“I Hate my Project” aka Facing Turmoil
At the time of this post, we are deep into the second of three semesters in the 1-year Interactive Digital Media program at Centennial College. Which means as the Program Coordinator (and defacto academic advisor) I’m repeatedly hearing students proclaim “I HATE my Senior Project!”. And it makes me smile.
Yes, that sounds sadistic. But really, I’m smiling because it means the gang is getting out of the assignment EXACTLY what I wanted when I co-designed the semester with faculty. As educators and industry professionals, we evaluate on deliverables: Did the deliverables match the original project charter? Do students demonstrate knowledge learned through the program (surrounding strategic thinking, UX design, and content planning)? Is the knowledge presented in an industry-acceptable fashion? And yes, those are super important hard skills. But it’s the soft skills that move us forward. In the rush of completing and assessing practical skills, I sometimes worry we all forget to help the students evaluate their inner turmoil through the process.
But turmoil doesn’t help you get job you say? Well, kind of, yes. But also kind of no. It depends on the turmoil. Turmoil because the project entirely fell apart is a major problem. But the way our semester is structured, it is difficult for that to happen this late in the game – if as faculty we forecast the likelihood of that to happen based on the individual student’s skills and the concept they have, we encourage them to back away from that cliff a few steps. So this turmoil being faced now isn’t that as long as everyone has been working through the bits that they can do.
The turmoil now is closer described somewhere in the crossroads of feeling “I can’t do this” and “My idea can never work” and “I still don’t know everything”. This is that point in the slog of any project that can not be formally taught, and needs to be experienced. This is the point where the less confident throw it in and give up and those who believe in their ideas push through. Seth Godin refers to this as “The Dip”. I refer to it as “the time to believe in yourself”.
“I can’t do this”
When you solely are responsible to conceive a product and work through all the materials, it gets lonely. Without someone else right in your head, we naturally get frustrated. While in the program students are doing ALL of the work on their own (or in pairs) so they can see how things fit together, in a well-established studio, there are other people with different specializations to lean on. However, even with that structure, as the lead Strategist or Producer, one still has to be the puzzle master – and that is overwhelming.
The trick to getting past this thought is reminding yourself of what you can do – make sure what you can do absolutely shines. As long as you master that key piece, you can sell people on your knowns, as in industry, you’d find others to help you with your weaknesses.
“My idea can never work”
We always eventually doubt our ideas because we think this because we spend so much of our time looking at the product landscape and evaluate why what’s on the market doesn’t serve the purpose of what we want, or there is nothing on the market like this idea.
At the start of a project, those are invigorating realizations – that’s why we picked these ideas in the first place! But always at the mid-point we question the validity of our idea. As Godin suggests, this is often the worst place to just quit. You’re deep already, working out how the idea could work is that step to getting out of the slog.
“I still don’t know everything”
The key to succcess as a professional in interactive digital media is to come to terms with the fact you can’t know everything. This is a difficult concept for students to grasp. Not the fault of students, but the fault of the entire education system before they enter the IDM program. From kindergarten to grade 12, the focus is on memorization and regurgitation of things. Then they moved into undergraduate studies and again students are faced with doing exactly as the prof says because it’s a huge class so clearly defined benchmarks need to be outlined, which makes it difficult to encourage exploration and creativity. It makes entering a post-graduate program for skills in a nebulous industry where there is no official “right” way, and it’s a tough adjustment. Suddenly things are rarely “right” or “wrong”, but how well an approach is positioned, how well a case is made. All work goes from being a clearly defined path of steps where you must know steps 1-10 before doing anything and into how well you can demonstrate thought behind the narrative of a concept after working through as many steps as possible.
Course work becomes more about coaching through the thinking and how best to outline and share those thoughts through documentation, and less about the one way that it must be done. Visual thinkers are drawn to UX design to communicate their ideas and struggle with interface copy and content considerations. Word thinkers are drawn to the use case, the story, and all the formal organizational bits, but struggle with planning a layout. And in reality, nearly everyone struggles with what tech would be used (unless a technical thinker), or budgets and schedules (unless a project manager-minded), let alone what the business model and business plan is and how success is measured (unless an analytical thinker). So to have all of that going on all at once, it’s natural to suddenly feel unprepared or pass the blame around.
We are socialized since we are young to believe the world must be perfect and happy and we must all meet some crazy definition of perfection. The fun part of interactive digital media is the iterative nature, the ability to change and adapt to trends and audience needs. That we aren’t locked into everything in a way that other forms of media creation and communications are. We cannot master it all. And we cannot know everything. Period.
The magic of interactive digital media is about getting past the fear, being confident in what is known, and being comfortable with what is still uncertain.
Sample Job Posting: Project Manager (Digital Operations) at a television broadcaster
Students, both current and prospective often try to visualize what opportunities are at the “finish-line” of a program as they plan a career path.
The “Sample Job Post” series is a collection of IDM-related job posts from a variety of company types. Posts are “tagged” by seniority level. These are being shared not as “you will be guaranteed these types of jobs”, but rather “these are the types of jobs out there” to help you plan your career trajectory, skill specializations, and to aid in the organization of your resume/CV.
The series will be added to on an ongoing basis.
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Job Description
As Project Manager for Digital Operations, you will assemble and lead a project team in a matrix environment. You will ensure end users’ goals and broadcaster’s objectives are met. You will oversee all stages of the project life cycle. You will work closely with Account and Product Managers to ensure that projects are completed within the context of Product and Platform Roadmaps, and that resourcing is done based on capacity planning that is worked out for those roadmaps.
- University degree or equivalent.
- Minimum 3 years experience in project management and implementation.
- Experience using Agile concepts.
- Must have knowledge of digital platforms and an understanding of how people use it.
- Must have experience in facilitating the delivery of online interactive production for a broadband audience base with initiatives related to online video, social media tools and mobile-friendly web/native app development.
- Extensive and detailed knowledge of internet and/or software development technologies.
- Working knowledge of enterprise web server hardware platforms and configurations.
- Strong communication skills (verbal and written).
- Advanced negotiation and consensus-building skills, tact and diplomacy.
- Experience in developing search applications is considered an asset
- PMP certification is considered an asset
Sample Job Posting: Senior Web Coordinator for a national news portal
Students, both current and prospective often try to visualize what opportunities are at the “finish-line” of a program as they plan a career path.
The “Sample Job Post” series is a collection of IDM-related job posts from a variety of company types. Posts are “tagged” by seniority level. These are being shared not as “you will be guaranteed these types of jobs”, but rather “these are the types of jobs out there” to help you plan your career trajectory, skill specializations, and to aid in the organization of your resume/CV.
The series will be added to on an ongoing basis.
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Job Description
Our news team is currently seeking a Senior Web Coordinator, the first posting of its kind on this dynamic team. This position reports directly into the Senior Producer of the news portal.
The Senior Web Coordinator will be responsible for creating and coordinating weather coverage for the news portal and various sections and sub-sites across Canada. The successful candidate will be expected to produce compelling web and multi-platform content, including text-based, video and interactive online features. She or he will also be expected to work under pressure in breaking news situations. The incumbent will assist the Senior Producer in reaching traffic goals, increasing user engagement, and building relationships with a variety of key internal stakeholders, including web developers and programmers, digital project management teams, and usability experts.
ACCOUNTABILITIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
As a Senior Web Coordinator, the following is an outline of some but not all of the primary functions and responsibilities for this position:
X Create compelling and original multi-media web content, including breaking news, live-blogging, long-form written features, photo and video-based features, and interactive features;
X Plan, produce and present dynamic, personality-driven, informative weather online using a sophisticated graphics system;
X Work well under pressure and respond quickly and knowledgably to breaking news;
X Develop creative new, dynamic storytelling graphics for the web on an ongoing basis;
X Engage audiences by writing and producing web, text and social-media versions of content;
X Take part in editorial planning meetings on a regular basis;
X Work directly with other News personnel to coordinate market leading online coverage;
X Assist the Community Manager with the development of online communities;
X Explore new methods of converging online and TV content to create a seamless experience for the audience;
X Enthusiasm and passion for all forms of news including local, national and international weather, climate, environmental, science and technology news;
X Strong interpersonal and communication skills and experience working with internal and external stakeholders;
X Participate in corporate promotional activities from time to time.
QUALIFICATIONS:
The successful candidate will possess the following qualifications:
X College or university degree (or equivalent experience), preferably in Journalism, New Media, or Communications.
X An expertise in and passion for online journalism;
X Experience working in broadcast news, and in a digital newsroom environment, is an asset;
X Working knowledge of multimedia tools, including Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, and a familiarity with HTML, Flash and Javascript.
Sample Job Description: Content Marketing Strategist
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Job Description
We are looking for a full-time Content Marketing Strategist to lead content creation and inbound marketing for business-to-business and developer-to-developer communications.
You:
- Are a born storyteller. You can research materials, interview people, find ideas and filter extra information to craft a great story no matter how technical the subject.
- Find stories where others miss them. You’re determined and can dig deep to find the story no matter how deeply it’s buried.
- Know the web: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Quora and more. You have practical experience using these tools for marketing purposes. You know what Reddit is and may even have an account.
- Are results-driven and comfortable using Google Analytics, keyword research, statistics and analysis to understand how to tell both personality and data-driven stories.
- Can turn technical content into a clear and compelling message that delivers the meaning people need.
- Know enough HTML to be dangerous and troubleshoot a blog post, embed a social widget or fix a formatting issue. The more HTML/CSS chops the better!
- Work across media types: written, visual, video and whatever else comes along.
- Have a minimum of 3 years professional experience and a portfolio of work to showcase your exception writing and content creation skills.
Responsibilities:
- Create and execute content inbound marketing programs including writing copy, editing copy, researching story ideas, creating presentations, generating story ideas and running with existing story ideas.
- Research and report on internal technical and business stories at our company to the wider world as well as reporting on external stories to the wider world.
- Analyze the efficacy of existing traffic acquisition channels and seek new traffic acquisition opportunities — closing the feedback loops to learn what works.
- Optimize content for on-site conversions of visitors to qualified leads through metrics, A/B testing, content testing and usability analysis.
- Optimize content for traffic acquisition through search engines, social media, referrals and links.
- Contribute to our email newsletters that reaches over 40,000 customers, designers and developers.
- Support PR and Media efforts as required.
- Write and create content on a daily basis. Did we mention writing? Writing is a huge part of this job — emails, e-books, newsletters, blog posts, case studies, announcements, even the occasional press release.
Sample Job Posting: Director of Digital Media for an independent radio station
Students, both current and prospective often try to visualize what opportunities are at the “finish-line” of a program as they plan a career path.
The “Sample Job Post” series is a collection of IDM-related job posts from a variety of company types. Posts are “tagged” by seniority level. These are being shared not as “you will be guaranteed these types of jobs”, but rather “these are the types of jobs out there” to help you plan your career trajectory, skill specializations, and to aid in the organization of your resume/CV.
The series will be added to on an ongoing basis.
——
Job Description
What would you do with a blank slate?
We’re a new independent radio station and we would like you to help us mould the future of radio by joining us our first-ever Director of Digital Media.
WHAT WE WANT YOU TO DO
As an integral part of the leadership team, you will own the task of setting the overall direction of our digital media unit and will lead the successful execution of the strategy. You will also oversee the development and management of our social media platforms, mobile apps, and websites.
In order to achieve success, you’ll be working collaboratively with a cross-functional team, and marshalling resources from across the organization to aggregate and post content to our websites and social media platforms.
You will be building our online brand from the ground up from planning to development, right though launch. Are you up for the challenge?
Desired Skills & Experience
WHY WE’LL LOVE YOU
You’re hungry for an active role in the digital media revolution. You’re curious, and are constantly thinking about the changing world, and you have the ability to turn big ideas into actionable outputs.
You’re obsessed with consistency and you pay close attention to detail.
You can demonstrate industry leading creativity and thought leadership. You’ll show us that you’re up-to-date on current web trends and technologies and will be able to demonstrate related work experience and expertise in project management.
You will also possess excellent writing and editing skills, with the ability to write lively, witty, intelligent copy.
We’re inventing as we go along, so we need people with an innovative, “start-up” mindset, who are flexible and work well with others.
And it goes without saying that you’ll love music, movies, TV shows, and pop culture!
SKILLS WE WOULD LIKE YOU TO HAVE
- Comparable and relevant experience in online publishing, web development, user-generated content, interactive games, SEO, and/or social media
- Ability to write strategy and champion the flawlessly execution of that strategy
- Excellent organizational skills
- Incredibly detail oriented
- Experience working in a small, dynamic startup environments would be an asset
- Creativity, flexibility and the ability to multitask
- Excellent writing, communication and interpersonal skills.
