Amir Hamidi Amha
Content Editor, 2010
Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Software Engineering with Multimedia
If you want to be successful in life never stop learning; you never stop learning till you die. In this line of work you have to have opinions, get people annoyed with you.
26 May 2010
Media marvel: Webmaster, writer, producer
Written by Victoria Edwards
Amir Hamidi Amha was just a simple Malay boy, quiet, reserved, never liked to ask questions. But one university caused his personality to do a 360.
“I went to 3 different universities; the first one I went to was really run down and went bankrupt. The second university I went to I decided to take Information technology but the environment and method of teaching was not suited for me so I had to search for another university. What pulled me to Limkokwing was when I came to talk to the staff; they told me it was going be a different experience in Limkokwing. They said it’s not the lecturers who give you everything; it’s the students who request it. To me that was very interesting because I’ve never been in a place where I chose what I want to learn and sure enough that was the case; during the course of my studies whenever I asked for a syllabus to be introduced, it was in the very next semester that was something I was really, really happy about.”
What pulled me to Limkokwing was when I came to talk to the staff; they told me it was going be a different experience in Limkokwing. They said it’s not the lecturers who give you everything; it’s the students who request it.
And the award goes to…
As a man of many talents you would expect him to excel in any field he chooses. This was definitely the case for young Amir.
“For my final project, I decided to go into games development and I chose mobile gaming. And I guess it was a good choice because I won the Best in Mobile Gaming Award from Hewlett Packard.”
Once a free spirit, always a free spirit
Amir graduated in 2007 from Limkokwing University with a Bachelors Degree in Software Engineering with Multimedia. He describes the university as “Free Spirited” - a place where you are given the opportunity to take advantage of the platform that is put in place for you. This kind of opportunity can open a huge hallway of doors for you to explore, Amir has tested many waters since leaving this university.
“I was offered a job by NTV7, a couple of months before convocation. It was an entry level job as a web master; I had to maintain the web site. From there we started the “Catch Up TV” phenomenon with TV3, TV9, TV8 and TV7 they now all have their programmess on their websites. This was the first project I worked on for them. From there I moved on to Primeworks Studios where I did production. I was in charge of TV7 kid’s belt for a year. This project was a big learning experience for me. I went from IT to productions and broadcasting and now I’m back to IT but still in the media. I’m now doing online journalism with MSN sports. The biggest project for me right now is the World Cup. I‘m running the World Cup channel for MSN which brings together everything and anything you need regarding the World Cup; videos news pictures downloads your heroes, whatever you want to learn about the World Cup we have it. This has been a really hard big project for me because my sports team comprises of a writer me as the editor. It is very hands-on and very time consuming. My writer takes most of the easy stuff but when it comes to interviews and one-on-ones with big names I step in. Just before this I was interviewing John Barnes, a Liverpool legend. ”
If you want to be successful in life never stop learning, you never stop learning till you die.
Economic crisis…What economic crisis?
In the past year while everyone was suffering through this economic crisis the online industry was doing better than previous years!
“There is no problem whatsoever with online media in the economic downturn. You’re not dictated by economics or money with online media. You can give me a hand phone and I can shoot a 20 minute video for online media, the only difference being the economic downturn as I see it only affects raw materials but nothing online. I would even say that during the economic downturn online media business goes up. In this past year with MSN I did a comparison with other projects and I found that it’s not about how many websites you visit, it’s about how much time you spend online so during an economic depression like this more people are online because you pay one internet bill and surf as much as you like. You don’t have to waste money.”
Quality, not quantity
Even IT guys get to live in the spotlight; this is one tech guy who you should take advice from!
“If you want to be successful in life never stop learning, you never stop learning till you die. In this line of work you have to have opinions, get people annoyed with you. That’s a journalist, you go out to get people annoyed and that’s the truth. You need to have a strong concept of who you are, don’t just go out and chase the big stories. Get the stories that have meaning not just the ones that will sell big time. It’s about quality not quantity. And remember; success is having a happy balanced surreal life, failure is not trying, if you don’t try at all you will always fail.”
