Interview report

Introduction

On January 15 , 2008 , I interviewed Mr . John Shriver of Multimedia Technologies Ltd in his home . He owns a multimedia development business of his own . He has been running this business for a year and currently hires two graphics designers . Because he has a limited number of clients , he does most of the technical and the administrative work himself . Mr . Shriver discussed different aspects of his work particularly in the areas of job duties , advantages , disadvantages personal characteristics and communication skills

Job duties

Mr . Shriver picked up the necessary

skills when he was working as a multimedia developer in a software development company . His principal duty is to prepare promotional multimedia presentations . He visits clients and talks with them regarding the requirements of the multimedia presentations . Sometimes the purpose of the presentation is to present the organizational structure of the client organization . Sometimes the purpose is to sell products . For example , the client might be arranging a seminar to launch a new product . In that case , Mr . Shriver prepares multimedia presentations that acquaint the audience with different features of the product . His company develops presentations for both the internal audience and the external audience . He is doing mostly repeat business . As a result , he is not incurring promotional expenses . His client list currently consists of five organizations in different industries which launch new products from time to time or which arrange training and development programs for their employees and , when undertaking these programs , the five organizations make extensive use of multimedia presentations . So this is the source of business for Multimedia Technologies Ltd . He also develops interactive applications However the company is not limited to multimedia development . He also lends a hand in concept development in graphics designing . The client company might be developing a brochure or a printed ad and in that case he helps the graphics designers develop a conceptual framework for the graphics that will go into the printed ads

Advantages

Mr . Shriver said that he was very happy with his decision to start the business because it enabled him to work at his own pace . Of course there were client However Mr . Shriver could arrange his own schedule in completing the projects . The business also gave him an opportunity to apply his creative skills because each project was different . So there was an element of variety in his daily schedule . The industry rates were also very good

Disadvantages

The industry was very competitive and so the presentations had to be of a very high quality . As a result , the job had state-of-the-art computer hardware and software requirements . These were very expensive purchases Because Mr . Shriver 's company was small , these expenses made a difference . The multimedia development industry also advanced at a very rapid pace . As a result , there was always the risk of falling behind in terms of service excellence which was technologically driven

Personal characteristics

Creativity and project planning are important characteristics . Mr Shriver had completed a project management course some time ago...