I had a strong reputation among my friends for photo shooting, video production, and also graphic design (Photoshop/poster design/brochure design). I was familiar with media production equipment and software and also design software to create these stuff. And this was developed gradually throughout my first year of college.
This was actually a college reputation at first. When I first went to college as a freshman, my major was Creative Media, and the college I was in is called the School of Creative Media (CM). There are several different majors in the college, but during the first two years, everyone in our college takes the same foundation major courses in photography, filming, production, graphic design, etc. Students in other colleges all know what we are doing, and whenever people say that they are from CM, others will assume they are “experts” in photo shooting/video production/graphic design. We also had general education courses where students from different colleges are mixed to take the courses together. General education courses (in my previous university) usually have a lot of group projects, and the projects are in various format. So people usually want to have one student from CM in their group to deal with the artistic aspect of the project (e.g. creating videos for the presentation/designing team posters/creating project websites, etc.).
I enjoyed the benefit of our college reputation for a while and gradually I developed my personal reputation. In my major courses, as well as the general education courses, I created my own work and I was able to create my portfolio at the end of my freshman year. I sometimes will post some of my work on social media, so people get to know my work. I had my own style of photo shooting/video editing/graphic design, friends around me gradually recognized my work and my personal style, instead of recognizing me as merely a CM student. They would ask me to help with their projects or work when they need to do photo shooting/video editing/designing posters/creating brochures. Friends asked me to help create their personal video or create posters for their student organizations/activities. Friends have also asked me to do professional photo shooting for their LinkedIn profile picture, and I’ve did that several times for different people.
To keep my reputation intact, I need to produce very good work. In addition to producing good personal work, I also needed to produce good work for friends when they ask me for help. Because if I produced work with low quality, they will feel disappointed and will leave them the impression that I cannot do it well. As my reputation developed, more people wanted me to help them to create stuff. However, with all my coursework and other commitments, I didn’t have that much time to offer help to everyone. At first I tried doing that, but I ended up having not enough sleep. People that does not know about production and design feel that this job is simple and should be completed very soon for free. However, production and design are extremely time consuming. So later I started to become “selective”, and only helped those that are close with me. This did affect how people think of me, some might think I’m not generous enough to help them, but this was the best solution for me to balance everything.
Later I changed my major, and less people ask me for help in production/design, because most people does not know that I’m good at these stuff. Now I see production/design as a spare time entertainment, and I feel much less burden.
It is interesting to see how your reputation has changed over time. Now that people have mostly stopped asking for your help in production and design, it's good that you are less stressed by it. On the other hand, do you ever miss doing this kind of work? It may be possible to use your reputation to start a side business in design, if you could revive that reputation. I have an interest in graphic design and photography myself, so I've looked into this kind of thing before. You could potentially start a personal website just for showcasing your past jobs, if you haven't already. You could then post links to your portfolio on freelance design websites and look for jobs there. People would potentially pay you to design things like logos and posters. In my opinion this would be a really cool way to start a business or earn some extra money on the side. I am sure you have thought about this before, and as you know it can be very time consuming and often difficult to find work.
ReplyDeleteHmmm - what happened when you switched universities? Did any of your reputation follow you? Or did you have to start from scratch when you came to the U of I.
ReplyDeleteI will give an example of mine tomorrow, in class, partly just lighten things up, and partly to ask whether your reputation is in some sense an extension of your personality, or is it something quite different?
Given your current professional interest in business, does the media interest have any chance for expression at all? For many people having a hobby that they are passionate about and that is different from their work enables them to invest themselves fully in their work when it is time for that, but then to put it aside and wrap their heads around something else when they are not at work. Might media provide that sort of diversion for you?
Thank you professor Arvan for your comments and questions.
DeleteWhen I transferred, my reputation actually remained among my old friends from my previous university. When we travelled together during break (many of my friends spent one semester in the U.S. as an exchange student) after I transferred, they still expected me as the one doing photography with a professional camera. Some of my friends still referred part-time graphic design jobs that could be done online to me after I transferred. But I had to re-establish my reputation among my new friends here, because they did not know much about my past experience. Without a college reputation, building a “personal brand” from zero went much slower than when I was in my previous university. I’m not very comfortable with always showing my work, so I only have a strong reputation for media production and art related stuff among my close friends at U of I.
For the career interest and personal interest question, I’ve thought about it many times. For many people they wanted to find a career that coincides with their personal interest, and wanted to make their hobby their career. But I found that didn’t really work on me. I knew that I have a strong interest and I am good at art related activities since I was very young, and I followed my interest when I went to college. But soon I found when my hobby becomes my major and career focus, where people have requirements and expectations for me and I cannot do what I love in the way I want it to be done, my defensive mechanism came up. I didn’t really understand why, maybe because that deep in my heart I’m afraid of messing up what I love, so I’d just rather choose to keep my hobby as merely a hobby, just enjoy it during my spare time, instead of a career. I have a strong interest in business as well, but it is a very different kind of interest with my interest in art related activities. I might still look for opportunities that combines my interest in business and art in the future, but business would be the main portion of the job, and art as the minor portion. For example, I would be willing to take business positions in the art/advertising industry, or looking for investment opportunities that combines art and business.
Like my reputation example, it sounds like your reputation might show a "positive feedback loop" effect -- you developed a reputation as a good media creator because you did a lot of work in that area, and you reputation led to you being expected to do even more work, and after doing even more work you had an even greater reputation to defend. It's easy to see why you were overwhelmed. Do you think many of the people that held your reputation during your days in CM might still hold some of that reputation even today? In other words, among the people that knew you back in your CM days, do you think you still have a reputation as a good media creator? I have to wonder how durable a reputation in an arts-related field might be compared to a reputation in, say, a more science-oriented field. While you have likely not taken a media class in a while, people from back in your old days might realize that in a field such as media creation, proficiency often depends mostly on experience and practice (which you have from the past) rather than keeping up with education on the latest theories (which is often a main determinant of proficiency in the sciences.)
ReplyDelete