Are there any benefits to learning Adobe products and doing a marketing course?

Illustrator, premier pro, after effects, Photoshop

Any benefit investing time learning this for my 2D game in Unity? I already have the entire suite free

BTW as a off topic I got a call for an interview this week for a job as something called a "social media marketing assistant" yeah I was applying for everything online from HVAC to social media marketing, cause I am desperate for work and turns out the last person they hired for the job had no real ability to make any kind of quality facebook motion ads or even still ads. They used those free online software that makes it look like the stuff was made in windows 95 with some sparkle stuff so I was thinking how impressive would it have been if I was able to present some sort of portfolio showcasing my skills if I had such skills?

I feel like having marketing skills is something that may be important to a lot of people and possibly myself?

But if I am already putting in time learning programming would it be ok if I took 20% of that time from my game and learning programming to invest in some of these advertisement and marketing skillset and see what happens in a few months time?

 

The first thing you need to ask yourself is. Do you enjoy art? Do you enjoy that side of creativity? If not then no do not waste your time doing it. I used to be big into art, won a few awards in school, but stopped. I recently started doing pixel art again and am loving it, but I spend maybe 2% of my time doing that vs coding / game design.

I am not a fan of adobe products, they are good at what they do don't get me wrong, but they are overpriced and there are other products that do it just as good.

As for the job, that is for you to decide, but if you have 0 experience in ad design and in depth knowledge of social media marketing, please do not waste your time or theirs. They already had one candidate that didn't work out like you said.

As for learning marketing and advertisement for future job potential, I think that is always a good idea, but only if that is something you want to do. Trust me doing a job you hate is miserable.

 

For me, If I got a new job, I would pour 100% of my time into learning the new job and put Unity aside for a while. Gotta pay the bills.

 

I mean if you do not know how to do the job, do not bullshit your way to getting it and trying to learn it while doing it. That isn't fair for the company investing resources into you. Try a few tutorials, if you like it start investing more time and continue to learn and apply for those jobs.

 

Ooh hi thanks for the response.

I feel pretty neutral about creating art, I won't say I hate it at all far from it I downloaded a bunch of Lynda mastery courses on photoshop and am really enjoying it, I wouldn't say it's something I love but I do feel really rewarding when I am able to create something nice.

I did use a PSD template and create a simple ad, something that I could currently do in photoshop with my limited skill if I put enough time to doing from scratch but for the sake of the interview I used a simple PSD template and the HR manager said she liked what I did, I also used a tool to do a quick video ad nothing too fancy but acceptable and she said it looked really good compared to her previous worker.

I will say this, the 2 things I enjoy the most currently are learning graphic design and website design, I did complete an HVAC course a year ago and I was employed for 6 months as a trainee but was let go due to covid restriction the boss said not enough demand to keep me around and he also said I didn't look like I was that interested in HVAC he said based on my qualification having an Associate Degree in Information Systems he doesn't think I am cut out for the hard work of HVAC but if he had use for me he wouldn't have mind keeping me around but that was the end of that.

I am still on the hunt for another HVAC job, because I live in the Caribbean there is demand for it. It is somewhat intimidating and hard work and I agree I don't like it but I spent so much money on getting certified in it and I rather do that than pack bags in a grocery at the end of the day.

I don't really have much options in life at all, I am turning 36 years old and I need to do something so what I am doing is since I am home and unemployed I am investing my time into what I think would be the most helpful in helping me be able to find employment OR make money. If I could create Ads or Logos etc I could always try to message companies and offer my service at a cheap price, if I could become competent at website design I could definitely land a job, while nobody seems to want websites built anymore there seems to be demand for people to work permanently to maintain local transhipment websites and the likes.

TLDR: I am stuck between a rock and a hard place, I spent a lot of money doing an HVAC technician course, I worked for 6 months as a HVAC trainee, I don't like really like the field much cause it's mostly pressure washing AC units and hardly ever any technician work but I did it cause it's better than working in a grocery packing bags. I do also have a 2 year Associate Degree in Information Systems and 15 years experience in desktop PC repair and bullshit website design with Joomla and templates, this field is dead where I live and The jobs are now working for large companies as an internal web developer which means you need to know proper web programming and SQL, can't bullshit your way with CMS and templates. So to me although learning graphic design and web design from scratch is not something I LOVE by any means, it is the most enjoyable and fun thing I ever came across doing. If we talked about something I really loved doing that would be playing video games and that's a hobby not a real job.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is unless we are talking about becoming a security guard or taxi driver or working at Mc Donalds, finding a real job is HARD and unless you have a real skill and or are multi skilled its almost impossible to land a job. The closest thing I have come across which I like enough to do as a career is Website Design. In the past when I used to bullshit my way using Joomla and Templates and trick people into thinking I was a real web developer, I really enjoyed the work. Off course after I edited the template and it looked different I would not tell them it was a template I would let them assume I was just good.

I recently started learning it from scratch to do it the proper way which requires me to learn Javascript and SQL programming, and I enjoy it much more than anything I previously have done making money.

The reason I am learning some adobe applications in the process is during my 15 years of bullshitting my way in web design, I have found it incredibly important to know how to create graphic and logos, most people would contact me asking me for exactly that they automatically assumed a web designer can do it. I am not sure if photoshop and illustrator is used in actual web design tho.

Sorry for all the long post I am just frustrated and sad at what my life has become.

Am gonna get back to work finishing my Udemy courses on illustrator and photoshop now I am splitting it up my time 50 / 50 with programming and graphic design. It's probably a bad idea but I enjoy learning both. I invest 12 hours a day learning these days

 

Photoshpp and Illustrator are used to make any kind of 2-D art, whether it's web graphics/ game graphics/ advertising/ printed/ whatever.

 

ok thank you seems like I made a good choice learning these 2 in the process, I am getting the hang of it really quickly, going through some tutorials and after a couple tries it becomes easy. I will keep practicing it

 

TLDR indeed, I didn't read the rest.

I personally think everyone who can be discouraged from creative work, should be discouraged to the point they get a "real job" instead. The field is oversaturated as all hell and the needed skills are hard to learn. At your skill level you are competing with people from third world countries who offer their work on fiverr for 10$ or less. And once you outperform them, you're still competing with very passionate artists who have been persuing this career since their childhood.

It's normal you enjoy learning about Photoshop and Illustrator, because learning new graphics software is somewhat "gamelike". Those are useful skills to have for a solo gamedev, but learning the software isn't even half of what you need, to make a living as a graphics designer. Don't delude yourself into thinking this is your "calling", just because right now it is the most fun to you. I can almost guarantuee you that this won't last forever and you'll look at another job thinking it will be so much better.

Have you checked if jobs as a receptionist are available in your area? Something where you don't need new education to do the job and have some free time to keep learning or programming while waiting for someone to arrive? I know the receptionist at the place my dad used to work at was a photographer on the side and did photo editing etc. on a notebook while sitting at the reception desk. Your mileage may vary.

 

Hey thanks for the honesty, I should mention I just got the call for the job the digital marketing assistant, I am starting monday I guess I am lucky.

So I just need to learn to make some quick video and photo ads for social media for this job, nothing too fancy. Would you recommend photoshop for this or something else that would be quicker and easier?

 

Awesome, congratulations on the new job! Maybe down the line you can talk them into giving you some time and resources to hone some of your graphics skills with online courses on company time or things like that.

Photoshop is great and a solid skill investment no matter where you'll be in 10 years, it'll likely stay relevant and it's not harder to learn than other similar software. Arguably it's easier because there is such a wealth of available resources.
Check out this guy, he makes some great advanced tutorials:
https://www.youtube.com/c/PiXimperfect

For the animation part I can't give you a well reasoned suggestion. Use whatever seems most accessible to you. I'd use After Effects because I already know how to use it. For simple stuff Premiere probably does the job as well. The place to go for advanced After Effects tutorials is:
https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/

Good luck!

 

aah thank you very much for all the advice.

I am doing the photoshop tutorials it's indeed easy once you get over the learning curve. Youtube definitely has some pretty good free guides. I do want to go back to school and complete my final year Bsc in Computer Science so I think this job is perfect for that I could save my money to pay for my degree and in the mean time pick up some valuable photoshop and premier pro skills in the process!!!

And all the best to you friend

 

If people never BS'd their way into jobs, most of the world would be unemployed.

 

To be clear, this is not what I was suggesting at all. You can be perfectly candid about your knowledge (Don't sell yourself short, though!). Most employers don't expect you to be the perfect candidate who already knows everything on the first day(*), especially if they have home-grown or esoteric tools and software environments. Learning on the job was a requirement at pretty much any position I've ever held.

*- note: this isn't true for short-term contract work.

 

hey Martin I was to tell you, I found a great website called Canva which allows you to build pretty good Ads with 0 experience. And the free version has pretty much everything needed aswell.

So I can make both video ads and flyers etc for social media without having to learn graphic design. And the company seems very satisfied with the free stuff provided by Canva, when I had shown them an example at the interview.

So this means I can go back to focusing my time on learning programming and complete my degree.

It's such a good thing for stuff like Canva holy crap.

 

Being candid can also help to earn trust and credibility. If you're open about where you don't know things and where you have little experience then they've got more reason to believe you in the areas where you do claim knowledge and experience. Plus, anyone who claims to be good at too much stuff is likely to be either exaggerating or deluded about their abilities.

 

This is true to an extent, but BS'ing saying you know how to make advertisements or use a art program is a bit different. Sure you can learn how to use certain software, but learning the intricacies of advertisement development is a bit different.

Absolutely is, and apologies if I interpreted it wrong, but you made it come off as you having 0 experience in the field.