A common question that is put to me by aspiring web designers is:
What are the job prospect looking forward, for web designers and web programmers?
Oftentimes, they will mention web templates and other tools/technology that speed up the process of web design, seeing them as potential roadblocks for the profession:
… if these tools keep getting better and making web design easier, who’s going to need web designers?
Let me first start by saying that web designers, programmers, market specialist and all other web professionals are going to become even MORE SOUGHT AFTER, over the next many years.
Why? Simple young nerdlings, everything is jumping onto the Web. Radio stations and newspapers are going bust, magazines and books are going digital … even TV is fragmenting, where video sites like Youtube have huge audiences that rival many traditional TV networks.
But wait, there’s more!
Besides traditional media business having to go online, just about every business (large and small) NEED to have a Web presence. Today, a business without a website is like a home without electricity.
So it’s pretty clear that business needs to be on the Web and so the Web is growing like crazy. But how about them pesky templates and blogs that make putting up a website easy? Well, let me ask you, do you know how to install a blog, set up a database? Do you know how to choose a good domain name, structure a website so that it is search engine friendly? Do you know how to add sound, video, contact forms, forums …. e-commerce systems to a site? Do you know how the design a custom theme for Wordpress or Drupal?
… Now, as a web professional you may know how to do some of these things, but what I can tell you with great certainty, is just about all non-web designers no nothing about how to do these things. That’s where a web professional comes in:
- installing that blog.
- customizing the theme.
- adding the forum.
… etc.
Anyway, don’t just take my opinion on this, the LA Times just wrote an article talking about how IT professionals are finding jobs easily.
Now the article doesn’t mention web designers or programmers specifically, but you can be sure they are a serious part of the mix. One thing the article does mention though, is that the more skills you have, the greater chance you will get a job and the more money you will make – something I’ve been pushing for years: web designers need to evolve into 21st century web designers and learn:
.. Just knowing how to design won’t cut it anymore.
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
