Christopher Wallak
Information Technology has rapidly evolved over the years, making it a vital part of our society today. To find out a little bit more about information technology, I went to my cousin Jesse Wallak, who is a Web Coordinator at Westmoreland County
Community College. Jesse lives in Pennsylvania, so we chose to use Skype for our form of communication. He has always been an expert with computers, so I knew right away that he would be a vital resource to find out more about the industry.
Before I interviewed Jesse, I felt it was necessary to obtain some additional information on what information technology really is, so I watched this video.
Unfortunately, I did not get the opportunity to get any video/audio clips from the discussion that Jesse and I had. On a good note, Jesse did thoroughly answer all of my questions, and allowed me to use and quote any of the information that he provided to me.
Since I couldn't obtain video of my conversation with coverage of Jesse, I felt it was necessary to obtain a video of another IT professional to help clarify what a web coordinator's job entails. This video simply explains the creativeness and expertise involved in this woman's day-to-day activities.
Moving forward, I felt it was important to get a general idea of where Jesse gained his knowledge in the Information Technology industry. This ultimately led me into the questioning process during our discussion. I will give a simplified version of our conversation in text, and a more in depth version in a short video clip I produced.
(**The slides explain the general ideas of our discussion. In the video clips, it explains the complete dialogue that Jesse and I had.)
Questioning Process
After reviewing the information from
the interview, there were several points of conversation that caught my
attention. First, I found it very surprising when I had asked Jesse if he
considered IT to be a growing industry that he stated "Certain areas
of it are certainly growing, but that doesn't mean there is an
endless supply of jobs." In my mind, I figured that the
industry would be booming with people that were qualified for every aspect of
information technology, rather than just IT help desks and technicians. A
second point that caught my attention was the fact that I was familiar with
many of the software products that Jesse uses as a web coordinator, such
as Photoshop, Outlook, and Adobe. I would have thought that the
products he used would sound like a different language to me.
If Jesse were to come to our class as a guest speaker, I feel that many students would benefit from the information. He is in his late 20's, which means he would still be able to recognize which topics we would be interested in, and what would bore us to death. Unfortunately, Jesse lives in Pennsylvania so the chances of him actually coming to speak to our class are quite slim.
In conclusion, the information that I learned from this interview assignment was very helpful. It helps one appreciate how much work is really put into all of the digital media that we are using every day. The general conclusion that I draw from this is that our world is rapidly changing, and there are people behind the scenes working very hard to keep us updated with the latest and greatest technology. In order for our society to stay up-to-date, information technology professionals must recognize the problems before we do to make our experiences easier.
