[Sigia-l] Career Questions

Fri Dec 10 11:08:28 EST 2004

If you can, work in the industry and go to school at the same time.
There are plenty of options for online instruction.  

Five years ago I went back to school for a master's of education in Ed.
Psychology - Instructional design.  It was the closest thing to IA that
I could find.  I chose a part-time approach almost exclusively online.
I figured the industry was changing so quickly, that two years out of
the job market wouldn't be a great idea.  I think I was right.  I am
wrapping up my degree and after a few less than perfect jobs along the
way, I have finally scored a job doing real IA as well as instructional
design and content management. I feel qualified both academically and
professionally. If you check the survey done by Lou Rosenfeld, I think
you'll see that very few people who call themselves IA's are doing that
exclusively.  The more skills you have the better for getting a job as
well as doing the work when it comes your way. The other thing is, read
everything you can get your hands on.

Pat Baford

-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On
Behalf Of Dan Linsky
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 8:39 AM
To: C Wylie; Sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] Career Questions

Programmers are a dime a dozen.  Architects are hard to find - be it
systems architecture or information architecture.  The IA job market is
really taking off now.  The once unsophisticated web audience has
matured and they know what to look for.  Companies want to make sure
they get it.

I work in interactive advertising, architecting anything from a
small-scale promotion to a large scale corporate website.  I hold an MA
in advertising and BAs in visual media, multimedia and information
systems.  I used to be a professor at 3 universities.  I was also a
victim of the dot.com crash and went back to school.  What I learned is
that I should have kept working.

School can prepare you for a job, but it wont teach you everything you
need to know.  Get back in, start slow, move up fast.

- Dan Linsky

-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-bounces at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-bounces at asis.org] On
Behalf Of C Wylie
Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 9:27 AM
To: Sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: [Sigia-l] Career Questions

Hi -

I  earned an MA in Digital Media Studies from the University of Denver
over four years ago. It  mostly seemed focused on theory and playing
around with software rather than actual real world application. I was
hired from my internshiip as a multimedia developer for a small
marketing firm. When the dot.com crash started to happen and the economy
went downhill, I was the first to be laid off. I then was in a bad car
wreck that rendered me pretty useless in the job world. 

Now I am trying to see if there is any way I can make use of my old
degree. I will have to spend some time getting the skills back that I
either lost due to injury and illness or was never taught in the first
place by my grad program. 

I am not sure anymore if becoming a web or media specialist focused on
design technology is a stable career field anymore. I just keep hearing
that if you aren't a web programmer, jobs can be scarce. 

I have been looking into the IAKM graduate program at Kent State
Univeristy. It seems very concentrated and well organzied as far as
course content and rigorous enough as far as theory and practical
application. 

However, I am afraid of getting myself in more debt to upgrade my
skills. 

What I would like to know is if there are a lot of opportunities out
there for IA's and others related to the field. Is it possible to try
and learn some of this on one's own or just take a couple of glasses. It
would be nice if I could get some exposure and experience in this field
without having to go back for a full degree program. 

Thanks for any advice.

Catherine 

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