A gargoyle somewhere in Paris
Today I begin working on some questions for a MIX panel aimed at college students. The more obvious themes of passion, ‘do what you love’, and ‘listen to your heart’ have washed over me. Now I am realizing that, most likely, those things are more than covered by parents and professors. So what do students want to hear about? What nuggets of wisdom could they gleam from 4 working stiffs in the tech industry? What did I need to know at graduation that wasn’t covered or revealed by the mandatory courses and the busy people teaching them?
Foremost in my mind was how different working in the industry was than the classes I took. Most of the people I know in tech do client work and school just can’t mimic it. I did have one senior course where we worked with a ‘client’ selected by the professor. We were broken out into small teams, based on focus, and then given our client’s problem. 10 minutes into reading the brief I knew what was being asked wasn’t actually possible. At least not possible for 4 kids, with 2 months and no budget to attempt testing large scale feasibility…the client wanted software that would take a person’s portrait and make them look like a Rembrandt painting. Yeah. One picture, sure, but accommodating for the never-ending variables; clothing, glasses, freckles, mustaches, moles, hair texture, style and color?! Controlled, predictable quality was not going to be something we could even fake for a grade.
Thankfully our professor was kind in the end, since we couldn’t present a solution that solved the problem. However the lesson of client work was lost. Sure agencies occasionally tell clients something can be done when it can’t, but that isn’t common practice. The only similarity to being on the job, under the gun, was the stress. Which may be one of the most valuable lessons in tech, be ready for the strain of constant change.
Tell me your first job stories or your experience transitioning from school. Send mail to s dotz summers ates gmail dotz comz.
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