In second semester at freestyle we were assigned a documentary project where we were able to choose any topic that was significant to you. In my documentary I choose to take the angle on how you can be successful in the high level workforce without a college degree. On this topic I did a profile on Denise Oliver who works at ServiceNow as a Sales Director. She did not go to college and receive a college degree, but yet she is so success with her career. Concluding that a college degree is not the only path to success. Denise is proof that if you are unable to get a college degree that your future will not be working at a McDonald's for the rest of your life. Rather if you dedicate your time and effort to building up skills that make a successful businesswoman that what will make you succeed. When talking with Denise she encouraged that high schools making the decision whether or not they should go to college she highly suggests it, but she also made it clear that if that’s not the path you choose you can still have a successful career ahead. In my classes overall I produced a magazine in Design, wrote a research paper of my angle and interviewee’s story in English, and made a intro video introducing my interviewee along with a website to showcase all of my work. Throughout this project it made me think of my future career path and the important decisions that will lead up to it. But it made me realize that hard work and dedication will always led to success.
In design for my documentary project I was required to create a magazine or book based on the documentary subject. I decided to design a magazine based off my documentary subject Denise Oliver. I was instructed to create a visually appealing magazine that showcased my subject. I had to use pictures that I shot then edited using Photoshop, graphics which I designed in Illustrator, and text from my research paper that I wrote. To create the magazine I used InDesign which is a application that organizes and creates layouts for books, magazines, articles, etc. The design approach I took was based on the metaphor “all paths lead to success.” Meaning that college degrees are not the only path to a successful career. If you deciate yourself to learning and working hard you can accomplish anything. I used a simple layout and color scheme as well. Using the graphic I created of a road as my background to tie back to my visual metaphor.
In digital media I was required to record interviews with each interviewee to put into my website. I interviewed my subject Denise Oliver to get her story of the struggles of being successful without a college degree and the qualities you need to develop in order to be where she is today. Next I interviewed her husband Jeff Oliver who came me a more personal perspective on Denise’s struggles from someone else’s point of view. He gave me the negatives and the positives about Denise’s journey in her career. Lastly I interviewed her boss Andrew Casey who gave me a professional perspective on Denise’s points of struggles at the company and points where she excelled leaving her in the position she is today as Sales Director. I also recorded intros give some information about the people we interviewed along with their importance to the subject. I also recorded interviews to create transcripts which ended up benefitting the writing process in creating my research paper.
My documentary is profiled around Denise because of her accomplishments in the high level workforce. She didn’t get the opportunity to get a college degree but she has been so successful with her current job as Senior Director of Americas Sales Operations at ServiceNow. She is an inspirational figure to others showing us that if you dedicate yourself and push yourself through the struggles that unexpectedly gets thrown at us you can succeed.
Jeff is Denise’s husband and works for Hela Packard Enterprise as Sales Leader For the West for Service Provider Cloud Team. In my documentary he gives us insight on the struggles he has seen Denise face and overcome, accomplishments she has made, and how much confidence he has in her to continue to be even more successful.
Andrew Casey is the Vice President of Finance and Business Operations at ServiceNow and also Denise Oliver’s boss. He gives his professional opinions of points of struggle and accomplishments that he has noticed in Denise’s time at ServiceNow. He gives us an inside look of how life for Denise is like at the company and many successful moments that she has accomplished at the company.