- Has been in the web industry for around 20 years and has been independant the whole time.
- Studied Furniture design at Art College.
- In 1992 - went to Plymouth University to do a Sandwich course in a arts based multimedia degree.
- During 1 year out of univeristy - worked for 8 different companies making CD Roms, during that time he made a lot of contacts in the industry.
- Never used or was part of an agency (which he is proud to say), he got all of his work using Word of Mouth.
- Downside with web 20 years ago was that there was a restricted colour palette.
- Compu-serve - an online private network (file sharing communities)
- Learnt HTML on the job, however college did teach him that it is better to be both a developer and designer mainly for awareness of each of the different aspects of the industry.
- Learnt - PHP coding and HTML/CSS to get into what he wanted.
What Ian does
- Mainly does - touch screen/mobile/web/interactive work.
- His job title in constantly changing, especially over the past 10 years to keep up with the times and to best describe what he does easily.
Will make money in London NOT in Brighton!!
Tailoring Talk from Ian about what to do after uni
- Look at Cogapp/Simantical/Epic to possibly do internships for.
- Project Management - will possibly be the best option for me.
- Blast Theory - is an arty farty bunch in portslade.
- Other possible companies to look at - Clear Left (which is a user experience company in Brighton).
- It is better to do both designing and coding.
CVs
- Tailor your CV to the job you are applying for.
- Be specific about thing, don't beat around the bush.
- Only relevant information
- SPELL CHECK EVERYTHING!!!
- Does it communicate everything you want.
- Follow up CV with a phone call to find out if they received it or if they are interested.
- Use persistance.
Tips
- University - Trains the way you think
- Applying for work - they want to know what you have done, not what your hobbies are!
- Know everything about the company you are applying for - recent clients/jobs etc
- Ask your contact to see what they tink of a piece of work you have done.
Ian was really helpful from a freelance point of view, however, for me I would prefer to work within an agency, but all of the advise that Ian gave about what to put in our CVs and the tips about what jobs to look for and how we think was very interesting.
However I would say that the only issues was that his comment about there not being any money in Brighton and only in London, I would disagree with that statement as there are many successful companies that have shown that is not the case.
