Before I Went
I knew going into this career day that the people I would be shadowing would be graphic designers. This was not the field I exactly wanted to go into, but close enough for me to see what a job in a similar field would be. Currently I can’t decide on whether to go into architecture and design or sound design/production. I was using this to see how working with a team to design a commercial product would be like. But at the same time I knew there was going to be a 3d-Designer there that I could talk to about the tools I might need for architecture.
The People I Met
Unlike may career days I did not just shadow one person but five. I only know two of the people shadowed official titles.One was the Senior Creative Design Manager, and the other was Creative Services Manager. I also shadowed a 3d-Modeler, and two designers. Each person was doing very similar but different jobs, and had their own products. I didn’t just talk to them about their work. With many of the members I talked to at length about school their own interests, and what got them to the points they were at. Some of them had gone to design school and started in the field very quickly. Others took design jobs in for example newspaper design. Some went to design school immediately out of high school. Others designed to go to community college to get the basic education credits and found what they truly wanted to do before going to university. Through all of this there was tree real advice of theirs that I found were particularly useful. They were; always communicate between parties, hit the save button as often as you can, and take any job you can as you can because you will gain skills you'll need later. The most enjoyable part was they were always ready to talk and were incredibly friendly towards me and their fellow coworkers.
The Work Space and Lunch
The space was very untraditional for an office. First off it was just one large open room, with desk spaces arranged in a way to create two teams and smaller other desk areas. Each space was filled with figures and board games,and cards which I guessed were from projects the people worked on. The center of the room was a long rectangular table which was kind of a lunch/ play testing area. The building also had a maker space where they could create physical prototypes and a 3d printer. Although it wasn’t your average work space, I personally enjoyed the atmosphere as it wasn’t o quiet or loud, or to dark. Lunch was specifically very strange to me. During the lunch break everyone got together took a seat and played a game, while eating. It was something I would expect for a place like this but not many other. In summary, The space was almost visually overwhelming with the sheer amount of things on each desk, but it was a kind of ordered chaos that I enjoyed.
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Final Summary
I am very thankful for the opportunity I got. I truly believe I now have some direction about what I should look for in a job and degree, as well as some of the skills, and tools I need to lead to get there. I enjoyed talking to everyone there and wouldn't mind going again in the future. I think that everyone there really enjoys their job and as a result has created a great environment for both working and socializing. I truly thank everyone I shadowed and meet for letting me be there.