JACCmobile: Field Trip to TechSmith

This week we went to a software development company called TechSmith located in Okemos, Michigan (only an hour away from us). They develop software such as Camtasia Studio, Jing and Snagit. The company itself was very interesting to visit. We saw many things but the thing I thought the most interesting was that we got to see what the programmers' actual work environment looked like. A lot of the employees' cubical and/or office space were each personally decorated: from 8-bit video game stickers to completely paper covered walls. Each office was extremely unique. The thing that I really noticed was that each of the offices had some similarities with things that I was interested in.

They talked about the things that each of the employees were interested in and their history in software development. They also talked about the degrees that each of them had as well as the things that we as high school students should be doing at this point in our lives. They gave us pretty good advice about how we could go about getting into that field of study.

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed seeing what it would be like to work for a software development company. As this is the field that I wish to go into, this boosted my enthusiasm about chasing my goals.

-- Josh S (2nd year student)

During our time there, we examined the different projects that Techsmith has worked on, including products such as Camtasia Studio, Snagit, and more recently, mobile apps: ScreenChomp [on iTunes] and Coach's Eye [on iTunes]. We discovered how different teams work together in this laid-back environment, but where work still gets done. They also explained some of the different sides of working in an IT field. They explained that if you work as a programmer you will constantly have to be learning and be versatile as far as the different types of programming languages. It was a good learning experience, and gave us a good view about how exactly popular products such as Camtasia comes to be.

-- Tyler F (2nd year student)

The whole experience of talking with the people at TechSmith was amazing. When we put friendly faces to the company, and can see that they do the same type of work as us, it opens our eyes to know that we could even be the people that work at the amazing company.

All in all, I enjoyed the visit to the TechSmith a great deal. I would love to come again and ask even more questions. This was one of the most memorable experiences I have had.

-- Korey M (1st year student)

It was pretty interesting seeing that our own classroom actually kinda has the same laid-back feel as their offices. We also got to see a bit of what they were doing and they got to see what a group from our class was working on. (see pictures and download game install below)

-- Brenna D (1st year student)

This was the greatest field trip of all time! thanks to Mr.K and the hard working people at Tech Smith.

-- Garrett H (1st year student)

"Kobenry, Inc" (JACCmobile students) demoing their game created with Corona SDK