Before I start I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the guys involved in creating the workshop for making it so successful, your time and effort to help us students has been incredibly appreciated.
So, I’ve been asked to write about my experience taking part in the ‘So, you want to work in the Web?’ workshop. If anyone is reading this and thinking about taking part and applying for next years (which I hear is already in the making) the first thing I’m going to say to you is this – DO IT. Literally, don’t even have a second thought and just go for it. If you’re passionate about working in the Web I can guarantee it will be worthwhile.
Arriving at the workshop I had a few expectations of what was in store, mainly the amount of knowledge I was about to take on board and that I was ready to learn all of it but also scared of how much I didn’t already know. Coming from a university course that doesn’t specialise in one subject but rather a range of multimedia areas, I’ve always found it hard to balance what I’m interested in with getting a good grade in everything else. As you can guess I found a passion for web design and that’s all I really wanted to focus on.
Anyway back to the expectations, what I didn’t expect was for the sheer amount of talent I was about to be surrounded by, safe to say it was pretty intimidating. Being in my final year at university I began questioning myself, why aren’t I as good as everyone? Why the hell did they pick me if this was my competition? What have I been doing with my life? But after a few hours I began to calm down and take everything in. With some one to one help from Jason and reassuring words from Aaron I started to understand. This workshop wasn’t only for the people that already knew everything, it’s for the people that have the passion and drive to succeed.
What I found from my 3 days with Mixd is that university teaches us very, very little about what we can really expect when we embark into the scary, unknown world of industry after university. Not only the basic skills but everything else that goes with it. We need to experience it for ourselves and this is exactly what this workshop has provided. Being amongst people who are passionate about what they do and who are willing to share their knowledge with the people that need it most has been unbelievably motivating.
I know I don’t just speak for myself but for everyone student that took part when I say ‘So, you want to work in the Web?’ has been the most worthwhile experience and I couldn’t be more thankful to have been given the opportunity to be a part of it. It has given an insight into that dark realm of industry, which after seeing what it’s really like – isn’t that scary after all.