple programs that will give him the same look and feel with ¾” of the time it usually takes. The world needs this major, but they just don’t currently know what to do with us. I know that Larry talks about how we are the front-runners of this program and that we are going to have to deal with all the pain of explaining what we do.