Career prospects following a B Media at macq. (1 Viewer)

[=)lisa]

heyhey.

few questions.

what do you all think/know about career prospects following a B of Media?

From a few people ive heard media is a very competitive market to get into, and hence makes it harder to find a job. Those who love the degree say they are willing to persist till they find a job, hwoever im not sure how passionate i am compared to them.

This looks like a great course, and i reckon i will end up doing it, but i just cant help feeling that i might be wasting my time doing it if the job prospects are so limited.

My other question is, what are the career paths it can lead you onto? I know thats a broad question, but say either majoring in screen production or multimedia?.

I dont want to be a journo, and from my understanding macq isnt the place anyway. But id love to get into radio or television or something.

What would you be doing in the job though?

Sorry if this is all really broad, but i think its what is going to help me narrow it down in the end.

Any other additional comments about the course would be appreciated too


thanks in advance.
xox

 

[AsyLum]

Now, having just come out of a B Media in Multimedia, I can tell you now that the degree will give you a grounding in both coding/practical aspects as well as theory, with a little more lean towards theory. Universities are places of learning and research, rather than vocational learning institutions, but having said that, if you are looking for more practical approaches, you may want to try UNSW's COFA or UTS with their Visual Communication.

However, being a sufficient code monkey will not guarantee you a job, though it will open up opportunities for production positions, it is still up to you to produce works, get in touch with the relevant companies and apply and get 'published' so to speak. Someone in the media who does not have a portfolio is usually not employed, the biggest point will be your ability to sell yourself, followed by experience.

I would suggest you not think about job prospects as the major thing going into a university course/degree, it simply doesn't work that way. Particularly with something like Media/Communications, there isn't a definite position you go into, unlike say accounting or law.

The range of opportunities and jobs is really up to you, as I've stated, experience, getting published and your own self-promotion are the keys to getting jobs, not what degree or which university you come from. Just from the range of friends who have graduated they've landed from Public Relations, to Marketing, to Web Design, to Commercial Radio.

The biggest 'advantage' I think that Macquarie has, is its flexibility. (I say advantage because inversely it is also our weakest point as I'll explain later) You only have a few compulsory units per year, so you're free to take subjects from across the university such as taking up a language, history, philosophy, sociology, cultural studies, music, education, marketing and a host of others (the only exceptions being subjects which require you to be enrolled in them such as law, business, accounting, psychology). I have done subjects in all but education and marketing from the above, had an internship at Yahoo7 and am now employed as a web developer for MQ University while completing my Media Honours thesis this year.

I said its also our weak point, as I mentioned above this is due to the fact that we aren't as 'vocational' as other universities. This is not a fault of the convenors of the course however, as they are willing to teach you above and beyond what is set out, but its a fault of the system (something which is slowly changing!). If you don't want to push yourself, you will get the bare basics of web design, Flash, and maybe some PHP/Javascript/CSS. If you want to push yourself however, you can learn how to build a platform game engine in Flash (twice if you're crazy....haha >.>) create database driven web applications, or anything which you think might be interesting or substantial.

So yeah, I know its a bit long and sprawling, but I hope that some of that has helped. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions

 

[hayley5]

OMG THANKS SO MUCH ASYLUM

i dont think b media is for me.

 

[=)lisa]

ahh i totally forgot to reply to this thread. LOL.
yeah thanks so so so much asylum.
i still cant decide

 

[PIFKIE]

Actually, there is no BMedia Multimedia anymore either.

So AsyLum what do you think about the new degree BA Media and do you think that the new Venue will make any diffeence to the teaching and the anount of practical work the students can undertake?

 

[AsyLum]

Actually, there is no BMedia Multimedia anymore either.

So AsyLum what do you think about the new degree BA Media and do you think that the new Venue will make any diffeence to the teaching and the anount of practical work the students can undertake?

This thread was 2 years ago....

As for the new media degree, I think it offers great flexibility while allowing you to complete the necessary practical units to major in either 1 or a variety of them. The new building is great, the new leadership enhances the feeling of a collective and inter-displicinary ventures, so yes I think it is a step in the right direction.

If you want nothing but the vocational skills, then go to a college, a uni degree is not that.

 

[russs]

heyhey.

few questions.

what do you all think/know about career prospects following a B of Media?

From a few people ive heard media is a very competitive market to get into, and hence makes it harder to find a job. Those who love the degree say they are willing to persist till they find a job, hwoever im not sure how passionate i am compared to them.

This looks like a great course, and i reckon i will end up doing it, but i just cant help feeling that i might be wasting my time doing it if the job prospects are so limited.

My other question is, what are the career paths it can lead you onto? I know thats a broad question, but say either majoring in screen production or multimedia?.

I dont want to be a journo, and from my understanding macq isnt the place anyway. But id love to get into radio or television or something.

What would you be doing in the job though?

Sorry if this is all really broad, but i think its what is going to help me narrow it down in the end.

Any other additional comments about the course would be appreciated too


thanks in advance.
xox

I work in the media industry (magazine publishing) and I can tell you from experience media ion the real world requires a lot of marketing and the skills needed to communicate with advertisers and such. My job involves selling to advertisers and nearly every person I know who is in the media business is somehow involved in this.

The things you learn in courses like 1st level MAS units are useless in the real media industry - discussions about "media convergence" has no applications. If you are learning something very narrow, like screen production /or journalism - there is a whole waiting list of people who want those exclusive jobs. Writers, etc have it extremely tough in the real world.

Not to discourage you, but job prospects in the media industry are rough unless you are good in sales / or you are extremely good at what you do.

P.S just realized this is an ancient thread. Well, future media students can use this advice.