I need help figuring out where I will fit in the job market after I complete a 1 year certificate in Multimedia arts. the course covers Adobe, color theory, typography, motion graphics and video editing. When I look at job listings there is no position titled “multimedia artist” and a lot of positions want degrees instead of certificates. This is a total reboot for me. I am trying to get funding from vocational rehab in my state, and they have asked me to show them there are jobs that the need the multimedia arts background. Willing to freelance but that won’t cut it withe voc. rehab office,
Hi, I just replied to your intro thread. I’m not familiar with the term multimedia arts, but that could be because it’s not a common term in my country. What does the course prospectus tell you about the job prospects? I feel that one year isn’t long enough to be trained in graphic design, especially if you’re learning things like motion and video editing as well.
I wouldn’t recommend freelancing before at least a 5 years full time experience. Contrary to popular belief, freelancing is harder than a full time job. Not only do you need to be 100% confident in your skills (no boss, senior designer or mentor to guide you) but you also need to add sales, accounts and marketing to your every day skills.
I recently hired a junior level UX/UI designer with a background in multimedia. They have a degree, but I expect that you would be looking for UI or product design type of positions.
Are you located in the U.S.? Most job openings do require a degree, unfortunately. A lot them either use text recognition scanners to look for those degree letters (and trash the ones that don’t, so a human never even sees your resume, much less your work) or they have an HR person look through and do the same. Our industry is heavily saturated, so employers usually have a lot of candidates to choose from. So weeding out non-degreed applicants doesn’t limit their choices. It is possible to get a job without a degree, but difficult. You will also be competing with other hungry designers who do have degrees. Employers and HR generally don’t realize that a degree doesn’t always equal a certain level of knowledge and expertise.
Freelancing is not something I recommend for new designers. This may differ in the motion graphics/video editing world. Graphic design is an ever-learning field, ever-changing and advancing. To seriously freelance, you need to be able to run a small business (all aspects of it) and confidently complete whatever jobs you take. You don’t freelance to get experience, you don’t practice on paying clients.
I think your certificate course is a good start, but try to get a degree if you can. You can start with a two-year associates if that would fit better for you.
While I had a pretty good idea what multimedia artists are, I still had to look it up before replying.
Unless you already have the skills, and are just taking the course for the certificate, a one year course of study is probably not going to be enough. You can’t possibly learn how to become a skilled artist in that field from scratch in one year.
When you say the course covers Adobe, that isn’t descriptive enough. Did you learn Premiere? After Effects? Dimension? Animate? Audition? Prelude? Or just Illustrator and Photoshop? You could spend a full year learning to use Adobe Photoshop and only scratch the surface, let alone become proficient with it.
Since the field has been experiencing a growth spurt with all the new media now online, it might be possible to land a position but you would have to have a stellar portfolio, a demonstrated skill set, a total awareness of pressure driven deadlines, and possibly already have to know someone who could put their foot in the door for you. You would have to look in some off-the-wall places who may be more willing to risk taking on the right person without all the necessary requirements. That’s probably going to be few and far between. While a college degree also doesn’t necessarily mean proficiency either, that seems to be the median cut-off these days on the job requirements posted out there.
Is there a reason you are selecting a graphic arts program as your voc-rehab? Is it close to your original job skillset or something completely different? Is it because you are looking for something where you can work from home? The reasons behind your job change aren’t my business, but if you are looking at graphic arts because it seems “fun” or “easy,” those would be the wrong reasons.
Sorry if that sounds bleak. Your Voc-rehab office wants you to be able to make at least a living wage. Demonstrating there is a need for your chosen new vocation is considered to be in your best interests, and theirs as far as the tuition funds layout is concerned.
Thank You,
Your reply and others in this forum were full of good info. I’m including the link to the course I would like to take, so you can have a more detailed description.
Thanks, I have been thinking about ui/ux and I would have to read up on product design. I became interested in the multimedia course because it seems more well rounded than the courses that focus only on a program or suite or one type of coding.
They need to update their software and hardware requirements. CS5 or 6 are both about 5 versions old. Firewire is pretty much dead.
Other than that, they are cramming a lot of expectations into a single year. Do you have any graphic design abilities now? Because, this looks like a course one would take in order to specialize, after a 4 year study of graphic design or communication arts. As a stand-alone certificate with no degree, as ambitious as it sounds, I still can’t see it upping your chances of finding employment.
My office has someone with a job title of “multimedia specialist.” He mostly does videography.
I became interested in the multimedia course because it seems more well rounded than the courses that focus only on a program or suite or one type of coding.
I’m not fond of the term well rounded when it comes to vocation. I mean, it’s OK to be a well rounded graphic designer, but a well rounded artist? That’s too close to having basic knowledge of everything and not single professional idea of how to do anything.
I looked at the course info and it looks fine for a foundation course. Unsure if you will get a GD or video editing job when you graduate from it though.
“Jack of all trades, master of none.”
I did call the school about their hardware and software requirements and
they said they were just minimums. But updating would be nice.
"I’m not fond of the term well rounded"
Thanks, since I’ve gotten feedback from the forum I’ve been thinking about
a different approach. I guess you’re saying a laser focus on a particular
software or component of multimedia is better than a generalized approach.
Please refrain from adding links to your post. Unless you are linking to your portfolio, advertising is not allowed. Feel free to read through the rules here.
It’s my email signature and it’s a non profitt
@ef93 this forum doesn’t have a section for signatures. So by posting the exact same thing on each post the software is going to pick up as spam and will boot you off. So I’ve removed it. Hope you understand 
Also if you have a portfolio you would like to post feel free to post here
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No not at all, I think focused education on just graphic design (including 4+ graphic design software) would be better. It’s big enough to keep you busy for 4 years.
Bear in mind here guys, the OP is going for retraining and may not be at all interested in Graphic Design as this 1-year course seems to be more video oriented.
EF93, Laser focus may not be the answer either. I don’t think you will get any more traction, and probably even less, if you do a one-year cert on just one piece of software.
What is your end goal? And what do you need to do to get there successfully? Those are the questions you need to be asking.
I got it. I think I got it now. I think I am mixing a couple of different fields in my head. Like Graphic design and multimedia and where they both meet tech. But, so far everyone who has responded has give me great feedback.
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UI or UX design might fit that description better. I don’t have a lot of experience with that field other than working on projects with designers who focus on interactive media like educational “video games” used in experiential museums (think science museums, history museums, aquariums, etc.) or with interactive informational kiosks far beyond the bank ATM.