Becoming a professional web desiginer?

wdesigner

Howdy all,

I’d really appreciate your advice/comments on this.

I'm wondering how much hand programming people do when putting their sites together. The reason I ask this is I was thinking of trying to get a job within a web design company but I don't know to what level they actually hand program. When I have dreamweaver at my side I've no problems making a website (many might say a monkey could do that..). I'd probably handwrite about 20/40% of my code, all of which would be perfectly validated. I know xhtml and css very well. I've used bits of javascript, php and mysql but I wouldn't be very well versed in these YET. I can get a bit of code from the net and hack away at it till I get what I want but I wouldn't be able to do it from scratch.

I’m thinking of taking a few weeks/months out to learn some php/sql myself at home and do a few small websites on the side; while I get up to a more respectable level and create a bigger portfolio for myself. If I were to do this I would then try to go out for myself and get some business.

Do you think there would be many companies out there that would take me at this level for a few months/year? (or would they look at it as their just training me in and that it wouldn’t be worth taking me on for just a year?)

Is there much of a market for a young entrepreneur willing to go out and work hard making (well designed and well validated) websites?


I’m pointing out well validated a fair bit as I think there are many Irish designers that just aren’t up to par. They are bringing the standard of Irish sites down. Also I’m not going to be going out and just throwing a site together for somebody and charging a students price – I plan to make this my business and thus everything will be kept very professional. I wont be bringing the level of web design in Ireland down.



Many thanks

miju

personally from what you describe of your experience i wouldn't hire you, that's not to belittle you in any way it's just that i'd look at it from a pragmatic point of view of there "proffesional" students / part timers with more experience or someone in china that i can hire when needs be for when the workload becomes too much

best of luck to you though you sound like your on the right track though and you should find that once you've some decent sites in your portfolio decent work should start to come in

Aoife-FM104

Show me some of your work and I'll tell you if I'd hire you or not!

Having a portfolio is your friend.

Goodshape

Yea, it does seem like you're on the right track.

You should be able to find some work for yourself while you advance your skills, all of which can be added to a portfolio that will help you get a 'real job' later on.

In terms of how much you need to hand program, I think in this day and age it matters less. If you can produce the same end result while using Dreamweaver for the more basic and mundane aspects of site building then fair enough.

Personally I prefer to hand-code the entire site so that I know what's what and can make quick and easy edits with little more than a terminal window. I'd consider that to be the better practise, but WYSIWYG editors are getting better and better so I suppose it's more of a personal choice these days.

It also depends on the types of sites you are building and the projects you take on board. There will always be customers who want little more than a basic HTML page, so having a good knowledge of xHTML/CSS and web-standerds could have you churning out these sorts of sites in a week or less. Fairly easy money, providing you can get the business.

Best of luck.

Laslo

I can't say until I've seen your work but a bit of advice -

Absorb information. Scour web design forums, blogs, news and tutorial sites. Decide what technologies you are going to use and spend late nights scouring for as much info as you can. Learn, learn, learn.

Be open-minded and be your own man/woman. Don't listen to the BS. Most web designers are very one-sided and talk a lot of dogmatic nonsense. Ironic, seeing as that's what I'm doing right now. Learn Flash and actionscript if you want to. It's a great technology. Learn how to use it well and responsibly. It'll increase your employability no end. People who moan about Flash irrationaly are either too thick or too lazy to learn it. Basically, advice from your peers is great. But be wise and decide whether it's agenda-driven or sensible.

Good luck.

wdesigner

Thanks a bunch for all the advice so far. Most of it is what
I was half thinking myself but it's nice to hear it from others.
@Laslo - I understand what you mean about flash, I know there
are plenty of people that despise it with a passion. When used
sparingly and well it can look brilliant. I would know a good bit of
flash and as. Scouring the net... Well that has become a hobby.
Have you any good links I might not have heard of, to help keep
me up to date?

Thanks again for the advice, it's appreciated!

DJB

Do you want to post up any links to some of your work? It would also be interesting to see your full skill set, e.g. xhtml, css layouts, graphics programs, etc. If I could see where you're at, I could probably tell you what your next step should/might be... I've been there!!!

I started out doing exactly what you did about 6 years ago. I got dreamweaver and couldn't do without the server behaviours (i program in asp), wysiwyg editor, etc. Over time you get used to hand coding and eventually you'll find that it is the quickest and easiest way to have full control over your code. You end up building up a library of reusable code that you call upon whenever you need it.

Is there many companies out there that would take you on? - yes, loads I'd say. I know of a couple off the top of my head that take on people like yourself. You'd probably get around 18k-25k for your current skills but you have to treat it as a learning opportunity.

Can you make it as an entrepreneur? - yes, but it will take time to build up your skill set, clients, references, portfolio, reputation and most importantly... what you can charge for a job. If you're not very good with graphics... team up with a graphic designer to work with you on projects. If you're not very good with server side programming and databases... team up with a developer to do work with here. You can learn from these people as you go and you will need them to win contracts. Not everyone wants a static brochure website. Some want a cms, others want e-commerce, someone else wants graphics flow charts and cool photography, etc.

Some good resources for you: www.dmxzone.com, www.flzone.com, www.fwzone.net, www.sitepoint.com (best one out there IMO).

Also, join up over on the www.irishwebmasterforum.com - there's a few good people over there that are willing to help, including myself.

If you want to PM/Email me and ask any questions, please feel free to. I had a peer to bug when I was starting out and I suppose it's my turn to do same!

Best of luck in any case,

Rgds,

Dave

p.s. an web entrepreneur doesn't need to know all this stuff... he/she just needs to know how to put the team together that does!

cianuro

wdesigner wrote:

Is there much of a market for a young entrepreneur willing to go out and work hard making (well designed and well validated) websites?[/B]

There certainly is a market. They are in VERY VERY short supply.

Get yourself a nice portfolio together. That is your best bet.

bogins

you could list a hundred technoligies on your CV ( PHP, ASP, AJAX....) and still no **** all about them because you havent used them in practice.

If you have a decent portfolio of work that illustrates your design, codig and programing skills it sill stand to you above your C.V.

My point is the proof is in the portfolio.

I believe that a good "web designer" must know how to HTML and the logic behind server side programing ( ASP ). This is why print/graphic designers produce ****e sites.

Good luck finding a job

wdesigner

Thanks very much for all the replies everybody, greatly appreciated

wdesigner

Hey DJB, I pm'ed you

DJB

wdesigner wrote:

Hey DJB, I pm'ed you

Thanks for reminder... reply sent