Internships...Degrees... "real" jobs...

[crunchDesign]

Hey Boardroom flashers there have been some GREAT posts lately and I must thank you for them...unfortunately I am still kinda baffled by all the acronyms you more experienced folks throw out...all in due time I suppose.

Anyhew...I have a couple questions regarding growing up in this industry.

1) How many people reading this ever did an internship at a web designing business or a "tech" business like software solutions and such..Was it good? Enjoyable? Learn a lot? Get paid much? Worthwhile overall? Help on a resume? Hard to get?

2) I am currently going to the University of Calgary in Calgary Alberta Canada taking a joint degree of BSC - Computer Scienc with BComm - Management(marketing)

How useful is it really? I would really like to go to just a college program (colleges and universities are kinda reversed in Canada vs. the States..) which would be more "arts" based. Like I would really like to learn ASP, CF, mySQL, CGI etc in a controlled classroom setting to help me get a good foothold on the languages and such but my university doesn't really teach stuff like that.. it's all about the theory behind programming and such. Which is good I know but how valuable is it really?

3) How hard has/was the transition from college/university to getting a real job? Has formal education helped a lot? Is it smart to go with a design firm first off before trying it on your own? Do you think it's worthwhile to move to another part of the world just because they have a bit better job market?

That should keep ya busy for a while and I thank you in advance for any light you can shed on these "wonderful" topics...

.aaroncrunchie

[choclate vanilla]

I'm just about to finish a 4 Year Multi Media Technology degree (UK). I would say that the biggest bonus with going to college allowed me the time to play with lots of different technologies to see what I actually wanted to do. It was not until my second year that I decided that creative design particularly web and graphic design were what I wanted to go into.
My course also gave me an optional "sandwich" year to go and work in industry. During this time a friend and I started a company of our own and although we struggled for a year we learnt so much of the things that you cannot learn in the classroom. This has now given me a years experience and I'm going to go freelance in 3 weeks when I finish, and from the jobs we did then I already have some jobs lined up and plenty of contacts.

I think that the transition will be easy for me to make as I have already struggled once and I'm prepared for what lies ahead. To be honest if I got a full time job when I finish I would be working less than I am now at university. I need to get a job for the break.

On the issue of jobs I think it is worth moving, but not just because the market is better but because you actually have something to go to. I have several friends who moved away for work. All of the ones that had jobs waiting for them are still there. The ones who went just for a look see to try and find a job once they were there are back. Make your own conclusions.

Does that help at all?

[Gloomycus]

I wouldn't know. I'm still in high school

Here are my post secondary plans

Seneca College - 3 year Digital Media Technoogy
York University - Bachelor of Design

[crunchDesign]

Hey Choclate Vanilla,

Many thanks for the information, I plan on starting my company next year too after I learn some database languages this summer. Did you continue your business or shut it down, why / why not?

Anybody else care to share their experiences?

.aaroncrunchie

[choclate vanilla]

The company that we started is still alive but we are not really doing anything with it. My business partner has had to set himself up with other work tutoring while I went back to uni, which he can't drop straight away.

I'm going to go freelance for a bit but then hopefully get some full time work somewhere, get some more experience and then probabaly pick up the company again in a couple of years.

If you go this route while at uni I would suggest always leaving it open whether or not you decide to continue working with your company afterwards.

You could land a great job when finish or spend a year looking for it. Everthing is so uncertain that it I think it is porbably best to just run with it and don't make any plans to firm.

If you want to chat some more drop me an email I will be happy to talk to you about it or any thing else some more.