Friday, January 19, 2007

Learn Something


I went to a panel discussion a few days ago that dealt with moving around within media, such as from print to television or from PR to the music industry. Everyone on the panel mentioned how sometimes if you're starting somewhere completely new, you may have to take a step down in terms of salary and title in order to gain some experience. Feh.

During the quesiton and answer bit I asked if demoting yourself for the sake of a career move could be thwarted by taking some classes and gaining experience that way: Knowing ProTools ig you want to go into the music business or Final Cut if you wanted to go into film. The panel loved this idea.

The more that I look at the marketplace, the more I see how important technical skills are becoming. This is nothing new. I know television producers who have to write content for the show's website and I know journalists who take photos for accompanying slideshows.

What is new is that people who may think that they're young and current, who may be out of school less than ten years, may be more behind in their skills than they realize. At a job fair this past summer a recruiter told me that most young adults coming out of college now know how to shoot and edit video, build websites and do podcasts. They will work for about $30,000 a year to start.

That said, here are some links to places where you can brush up on new skills for the new year, if only to validate your tax bracket.

The Cooper Union has a great Continuing Education program. Given that they already have a strong engineering program, they have the infrastructure for classes in animation, photoshop, 3D modeling, and Illustrator, just to name a few. The classes are condensed, just a few weeks long, and they are reasonably priced. (And within a block of two Starbucks.)

Get in touch with your inner RZA with a ProTools class at The New School. It's more than two turn tables and microphone.

Still having a hard time stringing sentences together? The Gotham Writers' Workshop may be able to help.