While browsing around here in the forms I have seen on more than one occasional that at least a handful of people in the community have pursued, or currently are pursuing a career in something pertaining to program or game design based off the interests they realized they have while working with BYOND.
So, given that I am currently considering the possibility of going to college, and have a number of options before me I decided I would like to call upon those same people and anyone else here who might be able to offer some information to help me decide what I might like to focus on if I go.
Currently I am in the process of researching each career option, but I will list the ones that interest me most right now below.
Website Developer
This may tie into the one below, hard to say based off my current level of research, but I rather enjoy creating websites. I've learned HTML, most CSS, and slightly touched on PHP and Javascript. Not really enough to get either of those last two down, but I've played around with websites enough to know I enjoy it. I think it might be very enjoyable, but it seems like it requires a very wide array of skills, and education. I'm concerned I may have trouble coming up with designs at times after I've made several, and most importantly I hate deadlines and it seems to focus on them more heavily than other things.
Programming
I would likely go with a general focus to leave me open to other jobs if and when I need them, but initially pursue this with the intent to direct it toward game design. My primary concern with this is likely any focus it might put on mathematics. I'm pretty decent with math, and I'm used to applying it into programming on a basic level, but any math beyond the 12th grade level seems rather intimidating and like it would likely both bore and frustrate me.
Art and Animation
Once again I might pursue a bit of a broadened approach, but my focus here would be toward game design. Specifically 2D art. I've practiced enough that I'm aware of my talents, and while I am okay with programming, I usually enjoy working with art a lot more. Additionally, I've played around with Blender a bit, and I don't think I really have an interest in 3D art. Although texturing may be fine. I've also played with Photoshop, Gimp, etc a bit and think digital art is okay but not as fun as 2D art.
Art Teacher
This time it's something very specific. I'm the type of person who loves children, and can usually work with and take care of them very easily. Likewise, I love art, working with it, and discussing it. I'm not much for the whole painting, art galleries, and such kind of scene but I am very interested in several forms of art found in gaming, anime, and what not. So this seems like a logical option.
Business
Pretty simple and straight forward. A business degree could not only help open up the option for me to potentially open and run my own business someday, but on a more stable basis, it better qualifies me to be a manager at a large number of businesses. Management is something that interests me, pays well, and that many people in my family seem to excel at. It's a pretty natural option, and I do have some potential business ideas I may want to pursue someday if I can lower the risk to a reasonable amount, so maybe it's worth it.
If you've managed to read all of this, then awesome, thanks for your time, and please offer any information, opinions, and experience that you can. I'd enjoy discussing this subject a bit in general as well, so I'd appreciate it greatly if everyone could please try and stay on topic.
ID:1836800
 Apr 18 2015, 6:22 pm
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Yeah, that is what I was afraid of. As a hobbyist, or independent designer I can keep math to a minimum depending on the type of project, but any career choices seem to be much more demanding of it.
Oh mostly definitely. That was only to say what I already know, If I were to pursue it I would focus heavily on learning PHP, Javascript, and probably Mysql as well. I'm pretty sure class load covers them, too. Hmm. I think there's a basic business class that one can attend without going to college that may be beneficial, but even it's optional. That's only for starting a business though, I'm also wondering if it would be worth going to in order to make myself stand out for management positions at existing businesses. A few people in my family got into good management positions without a degree, but a couple of people I know are saying employers are starting to look for a degree now. It would probably be tough to find one, that's why I'm considering going for the broader degree, but those are good points. I am interested in most art, anime and gaming were just examples of my primary interest, but I am definitely not into painting or the history of art. That alone probably makes it a less than ideal choice, especially given research seems to point to art history being a focus of the degree. | |
Toddab503 wrote:
I'm concerned I may have trouble coming up with designs at times after I've made several, and most importantly I hate deadlines and it seems to focus on them more heavily than other things. On a smaller scale (such as freelancing or working for a small group/company), you'll likely be involved in the design and UX portion of web development. That's part of being in a smaller group and having greater reliance on each individual to complete tasks. It changes greatly when you join larger corporations; then they'll have people with experience and backgrounds in UX, design patterns, and developing trends who will come up with the designs (including motion and sound studies, for when animations and the like come into play) and then have over to other people for implementation. Designers don't always have coding backgrounds, but I've found that many groups are more likely to hire designers who have worked on websites and apps because they have greater understanding of code constraints. It will greatly behoove you to have some understanding of current design trends. Even in larger corporations, I find that we're expected to have a lot of say in the design, a greater understanding of user behavior, and even create our own concepts using the clearly-defined design patterns created for us by the design team. Regardless of what you choose, you should start putting together a website and portfolio. It's a good way to start getting that knowledge, creating a positive web presence, and exhibiting your skills in a public and visual way. EmpirezTeam wrote: To be a website developer, you might want to make sure you do more than "slightly touch" PHP and Javascript, as there's pretty much no job that requires you to just know HTML and CSS only, because I'd have a job doing it if HTML and CSS were the only requirements. I both agree and disagree. It's very beneficial to have an understanding beyond just HTML/CSS, but you can get work using strictly those skills. So far I've worked making web sites for the automotive industry, e-commerce platforms with over 4000 transactions-per-second, and on the Xbox One with predominately applying HTML/CSS knowledge and the occasional JavaScript library. Surprisingly, I more frequently work with developers who have no understanding of HTML/CSS -- which is really unfortunate, especially on our current project. We're so desperate for people with those skills that we have no fewer than four open head counts for what we call design developers/design integrators. | |
Hm. That makes a lot of sense, I hadn't realized how much of a team effort even web design can be. It makes sense that they would want someone who has a background working in the field, but I've been wondering does a degree make a big difference in working as a web developer?
I find it very debatable because I've met people online who have no degree, yet they create websites I feel are equal to or greater than most I've seen. One guy even got a lot of freelance offers, but I suspect companies might look for a degree to further back that experience up. This is quite the difficult decision. It may not be as simple as going to college or not, I've made a lot of plans that could help my experience level and decision, but they're very time consuming and risky in terms of financially supporting me so I may have to just be patient and make due for a while. Currently it does seem like web developer or a management positions are likely going to be my most reliable options long term wise. I just also need to determine whether a degree is beneficial enough or not, and what level of one I should pursue if I do. | |
It depends heavily on the company and the group. My background is in engineering management/systems engineering, and I used to work aboard ship and in power plants. However, I've been designing and implementing websites for nearly twenty years now (personal projects, volunteering, and freelancing). I was hired on the basis on my experience and portfolio despite having spent most of my adult life working in a different field.
I have never taken a course in web design, coding, or user experience, though I have been involved in large, multi-national projects that requires that skillset. Whatever you choose -- even if it's not related to web design or development or coding -- I'd strongly recommend getting a professional website together. You should likely include a copy of your resume, your work/school experience, and also examples of anything related to your future career. For example, you expressed an interest in art/animation or teaching art. If you had a professional website (and we're talking about something as simple as a single-page layout), you could include examples of what you've created. Put your pixel art on there and capture video of your animations and games. If you'd like to go further, make a blog tracking industry trends or related topics. Interested in game design? Start following start-up projects, write up summaries of what they're doing and why/not you think that they're successful, put together tutorials for coding or pixel art, and just have at it. This allows you to do a couple of things:
Toddab503 wrote: Currently it does seem like web developer or a management positions are likely going to be my most reliable options long term wise. I just also need to determine whether a degree is beneficial enough or not, and what level of one I should pursue if I do. Both are very viable. You should pick something that will allow you to be successful, and something in which you can excel and tolerate. | |
To be a website developer, you might want to make sure you do more than "slightly touch" PHP and Javascript, as there's pretty much no job that requires you to just know HTML and CSS only, because I'd have a job doing it if HTML and CSS were the only requirements. Typically they also expect you to know a little bit about Google analytics I think it's called? Whatever the thing is called that monitors searches for your site, they want you to understand how to design your site in such a way that yields the best search results, i.e. "BYOND Forums - Off Topic" is more optimal for search engines as opposed to if Tom had just used "Off Topic".
You don't need a business degree to start your own business. This is kinda like getting a music degree to be a musician. This is one of those degrees where your schooling is less relevant, and what's truly important is that you are extremely driven, sacrificial, and skilled. You can throw all types of music classes and degrees at a person, but unless they're driven, ready to make a crap ton of sacrifices and very good at what they do, they'll never be the "next big thing" in music, and it's literally the same with businesses. It's not as simple as saying "ok, I've got a business degree, now I can make a successful business appear in front of me". Most of what you need to make that happen can't be acquired in a classroom.
I'm not entirely sure if art jobs exist where all you focus on is gaming and anime art. In fact, even when you're learning to draw anime art, you're first taught how to realistically draw a body. Especially with smaller kids, you're definitely going to be dealing with just normal art. Crayon/pencil drawings and paintings. I wouldn't go into being an art teacher unless you are truly passionate about art in general, not just anime characters and games. It's sort of like someone becoming a math teacher and expecting to only have to deal with Geometry, when in reality those teachers actually know and love trigonometry, algebra, calculus and everything else.