Fumin’s Second Chapter: BCIT Behind Him, Web × Video Marketing Ahead

This follow-up sits beside Fumin’s earlier in-school interview. Looking back, he rates BCIT as solid overall. Would he recommend New Media Design? As an option yes—but web skills, he suspects, are not wildly different from certain other schools; video and specialty media are the differentiators. Copyright/law classes tortured even Canadians; entrepreneurial modules and local-business interview presentations hurt in English yet later helped him think SEO logically faster than non-engineer teammates—an early win on the job. BCIT’s brand drew Meetup and interview attention; he still refused to lean on school for web skill, finishing WordPress/PHP in term one while classmates reached that near course end.

Assignments were brutal in volume; he may have over-invested in every task. Coding came quickly from prior knowledge; English reports did not. Extra video gigs piled on when few peers shot with DSLRs. Canadian classmates and instructors who ran real businesses offered portfolio critiques (“we wouldn’t hire you for that—change the target role if you need work fast”) and interview coaching under lectures that did not slow down for him. Post-grad work authorization mattered: without other credentials he needed graduation for jobs and immigration options—he wished for a diploma over certificate.

After graduating he freelanced web and video about half a year. Two phone screens for fullstack/frontend roles—Angular/Node fashion of the moment—ended in visa or seniority mismatches; he had already doubted becoming “just” a frontend developer. Frog staff then introduced his current company, whose site did not impress him at first. He chose it for PR trajectory and fit with web-plus-video direction. Interviews were oral, no coding tests. Two years in, the Japan-heavy team still educated million-subscriber YouTubers on monetization and taught SEO from zero. A Japan-based direct manager and Canadian skip-level mean international meetings and Japan-style client email inside eight-hour Canadian days—awkward localization of consulting expectations.

Charity gaming events color the startup energy he likes. A Japan visit reminded him of overtime friends vanishing until 10 p.m.; Canadian sustainability looks harder to leave. PR application was pending with roughly a year of wait. Future forks: entrepreneurship versus analyst/data-science skill-up, ideally media-adjacent. Advice to twenty-somethings: build specialty—he refused to half-do web or video, and the combination became the job.