web development

[bhamblin]

I am changing my career path - interested in web development. What are basic qualifications and are there many opportunities in this field? What are beginning salary ranges, What are training/educational requirements needed to start out, become proficient, become experienced with wide knowledge base? Any advice for someone wanting to enter this field?

[PeOfEo]

It is pretty packed. You are going to need a good knowledge in (x)html, css, and a server side language if you want to be hireable by a company or work as a freelance developer. Professional web site design can pay pretty well per site for freelance design, but a yearly salary would depend on how many clients you have in a year. A good guy to talk to would be ribeyed, he does this for a living, where as I am just trying to make a few part time bucks with this.

[buntine]

It really depends on whether your interested in web programming or web designing...

Both have highs and lows. Post again with some extra details.

Regards,
Andrew Buntine.

[emma12345]

A good aproach to this is that you can start from the Top and act more like a manager

This will mean you will be earning at the same time learning.

You can outsource your work load to freelancers or outsourcing companies who will do your work at a lower cost

Take for example outsourcing to Romania, this has been on the news lately.. cnet, computerworld and other places.

Its a good place to start of with. and you can have your workers teach you stuff as well..


Hope this helps


__________________

[Dark Dragon]

Web Development, eh?

Well, here's my advice as I trained in Web Graphics, Multimedia and all.

Try to start your own service and forget about working for someone else.

I have been looking for a job in such a field for almost three years and can't get anywhere....even entry level jobs require a year of experience and with all those jobs being shipped overseas the problem is even bigger.

When I started my college it seemed like web developers and the like were in short supply and now I cannot even get a pt job doing this so I am just gonna give up on it..what a waste of time and money.

Or you can try something specialized or cater to a particular industry....

[toicontien]

It's been my experience when talking to people that those with server-side programming experience and database experience, along with web design experience are considerably more desireable. There is a difference between web DESIGN and web DEVELOPMENT.

The latter assumes you are more server-centric. The fact remains that point-and-click web design programs like Dreamweaver and Frontpage make it seem like design is easy, and any idiot can do it with the right software. I've seen a lot of professionally designed sites that break basic design rules, and sometimes completely ignore the fact that they exist.

Make yourself stand out by learning proper design, and that doesn't just stop at graphics and multimedia. It really begins with writing and creating a site that's readable to begin with.

You're going to see two groups in web design: The graphic artists who may not know squat about usability and just want a site to look pretty, and the hard-coders who focus more on readability and usability than visual aesthetics.

Some good places to start:

The Bathing Ape Has No Clothes (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/bathingape/)

Everything I learned about web design I learned from watching OZ (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/oz/)

Reading Design (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/readingdesign/)

Information vs. Experience (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/infoexperience/)

The above article points out the two main philosophies in web design. It's a bit outdated perhaps being published in late 2001, but it's an interesting read.

The bottom line is you are employable if you can demonstrate that you can make an easy-to-navigate, readable and aesthetically pleasing web site.

Oh, and you really should move into a tech-savvy market. That always helps. Mount Pleasant, MI is NOT tech savvy :)

[PeOfEo]

Originally posted by toicontien
It's been my experience when talking to people that those with server-side programming experience and database experience, along with web design experience are considerably more desireable. There is a difference between web DESIGN and web DEVELOPMENT.

The latter assumes you are more server-centric. The fact remains that point-and-click web design programs like Dreamweaver and Frontpage make it seem like design is easy, and any idiot can do it with the right software. I've seen a lot of professionally designed sites that break basic design rules, and sometimes completely ignore the fact that they exist.

Make yourself stand out by learning proper design, and that doesn't just stop at graphics and multimedia. It really begins with writing and creating a site that's readable to begin with.

You're going to see two groups in web design: The graphic artists who may not know squat about usability and just want a site to look pretty, and the hard-coders who focus more on readability and usability than visual aesthetics.

Some good places to start:

The Bathing Ape Has No Clothes (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/bathingape/)

Everything I learned about web design I learned from watching OZ (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/oz/)

Reading Design (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/readingdesign/)

Information vs. Experience (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/infoexperience/)

The above article points out the two main philosophies in web design. It's a bit outdated perhaps being published in late 2001, but it's an interesting read.

The bottom line is you are employable if you can demonstrate that you can make an easy-to-navigate, readable and aesthetically pleasing web site.

Oh, and you really should move into a tech-savvy market. That always helps. Mount Pleasant, MI is NOT tech savvy :) But like I said before to be a developer you are going to need to know your stuff as far as (x)html and css are concerened. Because through you might be doing encryption, dynamic images, data bases, you still need to know your output and have valid output. So no matter which path you take you are going to need a strong foundation in css and (x)html.

[toicontien]

Originally posted by PeOfEo
But like I said before to be a developer you are going to need to know your stuff as far as (x)html and css are concerened. Because through you might be doing encryption, dynamic images, data bases, you still need to know your output and have valid output. So no matter which path you take you are going to need a strong foundation in css and (x)html.
I second that motion :D

[emma12345]

Originally posted by Dark Dragon
Web Development, eh?

Well, here's my advice as I trained in Web Graphics, Multimedia and all.

Try to start your own service and forget about working for someone else.

I have been looking for a job in such a field for almost three years and can't get anywhere....even entry level jobs require a year of experience and with all those jobs being shipped overseas the problem is even bigger.

When I started my college it seemed like web developers and the like were in short supply and now I cannot even get a pt job doing this so I am just gonna give up on it..what a waste of time and money.

Or you can try something specialized or cater to a particular industry....

You are rght there,

I am a developer myself... but now this market can turn against you sometimes, that is why now I rather not fight the competition but rather to go with the flow.

This is what I was proposing that you start working on the business development first, by taking advantage of those who will do it at a cheaper price and you won't even need to do the work, just make a profit and even charge lower.

You can learn all the skills you want but getting a job is more important. I have been outsourcing for years now and its a tough market when you have price as the factor... it virtually becomes impossible to compete and stay in business if you were to do it yourself.

[buntine]

Hey? I had to stop trading, i was getting too much business...

I was a web developer and focused mainly on back-end database programming. I was contracted by seveeral companies and eventually i had to just start saying no. though, i still work for 2 companies on the side.

From my experience, i have seen an abundance of jobs in the web development industry.. Infact i have been offered several ft jobs in the past 6 months. though, im still so young so i would rather get some real qualifications first.

Mayby you people should start working in the software development area rather than the web/graphic design area.

Just a thought.

Regards,
Andrew Buntine.