How difficult is university?

In my opinion it’s rather easy, I found it easier that Sixth Form and so did many of my peers. Yet why are there still people that drop out and find it too difficult? There are some environmental and external factors that can lead to university getting to difficult. But its often because the student doesn't have a passion for the subject. I honestly don’t think intellect isn't an issue for most courses. Even think back to your own experience, the rather obvious correlation between the subjects you enjoy and the higher grades you got for them. The average Joe can get a degree if there passionate, though the smarter you are the wider subject areas you can take to the extent that a genius can get a degree in any subject area.

It will be difficult in pulses if you don’t plan. It’s not impossible, though you’re generally going to find it harder if you leave everything until the last minute. A good friend of mine who got a 1:1 would often leave things until the last minute. Literally uploading it seconds before it’s due in. It’s how he worked. It’s actually how I worked for a large time at university. I enjoy having that adrenaline rush before a deadline and I could easily stay up all night on an assignment. Although I also had a friend that’d do his coursework months before it was due. He’d panic if deadline got shortened and things like group assignments would be a little more stressful as everyone isn't normally like that. You usually find a good middle ground by the time you finish. Like I planned and scheduled my work. So I'll get that same adrenaline rush based on my own deadline which is due before the actual deadline giving time for any issues.  

To conclude if you enjoy a subject and think a degree would benefit you, do it. You’ll have some hard times, but that’s a part of the experience. I love doing what I do, I’ll happily read and watch related videos for hours on end. Please keep into consideration that your passion can change. I know people that no longer want to work in the field. University gave them experience on what they’d be doing in industry and they’d rather keep it as a stress free hobby, don't let that detour you as some are studying a different field for their master degree.

Graduation and what’s next?

Next week is graduation day and generally the last time I'll see and speak to most of my peers and lecturers. Though I can imagine I’ll keep in contact with a 10 or so, it’s realistically the last time you’ll see everyone together. People move back home in most cases around the country and in some cases back to their home country.  It’s a great opportunity to reminisce and socialise although I personally won’t be attending mine because of costs.

I think this time tells a lot about a student. Speaking to quite a lot of my peers almost all of them haven’t even opened 3Ds Max (Main program we used for uni) and I think it clearly shows those who were actually passionate about the course and their career. At the moment my timetable is 10 hours’ 3Ds Max a day, 6 days a week. I'm planning to give my portfolio a huge boost with my skills in the next few weeks.

I enjoy doing it and sometimes in my assigned breaks I’ll be still working on projects. Though in the meantime I've been accepted to 3 different scholarships at 2 different universities. This means if I decided that industry isn't right for me at the moment then I’ll carry on with education.

I think the perfect job for me would to be working in a small 3D animation studio and I think I'm ready for that. I’ll polish up my portfolio in the next few weeks and be sending it to a certain few companies that’d love to work at.

I think this applies to any computer science course, work on your portfolio. It’s 100% your portfolio that counts. Your degree will only matter when being compared to someone who doesn't have one. 

Bedfordshire win second place!

A team from the University of Bedfordshire won runners up for Mobile at Brains Eden in Cambridge last weekend. 5 Students from different courses and different years in the Computer science department took part in the 48 hour hackathon.

Image from @andra_ivanescu on twitter.

The event was one of the biggest hackathons I’ve been to, there was teams from all over the world there. Spain, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and even Canada. The team consisted of Sean McGee (me), Bogdan Predescu, Liam Griffiths, Robert McGreal and Mathew Kaye.

The theme this year was “Unequal” and the game we designed was a medieval themed tilt game where you had to attack a castle while keeping the island even as all enemies would slide off.

We all won tablets for coming runners up and the first prize was a team from the Netherlands who again won tablets. The game will hopefully be published on android, iOS and windows market place soon. We are happy where we placed and considering the time taken we made a very polished and complete game. The competition was extremely good, almost every game we tried was unique and generally visually stunning.

Link to the game

http://it-ca.net/CastleTilt/Webplayer.html

I think the game turned out very well, considering the hackathon was 48 hours & only that time for those who brought there own laptops! We was stuck in a very hot room, 1 monitor and on macintoshes prone to over heating and made life difficult for us. We had an amazing outcome and are really happy with second place! A team from the Netherlands came first, we played there game during the gallery showcase and was great fun!

UPDATE: I also create a similar blog post which got featured on Microsoft.com! For those who wanted more information on it.

Is university worth it?

I’d hate to be you right now. No offence, but going to university is a much harder decision now for sixth form/college students who are thinking of applying. The fees are up, competition is hard and scary statistics of graduates not finding jobs.

It’s hard for anyone to find a job at the moment and I’ve recently been researching on companies and how they accept people. They will automatically not hire someone who’s got a perfect CV/portfolio but turns up with a suit on and not wearing a watch… At least having a degree on that CV will at least hopefully tick the box to get the interview in the firs place.  

This is for most aspects of computer science, I’ve seen programming jobs for graduates. With requirements like “Good with C#, Java, C++, AS3, HTML 5, Python, Maxscript, Unity, 3Ds Max, Maya, good word/excel skills and can sketch well”. Now, I’m not a programmer, but it must be frustrating applying for such vague job descriptions. I think it’s probably rare to find anyone who is fluid with all of these languages at graduate stage. Almost every job I’ve seen requires a degree and a good one at that. Though there are routes you can take with internships and personal portfolio building in your own time, I think it’s personally a great idea to get a degree. 

I have yet to graduate, but I’ve already got myself a few interviews. I’m almost certain that I wouldn’t even be considered if I applied for my degree because to be honest it’s the skills you learn and the knowledge you gain which is much more important that the paper work. So now I’ve got a much more impressive portfolio that I had a few years. Of course I could have worked on 3Ds max projects in my own time, but why not both? I’ve done a lot of freelance work while at University including stuff for Microsoft, YouTube and internships.  

If you have a passion for something, you will try in all means to succeed. I personally think getting a career you love is almost winning at life.