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Topic: How can I learn Content Management Systems?
| Author | Message |
| Keith | Posted – 5/14/2008 12:03:58 AM | show profile I went on an interview for an online/new media company. I had it in the bag! Then the person interviewing me asked if I new how to us a CMS (Content Management System). I was honest and said no, but I'm a quick learner! And that was the end of the interview! So what am asking is waht exactly are content managment systems and how can I teach myself how to use them? Are there any books out there for this? Why aren't they being taught to journalism majors in college? |
| mumbo jumbo | Posted – 5/14/2008 1:12:31 AM | show profile They're essentially data bases of editorial content, linked to a suite of production products, which will depend on the medium. If it's print, the CMS will work with Quark or InDesign. On the web it'll be some other product. It's pretty easy to learn but I don't think you should teach yourself any old system. I think they tend to be customized for the company, based on its products. |
| xpress | Posted – 5/14/2008 10:46:01 AM | show profile CMS is really easy. It's like building your own myspace page. You paste text into the right fields, i.e. the headline, body and keywords. There's no way to really know CMS unless you work at a website, or intern there. |
| notimetolose | Posted – 5/14/2008 11:00:26 AM | show profile xpress, Would a customized Movable Type interface count as a CMS? I'm transitioning from print to online and work in a number of clients' customized blogging tools (MT, Wordpress, etc.), and I've wondered if that's essentially what online employers mean by CMS. It seems that the tasks and roles are very similar to print, but the vocabulary is different, which can make it tricky to respond to job postings. |
| BruisePristine | Posted – 5/14/2008 11:46:03 AM | show profile I came out of a field that uses these extensively, and when I was hiring, I classified CMS competency as experience in at least one of the following: -Joomla! -Druple -Macromedia Dreamweaver -Wordpress (blog and site) Why not try yourself at Wordpress? Get a free account, and make a test blog and Web page. You can learn basic HTML, how to customize it, and so forth. Once you learn one, it's fairly easy to carry the skills over to another -- just like Quark and InDesign. There is advanced programming stuff that is possible in a CMS, but I doubt that a position that focuses on editorial requires these skills. |
| WordyBird | Posted – 5/18/2008 12:59:49 PM | show profile Honestly, I don't know why it's such a big deal to have experience with a CMS. As xpress said, they are simple and easy to learn. If you can blog, you can pick up the basics of a CMS in 20 minutes. Bruise, unfortunately, a lot of employers do want these things from their editorial staff, like they also want Quark or InDesign--which I think require far more training than a CMS. (And frankly, just to grouse because I'm in that kind of mood today, I find it ridiculous that now writers are supposed to be designers, too. Come on already! Grrr...) Anyway, I like Bruise's idea of picking up a WordPress blog. When someone asks you about your experience, you can then start talking in the lingo a little bit and demonstrate that even if you don't know the particular program your potential employer uses, you're familiar with how these things work and would pick it up quickly. Honestly, it took me 20 minutes to learn the CMS at my last job. I ened up working from home for almost two months right after using the program once, and when I came back to work, I posted an issue of the magazine a few days later--without having to ask anyone for help. That's how easy those things are, at least for me. |
