Multi-Media Programs and Careers

Multi-Media: Using Everything but Your Fist

James Bond isn’t your common secret agent. He has a laser on his watch, missiles in his car, a gun in his pocket, and if none of those work he has a killer punch wound up and ready to go. Multi-media professionals have a similar strategy. They hit you from all directions with many different mediums whether it be written text, movies, graphics, animation, art and more. Basically, with everything but their fists.

Multimedia Career Outlook

With social media booming, businesses are looking for multi-media professionals to help them ride the wave. The great thing about social media is that it combines so many different types of media. Videos, pictures, and comments are easy to post and see, providing easy exposure for many organizations. Articles are easy to find, news is everywhere, and so is almost any other media. How could a multi-media professional not be excited about the future?

This industry is considered so important for the future that it is a topic of much multi-media research at universities and research organizations.

Additional Skills That Will Help You Get a Job:

Work to get a great portfolio: The saying goes that talk is cheap. It is easy to say that you have tons of experience, or that you are especially good in a certain form of media. But for multi-media professionals, potential employers can simply look at portfolios to see how talented you are. It helps to have lots of quality work in various fields, like photography, advertising, computer design, logos,videos, and any other type of media. Try to show how multi-faceted you are with your portfolio.

Where you live matters: Big cities like Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago seem to have the highest concentration of multimedia jobs and professionals. California, New York and Oregon are the top paying states for those in this field, and Hawaii also employs many multimedia professionals.

Know current Technology: Be up to date in everything from social media to smart phones to new companies.

Multi-Media Salary Forecast

The highest paid multimedia professionals work in the motion picture and video industries. Their average yearly earnings are $72,000. Technical industries, along with software industries also tend to pay their multimedia teams quite a bit.

Advertising and Public Relations hire a large number of multimedia professionals. Their average salaries at these places are $58,000 a year.

The demand for good multimedia professionals is so great in so many different fields that many people have decided to take the freelance route. They obtain work on their own and complete whatever it may be that their employer needs. Freelancers understandably must start small, as they have little credibility, but being young has its advantages. Young people tend to be naturally more familiar with new media, having grown up with it, so if they can show people they have the skills necessary, age shouldn’t make a huge difference.

Multi-Media Education and Skill Requirements

As mentioned above, good multi-media professionals will have expertise in many fields, just as their name implies. By nature of simply being a multi-media professional, you are quite marketable, or should be. You should be able to walk up to any interview confident that you can provide whatever media content they want, given the proper tools and information.

A bachelor’s degree is generally required. Understanding various design programs takes time and training, which a good university will provide. Often times recent graduates will get their foot in the door at companies simply because they are experts in a specific design program. These companies have very specific needs. Say, for example, that a company wants to tap into the YouTube market. They would most likely be looking for someone with more experience in videos and editing.

If you enter this field, know media.