Trial by Fire
The importance of learning on the job
As a student in my last year of university, with jobs hard come by and housing prices higher than ever, the thought of graduating and becoming a functioning member of society was daunting to say the least. But somehow, I managed to get my foot in the door of the industry of my dreams.
I started working for Secret Location about seven months ago, after having spent many hours skipping classes to attend cool events around the city that focussed on virtual reality. As a kid, I grew up with trackballs, headsets, and whatever quirky tech I could get my hands on, so the promise of VR had me intrigued to say the least. Now 21 and living in downtown Toronto, I felt like I was in the epicenter of innovation, and I made it my mission to learn as much as I could about what was up and coming in the world of technology.
It wasn’t long before I set my sights on Secret Location, who had been known around the city as being one of the few digital agencies who seemed not only to know how to produce and sell VR, but how to do it well. After cornering the creative director at an industry event and persuading him to take a copy of my resume, I found myself with an interview.
Today I look back on that moment, remembering my nerves and wondering just how practical my university education would be in the real world. I remember preparing myself for the sheer amount of knowledge that I was about to cram into my brain in order to try and fit into an industry that I hardly knew. But technology is an industry that moves and evolves so quickly that everyone at some point goes through a trial by fire.
It’s our job to deliver using methods that probably haven’t been perfected, and likely haven’t even been invented yet.
Experience is hard to come by with tech that is so new; Our partners will ask for something and it’s our job to deliver using methods that probably haven’t been perfected, and likely haven’t even been invented yet. In six months on the job, I’d learned more about different types of software, cameras, and problem solving than school had ever taught me. Stitching 360 video, properly setting up and filming mixed reality green screen video shoots, and compositing weren’t necessary teaching objectives at the time, but that I can now do on a regular basis.
As someone who does love learning, and is borderline nosy when it comes to knowing about the goings on around the office, I found myself sitting in on many meetings that I’d decided to invite myself to (I take an open door policy very literally). Watching other people work helped me to pick up new techniques to use in my own projects, as well as helped to keep me informed on the various projects around the office. The broad range of mediums and platforms that are dealt with in a day at the office meant that I was quickly introduced to motionography, video game development, stitching, web development, app development and more. Did I have prior knowledge of these things prior to working here? No. But everyone has to start somewhere, and in technology, a willingness to dive right in and try new things is mandatory.
Creating is complicated, but boundaries don’t get broken when you’re constantly afraid of failure.
Of course, there is a chance that you will royally mess up and waste some time and resources, but you learn from mistakes and move forward. We experiment every day at SL in order to create better workflows and methods of storytelling. The best thing about it is the general feeling of wanting to learn and share knowledge in order to build an even better skillset. Everyone at SL has different experiences, but everyone is willing to put forth ideas. Creating is complicated, but boundaries don’t get broken when you’re constantly afraid of failure.
In order to focus on learning for work, it became increasingly difficult to balance doing the same for school. I continued to be a full time student when I started working at SL part time, and learning how to maintain the two was difficult. Learning to apologize when you mess up or miss a deadline I found essential in times like this. Luckily, people can be pretty understanding as long as you don’t let sloppy work become standard.
I threw myself into an environment that I hardly knew, and now I’m working my dream job and learning every day. It’s important to acknowledge those trial by fire moments and do everything that you can to get everything you possibly can from them. You never know what’s going to happen, or what sort of things you may help to create.
