Prof. Burton,
I think at some point I signed some sort of pact or
agreement in which I would update you on my career as Purdue alumni.
Aside from my legally enforceable responsibility to send you an update, I have
had some success, and wanted to share my positive fortunes with some of the
people who helped get me going in the right direction. I worked my tail
off through your CGT 411 class and have an 'Ah ha!' moment where I am now able
to appreciate what you did for the students in that class, at least the ones
who paid attention and gave it their best.
I graduated in December of 04' with my B.S. in CGT. I
studied with a focus on animation. Tell all the animation hopefuls in
your class that no amount of course work in 3d-Studio Max will teach them God
given talent, and to make it in that industry they better have a lot of
it. I worked as an animator in the video game industry for a year or so
before it became obvious that it would be impossible to ever advance to where I
wanted with a career. I wasn't blessed with enough artistic talent.
Purdue gave me the skills to get myself in the door, but training to be a
professional artist needs to start way before you get to college. Make a
note. Those illustration classes where they actually made you draw with
pencil and paper aren't a joke. Having seen those skills applied for
real, if a student complains about those assignments as annoying and
unnecessary like I did, they are in for a rude awakening later.
So instead, I do interactive web application development
now. I've been out of school for just over 3 full years, and I fully
expect to make a six figure salary this year. Ahead of where I thought I
would be, just in a different industry. I am the senior-most developer on
a team of programmers using LAMP technology to facilitate the online
marketplace for newspaper classifieds. It's not very glamorous (probably
downright boring if I bothered to tell you about it), and my company is fairly
small (12 employees), but when the fish tank is small you don't have to be a
real big shark to make some waves. We're currently the only company in
the industry that is innovating to save a dying industry. It's risky, but
also very rewarding.
It's sometimes humorous to realize how elements from your
classes render themselves in the real world. I erased the lines on a
chart a colleague drew on the whiteboard. He complained when I told him
that he didn't need all that chart junk on the board because it looked
confusing. His presentation came across very clear and I told him it was
because I erased his lines, but he laughed at me. We know better.
:) Another colleague of mine came up with some very innovative ideas
about how to better solve some of the problems we have with the technology we
use. When I asked him how he knew it, "was good", and he stared
at me like a deer in headlights, I knew it wasn't going to sell with the people
that write the checks. When I offered to help him, and actually proved
his ideas were both profitable, we both got a nice raise and the chance to run
my own project.
It's not just having the knowledge of how to do something or
how to solve a problem, but knowing that you have to prove it, learning how to
communicate that proof, and selling an idea along with what you built...
something that I think I first learned in your class, so a nice big thank you
is in no short order. I would say that I didn't leave your class thinking
I knew very much more about anything then when I went in, but over time I have
been inspired by what we did and I think there is some value in communicating
that back to you.
Hope your spring break goes well, and I'll be sure to update
you again in the future.
--
-
Matthew Burroughs
- Kaango, LLC | Senior Software Engineer
5347 S. Valentia Way, Suite 230
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
303.339.3844
303.339.3848 fax