Any web designers here

[Scream]

Well are there? If so show us your work

 

And i might get my act together and get my site up and running.

 

[j1983m]

how do u become a web designer?? im at uni studying multimedia design in the hope of one day becoming one but they are teaching us sh*t all!

 

and also... any job u see says at least 2 years exerience ... if u need the exp to get a job how do u get a job in the first place to get the experience???

 

i am lost and feel as tho the whole thing is a waste of time!!! ... and money!

[Scream]

i know what you mean. Damn them. I studied networks and communication and stuff like Flash, Director, UltraDev, Photoshop, and programming langs i did on the side.

 

But i'm slowly get myself together in that area thanks to a mate that keeps telling me to get a site done. But i keep saying i've done no end of coding for him i could just show his work, lol.

 

You got any stuff upped?

 

[ 19 July 2002, 20:27: Message edited by: Scream ]

[Signum]

Hey dont worry 1983 (hmmmm annoying name ) the deal with most media industries is that yes you need experience but all that really means is a familiarity with your chosen speciality, so what I would suggest is that you simply set yourself some projects to advance your knowledge and comfort with web designing so once you start making some tasty ones you send these to as many people as possible - like almost any creative job its about getting noticed and constantly sending out your details and examples of your work and then following up these with email/phonecalls etc.

 

I am studying architecture right now and I often wonder the same thing "what does this have to do with getting a job?" but what you have to realise is that University can only really give you the groundwork for what you are going into, once you start working everyone I've talked to agrees that this is when you learn the most useful skills and in fact many things that simply won't be picked up at Uni.

 

I hope this makes some sense and helps a little, most people I've talked about this subject say basically the same as what I have above.

 

Good luck!

 

Sig

 

ps one more thing "Doing something is the best way to learn stuff" - Thats my own quote, I made it like.... right now!

 

hee hee

[alasdairm]

quote:

---

Well are there? If so show us your work

---

hey

 

i wouldn't call myself a designer but i have three websites:

 

http://www.magicglasses.com

http://www.headlessdinosaurs.org

http://www.gonks.org

 

the first one is associated with my burning man camp and has a lot of photos. headlessdinosaurs is an art project and gonks is just stupid...

 

i write the html myself which explains the functional appearance of all three...

 

check them out and let me know what you think...

 

alasdair

[Scream]

gonks is wikid. I remember them, dont' seem to know where to get them again. Think i might go up town tomorrow and hunt one down.

 

I'm currently working on a flash site for myself. Got the layout and other things sorted, i.e. some of the programming to control the content slider. But otherwise i'm doing a little experiment with it at the moment.

 

I'm the type of person that designs and hates it. Just got to stick through with it i guess

[alasdairm]

quote:

---

how do u become a web designer?? im at uni studying multimedia design in the hope of one day becoming one but they are teaching us sh*t all!

---

what are they teaching you?

 

i felt the same way at college and university mostly but i think, now i've been working for a while, that i actually learned more at college than i thought. i'd make the following observations:

 

- at college you generally get taught a fair amount of theory. when you think about the 'what' of actually doing a job, it's mostly practice and there is a skill to drawing a line between the theory and the practice. sometimes it's hard (not to sound condescending but especially if you have never worked in a 'proper job' before) to draw that line and that feeling often manifests itself as "i'm not learning anything useful".

 

be encouraged because you will find that you get opportunities to apply the theory you learned in practical situations and you'll be like "oh yeah..."

 

also (mostly without realising it) i learned a lot of soft skills at college and uni. things like ability to research, ability to abstract and communicate information, ability to analyse things, tc. a whole host of skills that i didn't realise i was learning and honing.

 

quote:

---

and also... any job u see says at least 2 years exerience ... if u need the exp to get a job how do u get a job in the first place to get the experience???

---

i suppose, for many people looking for a first job, the experience catch-22 is a huge pain. i'd make the following comments:

 

a lot of employers put that kind of stuff on their adverts to keep away time wasters. granted, there are some employers who genuinely will not give somebody a job unless they have the requisite experience but normally, a potential manager just wants to know you can do the job and do it well. asking for someone with experience is an easy way (our manager thinks) to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

 

try thinking of related experience you have which you might not think relevant - volunteer work at the student union, participation in a class committee or something like that. these are trite examples but the point i'm malking is that you need to learn to spin what you have into something somebody else wants to hear.

 

i'm not suggesting for one second that you lie or elaborate but often you can make a case for certain experience being relevant when, at first perhaps, it does not seem to be.

 

also, you always have the opportunity to do work on the side (probably for free). find a friend who is an artist, musician, whatever. offer to put together their website for them and you can create experience out of nothing. you also get to learn one of the most valuable skills of all (in my opinion): how great it is working for yourself.

 

it's learning to sell yourself well, i guess.

 

anyway, sorry to ramble on

 

alasdair

 

[ 19 July 2002, 22:15: Message edited by: alasdairm ]

[alasdairm]

quote:

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gonks is wikid. I remember them, dont' seem to know where to get them again. Think i might go up town tomorrow and hunt one down.

---

thanks - it's a silly, fun thing...

 

if you do track one down, mail me a picture and i'll add you to the site

 

alasdair

[j1983m]

hey every1 ... thanks for the things you have said ... im feeling after reading it. i guess most people coming out of college/uni are in the same situation. i have just finished my first year so maybe things will get better.

[Scream]

i've just finished and it is tough, but constant sloggin will get you there

 

Alas i will send a pic if i am able to find one.

[Scream]

couldn't get to sleep last night so i carried on reading PHP for Flash. Not bad and i'm starting to get my head around PHP.

 

Does anyone find that when learning a programming language it just seems to go in the one ear and out the other?