Ever seen this posting? Jr. Graphic Designer Needed. Required: Bachelor's degree, 3 Years experience, knows the entire adobe suite front to back, complete understanding of assembly syntax and starting pay is minimum wage. I see job ads like this all the time and sadly I was, kind of, apart of the problem. By the time I graduated from Mt Sierra I had 3 years of experience, built an app that was published on google's and apple's market and had my own interns.
I am not trying to say other student's were slackers. Those job "requirements" are completely unreasonble. I worked hard sure, but I was also very lucky. During my 2nd year, Mt Sierra wanted their own app on the market and the professor they asked to build it recommended me instead.
I am going to be real transparent here, he didnt choose me because I was the best for the job he just didn't want to do it. So I was like "fuck it" why not. If I failed then oh well I am just a student, but if I succeeded, it would look amazing on my portfolio. So, I built it.
Learning as I go, I built that monster in six months, by myself. Now I never want build an app again, by myself. The app was made to help currents students schedule their classes and potential students see the courses Mt Sierra offered. This accomplish was the start of acquiring several different job titles while working at Mt Sierra.
The marketing department was terminated just prior to my graduatuion. My direct supvervisor and co-workers were all laid off, except for me. Why? Probably because I was still a student and my paychecks didn't directly come from their budget. Since I was the sole-survivor I was practically given a whole team's amout of work. The experience I earned was incredibly fruitful towards my career, but would end up being horribly stressful.
I was encouranged to stay for a raise in pay that was I constantly reminded about, but never recieved. Before I inevitably quit, I had 5 different directors to report to and three different presidents. Each director & president either quit or was fired.
I know its not a good look to criticize a previous employer, but learning the methods that were used and the poor treatment of employees to just acquire new students was.. disturbing.
I loved attending courses at Mt Sierra. The professors were good and I made life-long friends. So when I left I did my best to provide my replacement was as much information as I could, even came back a couple times to help. Sadly, one year later the entire school closed down. No warning was given to any of the students or staff just an email the day of.
If you would like to know more about why Mt Sierra College closed I will leave a link to an article below.
