Introduction

Before coming to DCU, I had no clear idea on what to do career-wise. I had an interest in working in Media, but I had a fear that pursuing a course in Media would be impractical because of the level of extracurricular work and self motivation required to succeed in the eld. I was torn. While I wanted to do Multimedia, Digital Media Engineering was my first choice on the CAO, because it felt to me like a more pragmatic option; Digital Media Engineering was a 4 year course with INTRA while Multimedia was 3 years with no INTRA. Having INTRA would mean that I would already have some work experience in the eld before I finished the course.

I received the offer for Digital Media Engineering, but after considering my lack of interest in Mathematics and Physics which were fundamental in Engineering, I took
a leap of faith and made a decision to transfer course to Multimedia. I had many apprehensions about doing a course in such a broad eld, which could get me a job from anywhere from Web Designer to Sound Engineer and everything in between. I started the course regardless because of my newfound conviction that I would be more successful in media than engineering.

The course had a relatively low number of hours, which left me with enough time to pursue other activities such as a part time job, being part of societies, and other personal projects. Initially the low number of hours made me question the level of involvement and learning the course provided; little did I know that this extra time is what would help me form a lot of the qualities and skills I developed through my years in college.