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Looking for college advice for a career in web design. - Web Design Forum: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Graphic Design, Web Development discussions
Hello everyone. I'm new here (as you can see by my post count), and I'm hoping some of you may have some advice for me.
I'm going to be graduating from a community college in a couple weeks, and my degree will be in Electronic Media Communications - Digital Media.
My original plan was to do video editing, but a couple months ago I decided that I would rather pursue a career in web design.
I took a couple of web design classes at my current college, and it's something I really enjoy doing, and I would like to learn more.
I noticed that most colleges don't offer a 'Web Design' degree, so I'm not sure what most people do when they go to school to become web designers.
The one option I'm looking into is getting an online degree through the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division .
They offer a bachelors in web design and are pretty reputable and accredited.
I was just curious as to what most people do though, and this forum seemed like a good place to ask.
Also, I currently have a portfolio site up, with some of the work I've done on it if any of you wanna check it out for reference, to sort of see where I'm at currently as far as knowledge goes.
Thanks in advance for any help everyone.
I appreciate it.
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First this is one of the only jobs that you can get through really good portfolio rather than a degree
A degree means you understand the process and technology but does not mean you can apply this knowledge in the real world.
Work is the ticket to get into the industry here.
You need some good examples of work and the more you have the better.
You would look to get in the 'front door' by applying for a Junior position.
You wont get paid much at first but you need at least a year to earn your web wings.
Looking at your portfolio i noticed that your using tables for layout.
A BIG NoNo!! You get minus points for this.
No DocType!
Minus points for this too
You don't know enough to enter into the professional world just yet.
Start learning CSS Start coding in code view (Dreamweaver) On top of HTML, CSS, Javascript its an advantage if you understand some serverside scripting like ASP, .NET, PHP.
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Alright, thanks for the advice.
As for using tables, that's what I was taught in my current web design course.
I know it's not the best way to do it, though, which is why I want to further my education of creating web sites.
Also, for the DocType thing, are you saying "No, don't use DocType", or "No, you didn't use any DocType, and should have"?
Thanks again for the help : ) I suppose I'll have to start going through all of the tutorials on W3Schools, and learn some better techniques.
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You should use a doctype, preferably the Strict type (or Frameset type for framesets).
Use the Transitional doctype only if you have some tags that cause validation errors because they are deprecated (old and out of date and not recommended any more but still work in major browsers).
HTML or XHTML?
Even W3schools is probably out of date on this issue.
W3 schools converted all their tutorial pages to XHTML 1.0 in 1999, see
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_whyusehtml4.asp
and said XHTML is the "new" HTML .
However, that was before the standards boards decided to upgrade HTML 4.01 to HTML 5 and XHTML 1 upgraded to XHTML 2.0 (to be renamed XHTML 5).
Neither HTML 5 nor XHTML 2 is released yet.
HTML 5 is now being designed for normal websites and XHTML is to be for special XML functions like SVG and MathML which you will probably never use.
XHTML 1.1 and XHTML 2 should use content="application/xhtml+xml" instead of "text/html" to be correct but old browsers like IE6 can only process as HTML whatever you say for the content-type.
However, it is a good idea to use only lower case for tags like XHTML even though it's optional in HTML 4.01.
Sites which updated to XHTML 1.0 like w3schools haven't bothered to return to HTML but for a new website it may be better to use HTML 4.01 and later HTML 5.
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Alright, thanks for that info as well.
As far as the original topic, though, what would be a good path to take as far as college?
Would the Web Design degree from the Art Institute school I linked to in my first post be good for me you think?
Thanks again for all of your help.
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You don't really need to enroll in a university.
I think constant practice will help you achieve your goal to become a web designer.
There a lot of online tutorials available today, all you have to do is find a reputable website that offer paid or free tutorials in web design.
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As everyone else has said here, I wouldn't recommend university.
I mean, once the consumer sees you have quality work with great visuals, that's all the majority of them need.
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I am currently in college and have a strong interest in PHP and MySQL, as I love the backend operations.
However, I didn't learn any of this in college, where I do Java, C++, Oracle etc...
Anyway, my point is that because I went to college, I have a broad range of knowledge in other areas.
When you are self learning, you only learn the specifics as you need them and are missing out on the potential worthless knowedge you might gain (such as MS Access, don't get me started!).
So to get to the point, if you are interested in web design and development only and that is your chosen career, then you do not need college and a portfolio will speak far more than a degree.
However if like me, you are interested in general software development and database interaction etc..., a broad knowledge is the way to go.
On another note, there is a huge difference between knowing the theory and doing the practical work.
College leans more towards the theory IMHO.
And my final point, there are many exams you can sit outside of college related to web design and development.
These are specialised exams and maybe are what you are looking for.
W3Schools are offering a few certification exams.
Personally I wouldn't recognise these, and I wouldn't imagine many would.
Certifications are generally recognised if they are awarded by the group responsible for the content.
Here's some certifications you might be interested in: W3Schools Certifications MySQL Zend PHP Certification
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I agree with Alan
however let me tell you a story
a few years ago i applied for a job in Dubai.
It was working on the national bank's online ebanking solution.
A cracking job. about £100K tax free.
The candidates were whittled down until there were 2.
Me, with 10 years experience and a young guy with a computer science degree and 2 year experience.
They chose the other guy only because of the degree.
(or thats what they said)
Obviously down to the project inhand and you can see why they may favor this other guy.
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If you are looking to do web design, you can study multimedia, if you want the basics of designing and building a site, graphic design if you want to be very proficient at designing sites, or programming if you are looking to develop back end database driven sites.
You need to ask yourself which you would be more comfortable doing before deciding on a course of action.
The programming side you can learn from a book, but would recommend a course if you are looking at the graphic design side of web development.
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That's a lot of good info everyone.
Thanks. I guess the main thing is that I will have my Associates in Applied Science for Electronic Media Communications, and I just feel like I need more.
I guess it's because everyone I know basically gets a bachelors degree at least.
It's like the standard it seems, so I feel like I have to have one if I want to succeed.
I just want to make sure I have a secure future you know?
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Hi Craig,
I'm sort of like you.
I worked in the newspaper industry and I left for awhile.
I wanted to get back in but I realized that newspapers are going to the Web.
So I went to my local community college this past Fall and this month I'll be getting a certificate in Web development.
(Design really.)
I wanted my certificate because one, I knew nothing about Web design and two, I knew that employers wanted to see some type of certificate or degree that I can do it.
While a lot of guys here are saying you should rather get the experience over the degree, I'm telling you that you need to get both.
I'll tell you why.
Back in the 1940s, you could walk into a newspaper and get a job, even if you didn't finish high school.
Back then, they use to teach you the trade.
Now, they won't even return an e-mail if you don't have a journalist or English degree.
Is it fair? No way, but that's the way it is.
The same is true right now with the Web design industry.
You might get a great job now without a university degree, but later down the road the industry will most likely change and want to see someone with a degree.
So, as I tell everyone on here, go get a degree in what you want to do.
Besides, you're young and you have the time.
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