San Francisco is the heart of interactive design. Many creative professionals who wish to change their career direction towards interactive work often find themselves at a loss as to how to make the leap. Recently I was surfing around and read a dialogue among producers. One producer in particular had 7 years of experience in broadcast. Let’s call this person “Jean.” Jean loved her work. Unfortunately her company suddenly went bankrupt. She found herself rushing to reinvent her career. She wondered how she could make the leap from broadcast producer to web producer. Should she go back to school? Does a broadcast producer have to get a new degree to make the leap? Jean went online and began chatting with producers across the country. According to interactive producer, Tamara Smassekou, if you want to make the leap from traditional to online, try using the platform itself to learn:
“I personally feel like the Web is one place where it doesn't matter how you got your chops - it just matters that you have them. Mostly, you need to be on top of the newest developments, which in my opinion makes master's and even college courses in general too slow.”
Tamara took online courses and quickly came up to speed. She speaks about the efficiency of online learning below:
“It took me I think under a year to complete the Certificate in Web Technologies with IWAnet. This gives you a solid grounding in HTML, CSS, Web Design, Dreamweaver, etc. In fact, I didn't know I would become a Web Producer, but these courses gave me what I needed for my boss to promote me without my asking to become a Producer. I ended up loving it.”
When I was working at an ad agency before I came to Filter, 80% of our revenue was interactive work. Much of this work was comprised of Flash demos; demos that taught sales people how to sell their product; demos that demonstrated the value of products, demos that entertained. The technology is better than ever. Online learning is one of the fastest rising markets. According to Clive Shepherd, “Elearning has grown up – it’s more real-time, more rapid and more collaborative.”
I am not suggesting that producers code. I am suggesting that knowing how code works is key to being an effective web producer. How else would you be able gauge the scope and price of a web project? Moreover, when working in creative a good producer must communicate across the team and needs to speak the language. Learning any language well requires immersion. When you can’t get to the classroom bring the classroom to you. Get online. Chat. Ask questions. Network. Learn.
For those of you wanting to know more about becoming certified as a producer, please check out the related links:
Project management:
PMP certification - pmi.org/
ScrumMaster - scrumalliance.org/training/
Design:
Adobe Certified Expert (ACE)- adobe.com/support/certification/ace.html