Learning Web Design

[Guest JLM226]

I am currently enrolled in an online program through a state university in Interactive Digital Media. For starters, the program itself is very poorly run and I don't feel like I'm getting the feedback I need. This is my first semester in this program and will most likely be my last. I have been looking into other web design programs, and found one that I like. What I'm wondering is whether or not it is really necessary or worthwhile to persue certification. I went on Amazon and ordered books on creating vector art and on HTML/CSS which I will use to help develop my skills. What I would like to know is whether or not having a certificate/degree in web design really makes a difference or would it be just as good to learn on my own? I already have a Bachelor's Degree in Art and received a Master's Degree in Publications Design about 5 years ago.

 

To those that work and/or hire people in the field, how much weight does formal training have? How did you go about learning web design? Whether I wind up getting formal training or not, would you recommend learning Javascript or another programming language?

[LSW]

You just started rocking my hobby horse.

 

Normally I would say everything, but with you degrees it likely would not matter much. But let me tell you my story:

 

I actually learned web design as it was the first class I could get the unemployment office to pay for after a long unemployment stint. So I attended what was basically a web design training course (no longer existing) in Potsdam Germany, 1999 - 2000 and received a certificate. The original idea was after graduation we were all to work for a new company doing "Puzzle piece" design, creating parts that the user could put together online themselves. It failed before graduation, but ended up teaching us HTML & AHTML (a language they made up themselves). No CSS, JavaScript, Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator as well as ASP (with a teacher who did not know the language we learned to use with ASP and so was worthless) and Python (The greatest thing ever in programming! You see how wildly successful it was...). So I have my certificate of training, given to me two or three months after the great "Dot Com Crash" of 2000 when all the awesome web based business started drop[ping like flies and I was tossed into a market flooded with experienced people. Of a class of 25, one became a web designer but lost his job two years later as such business continued to lose money. A couple of us made a go at freelancing, but none ever made it as far as I know including me.

 

So after almost 2 years unemployment, they sent me to school once more in Berlin, 2002, to be a web programmer. PHP, Perl, Java and C/C++. I got my certificate and went back on unemployment. Just a few odd's and end's short jobs and freelance work, mostly volunteering to build up something to show employers. I also began learning and then championing Accessible Web Development, joined some organizations and began teaching it here at KS. Oh, and a whole lot of failed interviews.

 

Let me take a moment to admit that Germany at this time was becoming more and more anti-American, especially under Chancellor Shroeder. Also Berlin's unemployment rate was about 30% and around 75% among foreigners.

 

So I quit what I was doing and returned state side in 2006, where I applied, but found little interest in me. The one serious chance I had is mostly what I am leading up to. A Headhunter found me and knew of an opening for a big commercial company in Detroit he had supplied people to before. This company handled web work for the likes of the US Postal Service and US Navy. So I bought a suit and drove across Michigan for the interview. Their were some "Issues" surrounding a drive like that and making an appointment on time, but in the end the interviewer liked me. So she, Head of the Personnel Department left me feeling good about it and suggested to the Headhunter that I had it, but needed a phone interview with the section leader I would work with. I thought the interview went well. I then was told by the headhunter that even after the first lady approved me, this fellow did not to both their and my surprise. The reason was "He did not feel that I could handle the stress of the job being without a college education."

 

This marked the turning point for me and my slide away from Web Development. You see, prior to learning web design I spent 7 years in the US Army Berlin Brigade. 110 miles inside East Germany and surrounded by Russian combat troops during the cold war. I was Infantry and the last 3 years in the Public Affairs Office where I did such things as Press escort for international news companies, including the removal of "Check Point Charlie." I got to meet heads of state that day. My paperwork was in to join special forces and I had my marching orders for Desert Shield when I shattered my leg and was Medically Discharged. After that I did security work that ended with me working as a body guard for a daughter company off Mercedes_Benz and Asea Grown Boverie (ABB) and the CEO I protected was considered the best known man in Denmark next to Hans Christian Anderson. He was their champion boxer, so like a retired George Foreman or Mohamed Allie.

 

This is not meant as bragging, it is to show how much pressure I have handled in my adult life, just to be told this guy did not think I could handle pressure because I did not go to a university to get drunk and chase girls for 4 years. I defended my country and West Berlin instead. Talk about a kick in the teeth. That was my only real bite at a good job. Instead I was unemployed again and living with my parents.

 

It was clear, the US I left where a military background was said to open doors was gone in the last 25 years. So I began looking for a degree, and soon discovered most of them were a joke. I was finding organizations teaching web design with tables, no CSS and even teaching that XHTML was the replacement for HTML. I could but shake my head. But then I found ITT (Not as well advertised then as now) and signed up for a n Associates degree in Web Development. But being without a job and having a bickering father. I chose a paying job in Alaska over unemployed education and grabbed the wife and kid and went "North to Alaska."

 

That job was not what I hoped so I took a position with the State of Alaska where I still am today. They had no real positions bu a dead end one in web developing so I am now a programmer. Fed up with the IT business as a whole and now suffering some mental degeneration from some Psycho health issues I find I have forgotten more about web design than many degree holders likely ever knew. I am trying to find another career path where I am at best a "user" if not with no contact with computers at all. But anyone care to guess what I am discovering?

 

Degrees, if you do not have one you are a pointy metal object turned to dig itself into an object like a wall. But I challenge you all to look at job listings and see what they want. It seems, at least in Alaska commercially and the that, that any degree is no longer enough. More and more jobs require at least a Bachelors degree! Associate degrees are not even guaranteed to get you a job anymore.

 

Aside from Associate degrees not being enough and being penalized for serving the country, my greatest pet peeve is this. In many cases, as with the state, it is the degree and not the subject. Your degree can be in a subject nowhere near the job description and you can get it. I know a woman who wanted a supervisory as an accountant and had only been an accountant a short time, but she got the job over a more experienced state employee and long time accountant because she had a degree... In German. Unfortunately we have no ITT in Juneau and the University of Southeast Alaska has no language degree I could get quickly for my 25 years of German language.

 

So for others reading this, go to school and get a higher degree, in anything and it will help. Do not assume a university has top notch training, all to often we have seen grads come inhere spouting out dated practices they just learned. Investigate and be sure the instructors are teaching what the market needs now and not 10 years ago. ITT uses experienced, if not working instructors who teach what the market wants.

 

To answer your question specifically, I doubt that you need official training for it with the degrees you already have. Most of us, including Stef (the owner) are self taught. You could get away without it, but all others wanting to actually work for a company and not freelance, I strongly suggest you get a degree, the higher the better.

[LSW]

Ooooops... Longer than I thought... Ya'all can skip to the last 4 paragraphs if you wish. The rest is trying to make a long winded point.

 

I guess the reverend has been off his soapbox for to long.

[falkencreative]

Overall, I have found that employers don't really care about a degree if you have a portfolio of quality work that demonstrates that you know what you are doing.

 

That said, I think it also depends on what part of web design you plan to be focusing on. If you are going to be a programmer, there are a lot of resources out there to learn coding on your own. If you are more of a designer, with less focus on programming, having a strong background in graphic design is really helpful. To some extent, you can learn that on your own, but I have found that it is really helpful to learn in a classroom environment and be around other designers/potential designers as you are learning.

[webzarus]

Everyone has a preferred method of learning... some prefer learning in the structured environment of a classroom, some prefer to learn as you go.

 

I am self taught and have more respect for those that have taken and shown the initiative to "teach themselves" something challenging. I currently have someone that has a degree in graphic design ( yes that was on their resume and diploma )... but struggles to create a simple design layout in powerpoint for a presentation... so resume's and certifications are sometimes overlooked if a "design portfolio" indicates the individuals actual skills.

 

Depending on if the potential employer actually has any knowledge of what you'll be doing... this will determine the benefit of the certification... some will require a basic certification, where others will ask for it, but will give more weight to actual "demonstrated skills"...

 

A certification may however get you in the door for potential employment interviews