It's been more than one year since my first post and it may look like I have lost all my motivation THAT fast. Fortunately that's not the case, I just didn't have anything to write about in relation to 3D or Virtual Reality (not that I can write much about it today either, but today is a big day). But first things first, what have I been up to this whole year?
After quitting my job in February I had lots of time but no money. I had planned to attend the Italian Virtual Heritage School 2014 in summer, a 10-day long program organized by V-Must (Virtual Museum Transnational Network) in which I would learn the basics of virtual archaeology in a practical way: laser scanning, use of drones, photogrammetry, GIS, 3D modelling and so on. So I decided to look for a temporal job until the school started, and so in March I was already working at a new consulting company. It was more or less the same as my previous job (Java programming) but completely different at the same time. Smaller company, realistic timings for projects (no overtime!), great people (not that there were no great people at my previous job as well, but here every single one of them was awesome!), more innovative (thanks to my project leader!), and a more relaxed environment in general. Another difference is that it wasn't application maintenance, but a whole new project starting from scratch. This allowed me to learn things properly, and for that I am very grateful.
In May I received devastating news. The Italian Virtual Heritage School had been cancelled due to lack of attendants, but it might be postponed until October. There was still a chance. Several months passed and there were no news of the school ever starting, so fearing the worst I started looking for alternatives. The school never took place indeed, but I found an online Master program starting in November that was focused on Virtual Archaeology and Preservation of Cultural Heritage. It seemed to fit my needs and so I decided to sign up, but November came and there were no news again. I started to get really frustrated, like I would never be able to achieve what I wanted. I was being so unlucky! I must confess that the lack of news along with other aspects around this Master made me have serious doubts about it being a serious program, and I was considering giving up. Meanwhile I was still working at my temporal job and was feeling very comfortable and happy with it. I also took a course in Android development in November-December and I am now a certified developer, so I had new worlds to explore. But finally the news came and I knew that the Master would start in January.
January to March 2015 have been very busy. I tried to combine work with the Master, but the workload of my studies was too heavy to continue with both, so very sadly I had to quit my job in March. In April my boyfriend and I had decided to go on a trip to Japan, and we have spent the last 4 weeks there (amazing trip BTW). And I just came back 4 days ago, ready to take over the Master.
The last few days have been quite frustrating once more. I have little info concerning the contents of the Master, as little as just the names of the chapters and the name of the professors in some cases. And with some exceptions, so far the chapters have not been very useful to me while the workload is insane, and I am worried that the whole thing is going to be the same. I feel like I'm wasting my time, since I am above all a developer and I don't really need or want to write academical papers, or fund applications, or job offers (these are some of the activities that I have to deliver). I'm not saying that the Master is useless by itself, it's just not that useful for a person with my profile. So I am considering putting these studies in a second place, follow only those chapters that I consider useful and invest the rest of my time experimenting with new technologies. Learn by doing, that's the best way to go. The worst that could happen is not getting the Master certificate, which I don't care that much about. I believe that knowledge and experience are more valuable than a paper saying that I did this or that, as long as I can prove it somehow.
With these things in mind yesterday I sent an e-mail to my coordinator and I am now awaiting her response. I'm just hoping that she understands my point of view and won't take it in a bad way.
Today is a new day and I've been thinking on the next steps, I need an action plan.
Action Plan
- Get to know the context
- Read about what's out there in terms of software, devices and applications
- Look for people and companies involved in the development of VR applications. Find out which are the desirable skills in a potential employee
- Learn
- Focus my efforts on learning the key skills to be hirable
- Create demos for Android using AR. Maybe also for IOS.
- Find out which applications/engines/frameworks are the most used in the creation of VR/AR applications (e.g. Unity, Unreal Engine) and create demos
- Take whatever courses or workshops are available in relation to VR/AR
- Create a portfolio
- Create a website in which I can publish my demos (or use this blog)
- Look for a job
- Not any job, a job in the field :-)
