Stefan

You said:

“I’ve started my own web design business and the only thing holding me back is under-quoting jobs and project slippage, neither of which would have been covered in a web design degree”

Yea, common story. I will be covering quoting in an upcoming session of the my ‘Business of Web Design’ series:

http://www.killersites.com/magazine/category/web-design/business-of-web-design/

I covered some web design / programming during my degree in Computer Network Tech but my career as a web designer has happened through seeking out online tutorials, the occasional book, and building up my knowledge over time.

I have done the odd college course but in general I feel that by the time a college course gets the green light and is rolled out, the information is slightly out of date. Unless the tutor / professor is really on the ball, you’re not going to find out about the latest tips, tricks and IE hacks (thankfully not so necessary now) that simply subscribing to a dozen or so RSS feeds can give.

My 2-year web design position at a small marketing / design agency happened because the boss liked my portfolio and I was able to go to the interview and carry out some tasks to show my aptitude. Subsequently (via redundancy) I’ve started my own web design business and the only thing holding me back is under-quoting jobs and project slippage, neither of which would have been covered in a web design degree (unless they had a business module?). A formal education is definitely not essential in this field. It would help stop some bad habits though (structure is important).

I can think of a few successful people who did not complete school:

– Michael Dell
– Bill Gates
– Steve Jobs

… Need I say more?

Stefan