Former Emergent Media Center employee, Alex Tardif ’13 stopped by the Emergent Media Center and took some time to chat with us about his time at the EMC.

The EMC has changed a lot over the last ten years. What’s it like when you walk through here and see how it’s grown?

Physically, it’s different but it’s the same. It has that same high energy, high collaboration environment and that’s what I liked so much about it, it was always just lots of great people coming together to work on these really awesome meaningful projects and that is still the exact same now, but you guys have way more awesome tech, so that’s great.

How did your experience here translate into the professional world after graduation?

It was a domino effect. I started here; I worked Freshman, Sophomore and Junior year at various times during summers or the school year. That led to an internship at Mywebgrocer, and my experience there led to an internship at Ubisoft. By the time I graduated, I had years of experience under my belt, so when applied for an internship at Turbine (my first job post-college), they saw my level of experience and said, “Okay, you already know how to work with people, you have clearly done this before.”

Where do you see things going in your industry over the next few years, and how do think a place like this can keep up with that or even contribute?

Interactive media is really growing now, from VR to 3D printing that we have here, and beyond, this is the bleeding edge space that you get to experiment with all that, and I think that’s great, that’s where the industry is going. Interactive media is going to be everywhere, it is already everywhere it’s just growing and having that all be here in an environment where you can learn it all is awesome.

Alex is currently working at Zenimax Online Studios on Elder Scrolls Online as a Graphics Programmer. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Game Programming from Champlain College.