Communications In Multimedia

--SmItHy--

Hi,
I've recently accepted a CAO offer to DKIT for this course after dropping out of a hateful course in DCU(computer applications). I'm just looking for a bit of feedback on the course and a little bit about the job prospects after the course?. I understand that the IT sector in Ireland is booming but does this course provide an opening into this sector?. What can you specialise in from this course. I do plan on taking the extra 4th year to upgrade the level 7 degree to a level 8.
Thanks for any information and I'm sure there are others who will also benefit from it.

DkIT_Computing

Communications & Multimedia isn't an IT degree (it'll open up an avenue into web design, but not computing in general). Creative Media students will be better able to give you an idea of what kind of job you can get from the Communications & Multimedia degree, but a selection of suggestions from the prospectus include:

• Graphic Design
• Interactive Design
• Web Design
• Multimedia Production
• Project Management
• Media Research

The degree is about communications, and uses technology to achieve its aims, so you study how to use computers and not how to programme them. You'll take courses like photography, film studies, video production & digital editing, as well as a variety of courses on the media and its impact. It covers a lot of different areas and it can be really interesting if you want to get into the media side of things.

You mentioned that the IT sector is booming, and you're right, so if you're looking to get into that sector, don't take a multimedia course. However, you need to assess what made you leave CA before deciding what course is right for you, because if you don't enjoy IT, perhaps you need to re-think wanting into that sector.

If you do like computing and it was just that CA didn't teach in the way you wanted, or didn't cover the topics you're interested in, then DkIT does have a computing level 7 course that you might consider. DK721 is the common entry into Computing, where you take general topics for a year and then specialise. It's set up the way CA used to be, where you can choose your area of focus after getting a taste of the field, which allows you to make an informed decision and not just guess that you like programming, networking etc.

im...LOST

I'm just done with my 4 years of this course. Absolutely loved my time there.

Now, I'm a gig/music photographer who does web design, video editing and can make Flash games in his spare time. (...... if you're interested)

Quite a broad scope gets covered in the course which I think is a great thing!

damned_junkie

Hey Smithy,

I'm a graduate of that course, actually the first year that it was upgraded to an Hons degree.

You are right that it is a very broad course but it comes down much more on the communications and creativity side of things than on the technical side. You will learn some technical skills but not enough to walk into an IT job on graduation.

That said, by the time I graduated from the course I had learnt that I was really much stronger on the technical side of things than on the creative side. I then went on to do a post graduate diploma in IT part-time which I obviously couldn't have done without that undergrad degree.

Both before and during my post-grad I worked in technical roles in small web development houses, thought myself a lot of required skills, bluffed and blagged a bit and I'm now very much an IT professional. I now work as a senior dev in rather well known online media company. All of my peers are IT graduates.

The upshot of this is that if you're the type of person who still feels unsure what they want to do and wants to get something akin to an arts degree but with possibilities to branch into a more technical subject it's not a bad path to follow. You'll probably need to be capable of self directed learning if you want to pursue the IT angle and a general interest in IT would be useful too, I had mucked around in BASIC as a teenager and assembled my own PCs so I was already reasonably tech-savvy before I did the course. Also in my time the level of technical knowledge in the faculty was pretty poor so you were often on your own when it came to figuring out programming problems in projects. That may have improved dramatically since my time as it was already improving when I graduated

As to the content of the course itself, it's brilliantly broad. I remember going from a databases class to a philosophy class to a painting class and thinking it was all a bit weird but in retrospect it's exactly what I needed to do. After awhile I learnt what I was good at and what I enjoyed and that allowed me to choose a career path that suited me. If I'd known that I wanted to be a dev I'd have done CompSci from the start and be 3-4 years ahead in my career now. However I honestly doubt that I could ever have finished any IT course without the experience gained from taking Comms and Multimedia.

That's my two cents anyway! Best of luck with it.