Chicago Web Designer Favors Quality Learning Over Quick Coding
Financial internships are leading the pack in Vault's 2015 list of Chicago's best overall internships. However, technology internships are no stranger to the list.
According to Naveed Usman, President and CEO of digital design agency Usman Group, technology internships may be one of the best moves to make for IT graduates. Usman believes that working with interns gives business owners a chance to "try before you buy," but interns may get a bigger perk.
"The internship allows this person to open their options to other companies and not just select the one that seems to be the most attractive. The interns get extreme knowledge and an inside view of an organization in how that technology is being used in the real world."
Usman attended college in the late '90s when the Internet's popularity was gaining momentum. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Central Florida in 1999 with a focus on Liberal Studies, Digital Media and Sociology.
"I worked for a lot of agencies prior to doing what I am doing now. I felt like I could do it better than what I saw. So I did it. We're entering our ninth year at Usman, but being a business owner wasn't [originally my] plan."
While some entrepreneurs are able to succeed without a degree, Usman finds that this can be a particularly shaky idea for technology enthusiasts who skip traditional education and choose short-term coding skills or trial-and-error approaches to enter the technology industry.
"I've received many resumes from quick-coding schools, but those students do not possess the actual know-how of how to break something down. They know how to get by with the programming language that was given to them, but they're not experts at knowing why something works. There's a big difference from sitting in a [classroom] for two, three or five years understanding the concepts versus a crash course in 11 weeks to try and get a job."
While Usman does admit that there is no "magic bullet" course that can guarantee jobs, he's a strong proponent for IT professionals who are good writers.
"When you're a writer, you think about how you'd like to craft or communicate something. The same is true when you can apply what you're going to write into your programming, coding or design. Have a multidisciplinary effect."
Shamontiel L. Vaughn is a professional journalist who has work featured in AXS, Yahoo!, Chicago Defender and Chicago Tribune. She's been an Examiner since 2009 and currently writes about 10 categories on Examiner.com.
