P1_p5

Overall this final project has helped me realized that getting my foot in the door is very possible. I enjoyed finding out things about my personality and work habits. The test I took was very accurate and showed what I need to work on for myself so that I can be successful in the work world. I also enjoyed looking at the job outlooks of my dream careers. Now that I understand where things are going I’m even more excited to come into the industry when it is changing so fast. Also something I realized about gaming while I was doing this is that fact that we are coming to a new generation of consoles in the next couple years. Apparently all the companies are struggling to put the same effort into games when they know that they will be able to do much more when they can design for a new generation of consoles. This also means that it will be even harder to get into the industry because companies will be looking for people who can produce extremely high quality work. But this makes me excited because I can’t wait to see what I will learn in all the classes I will take in the future. Things like ZBrush and unreal editor keep me on my toes and remind me that it’s possible to create industry standard projects when I put in hard work. The interview really helped me understand what it’s going to take to get my foot in the door and it gave me a lot of hope because the person that I interviewed is not too much older than me and is already doing awesome work with some great companies.

P1_p4_O'Byrne

For the interview I decided to reach out to some local Graphic design companies. One in particular, Visual Ventures, emailed me back. I got in contact with Dan Taylor a designer that has been in the industry for a few years. Dan at the young age of 24 has plenty of work under his belt doing hundreds of projects that include but are not limited to web banners and print ads, datasheets, email blasts, and direct mailers. He also conducted studio photography for client products and ads.

I was able to get a phone call with him for about 15 minutes. We talked about how we got into graphic design and what he did as a teenager that truly showed he was going to do some quality work in his later years. At a young age Dan was making videos with any program he could get his hands on, designing funny things in Photoshop to show friends and constantly making music with a variety of programs. Dan was fortunate to know a friend in the industry so he was able to get some internship with Visual Ventures. After doing that for a while and going to Sweden for some college he scored a job with the company and started on some cool projects right away. He designed websites for Hasbro and helped with lots of projects for biomedical equipment and other things that he doesn’t find as interesting but he’s glad he did it for experience. He also was able to get lots of connections through school for internships which got his foot in the door.

I was very happy after I heard all this from Dan because it sounds like something I could pull off. Getting connections through school and friends seems like something that would be easy for me to do in the near future. I am excited to see what Dan does in the future and  I hope to stay in connection with him over email.

P1_p3

Citation: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/home.htm

These are my top 5 jobs that I found on the BOLS.

I found that most of these tie well into my expectations for a job in this field. I know that Seattle and Redmond are a pretty good place for most of the careers and it won’t be that hard to find a way to make things work with the connections I already have and the connections I will make in school. I think that any of these would make me happy and would be an excellent starting point for my career as a way of getting my foot in the door.

1. Art Director

2010 Median Pay $80,630 per year

$38.77 per hour 

Entry-Level Education Bachelor’s degree

Work Experience in a Related Occupation 1 to 5 years

On-the-job Training None

Number of Jobs, 2010 73,900

Job Outlook, 2010-20 9% (Slower than average)

Employment Change, 2010-20 6,700

2.Graphic Designer

2010 Median Pay $43,500 per year

$20.92 per hour 

Entry-Level Education Bachelor’s degree

Work Experience in a Related Occupation None

On-the-job Training None

Number of Jobs, 2010 279,200

Job Outlook, 2010-20 13% (About as fast as average)

Employment Change, 2010-20 37,300

3.Multimedia Artists and Animators

2010 Median Pay $58,510 per year

$28.13 per hour 

Entry-Level Education Bachelor’s degree

Work Experience in a Related Occupation None

On-the-job Training Moderate-term on-the-job training

Number of Jobs, 2010 66,500

Job Outlook, 2010-20 8% (Slower than average)

Employment Change, 2010-20 5,500

 4.Industrial Designers

2010 Median Pay $58,230 per year

$27.99 per hour 

Entry-Level Education Bachelor’s degree

Work Experience in a Related Occupation None

On-the-job Training None

Number of Jobs, 2010 40,800

Job Outlook, 2010-20 10% (About as fast as average)

Employment Change, 2010-20 4,300

 5. Interior Designers

2010 Median Pay $46,280 per year

$22.25 per hour 

Entry-Level Education Bachelor’s degree

Work Experience in a Related Occupation None

On-the-job Training None

Number of Jobs, 2010 56,500

Job Outlook, 2010-20 19% (About as fast as average)

Employment Change, 2010-20 10,900

P1_p2

My ideal job coming out of school will be a Level designer for a Video Game studio. I don't care who I work for coming out the gate but I do have some experience making levels for games like Call of Duty and Unreal Tournament so I think it would be best to be involved with a program that I am somewhat familiar with. I would love to work with a group of people where I will mainly focus on laying out the level and coming up with ideas for the level itself. I find myself to be a natural leader so my dream job would be the creative director of a game studio but for know I want to be a part of the team and work together to make one project. I also think that I would like to work for a small to medium sized company so that if I put in hard work I may be noticed making it easier to get a better position at a larger company instead of starting as a nobody.

P1_post1_O'Byrne

I'm a O47-C52-E64-A32-N27 Big Five!!

Hello my name is John. This is my blog for my Digital Design Survey class. Ill be starting this off with a personality test that I actually find myself agreeing with.

I found some of the questions on this test to be asking almost the same thing but I think that was a good thing because I answered them a little differently then I would have if they were worded the exact same. I believe that this canceled out a lot of gray areas where you weren't to sure of the answer you were giving.



Openness to Experience/Intellect: You typically don't seek out new experiences.
I find this to my true but it is something that I don't like that much about myself. I'm trying to be more open to new experience, which would help me in almost all aspects of my life. I think I could really excel if I changed this about myself.

Conscientiousness: You are neither organized or disorganized.
This is very true. In my mind I want to be organized and sometimes I actually give myself the time to organize things like my room or work habits or even things in my head like figuring out relationships and friendships. I find that when I give myself the time and energy to figure this stuff out I feel much better about myself and I actually start getting stuff done. On the other side of things I actually find myself very easily slipping into habits of putting too much energy into the wrong things and I don't give myself time or energy to organize anything leaving feeling helpless and stressed about life. This is once again something that I am trying to change about myself.

Extraversion: You are relatively social and enjoy the company of others.
I agree with this and sometimes I like the company of others but I find that I get more done when I'm by myself.

Agreeableness: You find it easy to express irritation with others.
I do find this easy sometimes but I tend to be very cautious about this because depending on the person, they can be very sensitive and I may not think it through enough to voice my thoughts without hurting them. I'm getting better at communicating and it is something that I know is important for my personal life and my social life.

Neuroticism: You are generally relaxed.
This is true. Sometimes I get stressed out but when I give myself some alone time or if I talk to the right people my head gets in the right place again and I'm very calm and relaxed about the most stressful things in my life.


Overall this is very accurate. Most of these things I want to change to better myself but this speaks excellently to my current self.