Hello, I will chime in with my 2 cents. I did go to college and received my BS degrees in CompSci and Math almost 8 years ago. I am currently an information architect for IBM here in Austin. To me the benefit of the formal academic track was learning databases and network design. To this day, I still use a lot of my database skills in my job. One of the side benefits skills that I use on an almost daily basis is regular expressions.
However, I agree with a lot of the other Refresh Austinites that you have to constantly self-teach yourself the newest skills to keep yourself relevant. Do not think that a degree (BS or MS or PhD) is a golden ticket to eternal bliss. Be sure to always devote time in your week to teach yourself a new tech skill that interests you. For example, I am not a graphic designer, rather I am a backend infrastructure person so my interests are in the web server, database, and business logic layers. I then lean on my graphic designer to interpret my ramblings into a great layout. Learn where your strengths are and promote them. Also, I firmly believe in the power of real-world experience. While you are in school, I highly encourage you to make time to get internships and coops. In the last 5 years, I have recruited about 22 interns/coop students. It is amazing to look at resumes where people have a pure academic background with MS and PhD letters behind them, and then look at a BS student with a lot of personal tech projects and internships. Time after time, I have always picked the student who had the determination and desire to learn on their own and went out and had an internship or two versus the pure academic student. For me personally, I am always learning new tech skills, whether it is RDF, SPARQL, iPhone app development, etc. Also, as one person already mentioned, utilize the great resources that are out there (Safari Books Online, Books 24x7, Refresh Austin, Geek Austin, Lynn Bender, Juan Sequeda, Agile Austin, etc) If you have further questions or comments, you can reach me on Facebook (Paul Arellanes) or on Twitter (http://twitter.com/paulthomas_tx). take care, paul --- On Thu, 3/12/09, Mike <[email protected]> wrote: From: Mike <[email protected]> Subject: [Refresh Austin: 3705] questions about being in the web design industry To: "Refresh Austin" <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 1:35 PM Hello, I'm new to the web design world and I figure this a good way to get started. My name is mike and I"m new to web design world. I'm starting school to get a 2nd bachelor's in web design from the art institute (1st bba is in marketing) and I was wondering since ya'll are in the industry, am I going in the right direction? I see that everyone has a different background, and i'm curious what did everyone study or how did they get to where they are today. I hate to pay for something and then go nowhere afterwards. Mike --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Our Web site: http://www.RefreshAustin.org/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Refresh Austin" group. [ Posting ] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Job-related postings should follow http://tr.im/refreshaustinjobspolicy We do not accept job posts from recruiters. [ Unsubscribe ] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] [ More Info ] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Refresh-Austin -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
