I would be a little mindful of taking local courses for web development as the majority of them seem to be run by amateurs that learnt in their spare time 4-5 years ago (from what I have seen and heard from friends).
So how easy is it to make money from web design these days?
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I would be a little mindful of taking local courses for web development as the majority of them seem to be run by amateurs that learnt in their spare time 4-5 years ago (from what I have seen and heard from friends).
Yeah this is another factor that's preventing me from knowing where to go! I can start messing around in my own time, creating a website, cutting it up and writing the code for it etc but then another wall comes, which language should I be using, I know HTML/CSS as do most the population
Soldato
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To start with, any language will do. Once you've got a good solid undestanding of 1, it'll take you a fraction of the time to learn another as the building blocks are the same, just the methodology that differs.
My advice would be to learn procedural PHP, then move on to object orientation. Once you've got OO down, the world is your bivalve mollusc.
My advice would be to learn procedural PHP, then move on to object orientation. Once you've got OO down, the world is your bivalve mollusc.
- Are you employed in web design?
Run a website design company
- Do you think it's better to specialise in a niche aspect of web coding, or to try and be a jack of all trades?
I personally think it's better to employ someone who is a bit of a jack of all trades. Often, when handling projects customers will require different aspects of each, and they prefer it to be dealt with by one person rather than one to another to another, so I'd really recommend learning the basics of each and developing from then
Funny hearing the views of a 'boss'. They always want a jack of all trades, but the reality is you'll get a master of none.
From my experience working in digital agencies they never recruit a jack of all trades simply because they never look for one (know they don't exist). They will always go for separate UX, Designers, Devs, Producers etc. The customer will usually always deal with the PM, so it doesnt matter how many people are working on a project.
I consider myself a fairly competent programmer but am sometimes left asking myself why I do things a certain way and whether it could/should be done differently. Understanding the theory is very important in my opinion. I also think a book, as a single point of reference, can be very powerful as it will use similar language, terminology and naming conventions so that when learning a new topic ambiguity is kept to a minimum.
Granted, if its just a casual interest and you'd be using a lot of third party technology you should be able to scrape by by looking on forums and so on; but for anyone wishing to take it remotely seriously then I think books are a must.
You are unlikely to find someone who is a "jack of all trades" in the classical sense but as far as I have seen, within web development it refers to a developer who can do, html, css, javascript, php, mysql a decent level of server admin and a good knowledge of graphics software.
I have never ever seen a top quality designer who can code well and vice versa.
I have never ever seen a top quality designer who can code well and vice versa.
Soldato
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Great thread, I'm 33 years young and looking to reinvent myself and hopefully get a job in this sector. I have a subscription at treehouse and they have some good resources for learning the basics.
Are the main things to learn still:-
HTML
CSS
jQuery
Javascript
PHP & mysql
Anything else?
Is there still much work going around these days?
Are the main things to learn still:-
HTML
CSS
jQuery
Javascript
PHP & mysql
Anything else?
Is there still much work going around these days?
Soldato
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Yes I'm currently employed as web developer.
I work for small company.
Full Time, but thinking to move onto contract work in a few years
I'm a Full stack web developer, which basically means you cover all the different programming languages in any given projects.
I got a graduate job at a huge firm after I completed my CS degree. It's very difficult to get a job at the start, I personally have 0 web development skills, I understand the basics of programming and was able to code to some degree in C++ and Java, but I had never written a line of PHP/HTML/CSS/Javascript. Now I have 3 years experience, and I recently moved jobs. I was able to secure 5 offers in 3 weeks which is simple amazing. This is off course in London.
Javascript along with a backend language is key I feel. I see the web moving towards a backend API and single page Javascript front so these 2 will be key. For backend language I might recommend Python or Ruby, there are a lot of PHP/.Net developers the world over, and you could hire some dude in Indian for example to work for a tiny rate compared to a UK developer, but I have not seen much Python or Ruby being outsourced, it seems safer to learn.
I think its best to start of all around, and be competent in all things. then specialise as you gain more experience, it is much harder to become a senior full stack developer but much easier to be a senior front end/back end developer from my experience.
Discuss!
Soldato
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- Are you employed in web design?
Kind of I am an ICT Technician / Web Developer
- Do you work for yourself, or are you embedded in a firm?
Firm
- Full time or contract work?
Full Time
- What field of web design?
Mainly PHP/MySQL but I can use HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery to a professional standard to support . But I can't produce anything to flash or arty.
- How did you start?
Self taught.
- What coding languages would you say are a must these days?
It depends, bigger firms tend to want masters of a single area (server or client side) and smaller firms will probably prefer a jack of all trades.
- Do you think it's better to specialise in a niche aspect of web coding, or to try and be a jack of all trades?
I'd say all of the following no matter what role you are in.
Kind of I am an ICT Technician / Web Developer
- Do you work for yourself, or are you embedded in a firm?
Firm
- Full time or contract work?
Full Time
- What field of web design?
Mainly PHP/MySQL but I can use HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery to a professional standard to support . But I can't produce anything to flash or arty.
- How did you start?
Self taught.
- What coding languages would you say are a must these days?
It depends, bigger firms tend to want masters of a single area (server or client side) and smaller firms will probably prefer a jack of all trades.
- Do you think it's better to specialise in a niche aspect of web coding, or to try and be a jack of all trades?
I'd say all of the following no matter what role you are in.
- Always know HTML/CSS to a high standard no matter what.
- Ensure you can work with JavaScript jQuery such as modifying existing code or implemenet solutions found on the web.
- Have some understand of a back end language such as PHP.
- Have some understanding of Databases
- Have a decent level of understanding of supporting and deploying web enivornments such as basix linux skills and being able to set up /manage an AMP stack.
Associate
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- Halifax
Not web design, but web development in general.
Small company
Full time
Full stack (PHP/Javascript/HTML/CSS)
Self taught
Definitely Javascript (Node.js) as it's becoming very popular
It depends on the type of work. Large companies looking for contracted work usually look for specific areas of development.
Yes Just moved over from client/server programming.
Firm
F/T
All , UX, back end etc
Got moved to a new team learn to learn something new to add to my knowledge.
JS is the big one with some librarys (angular, node, jquery etc) Then knowledge of HTML, CSS and such is also key. Bit of C# aswell if your handling aspx or anything like that.
Jack of all trades but with a focus, I think its better to be able to turn your hand to anything but at the same time be very good at a certain tech.
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Soldato
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Exactly this! At the agency I work for (just over 60 of us), we have dedicated teams for UX, Front End, Back End, Designers, Copywriters, Media, SEO, Analytics, Account Managers and Project Managers. As such, we only hire people who are highly talented in their field.
Obviously there always needs to be some small amount of overlap as everyone needs enough knowledge of related fields so, for example, you don't get UX or design handing something over to front end that's impossible to do.
It's also good for collaborative work. What we've found works well is to have frequent, but short catchups with everyone attached to a project where we go through progress regardless of what stage the project is in.
Generally speaking, UX, Design and Front End are quite linked, so we've found that each can have excellent input on the others, which leads to better and higher quality work being done.
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Soldato
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- London
It is not always true, I have had 3 jobs as a Full stack/Jack of all trades developer. Some companies prefer to have everything separated, others loved that I was skilled across the full stack. I would say it depends firm, to firm. However the higher up you get the more specialised you have to become, I have never really seen a full stack lead/senior developer, their either backend or front end.