IT/Web design ilxors: please help!

just turned 31 and after a decade of mucking about i've realised i need a proper career. i've thought long and hard about what i feel i'm capable of and i think i'd be suited for IT/web design type work. i've got very basic experience in this kind of thing (dreamweaver, office, photoshop etc) but it's something i can imagine doing well at. there seems to be many job ads for this kind of work so it does seem relatively recession-proof.

would you guys recommend this as a career path at this stage in my life? or have i left it too late? what are the best ways of training for this type of thing? is it vital to pass various training courses or can i teach myself using instruction manuals and guidebooks?

i keep seeing job specs asking for a combination of the following: MCP/MCSA/MCSE / HTML / Photoshop / Illustrator / Fireworks / Flash / Javascript / PHP coding skills / CSS. which of these would you recommend as being worth investing in for the future?

and is this the kind of thing that can be learned part-time or is it something that requires intensive 9-5 style daily schooling?

Coders and sever guys is a usually very different careers unless your are in a very small shop

w3schools.org is a good web coding start point.

ive been thinking about this too. in fact this is a mirror of my own thoughts.

As someone who is trying to get away from IT support, I say ditch that and concentrate on the web design side.

yeah but does anyone learn to code with the express intention of ending up in IT support?

as in, what are the likely realities involved in choosing this as a career path?

That site looks very handy, thanks Jarlmai. Are you in this line of work?

I've got very basic experience in both designing and running a website so I'm undecided between which field. I suppose ideally an asst IT job in a small place which would cover both would be best. Trying to work out what home-schooling/outside certification I'd need to land a decent job.

xposts, Titchy, do contribute your own thoughts too and keep the thread updated with how things are going. Are you based in the UK too? What experience do you have so far?

- working on client projects for web agency
- working "in-house" for a company's own web site, either intranet or on the internet
- support for the above two things

two main paths for coding

- back-end programming (php, perl, etc) and database stuff (sql, etc)
- or front-end - HTML, javascript, CSS

you can teach yourself this stuff but it will take awhile. maybe take a course and then see how you like it. with a foundation you can learn more on your own.

no one has used Fireworks for approx 5 million years. also if you go the front-end route, saying you can use Dreamweaver on a job application is basically holding up a big flashing sign to your potential employer that you don't know how to write HTML. you need to learn how to do it by hand.

i know indesign, photoshop, lightroom etc, some audio production programs, worked mostly in media stuff, but i have little web design exp, but its still a somewhat creative field isnt it, so its something im looking into. but its just another option, along with bookkeeping (considering doing a sage course as lots of people seem to look for that in ads) as well as teaching. but i relate to being a similar age and trying to find your way career wise. based in london, yep. only thing about web design is it would be something ive never really done before. programming can look pretty overwhelming imo.

html + css is not really programming and you can learn the basics from e.g. a 'for dummies' book - although 'the basics' not necessarily sufficient for employment.

and also i'd say there are two main paths for web design

- design: photoshop, illustrator (the 'creative' side of things)
- coding: html, css, javascript

although depending on the type and size of the company these two might be one and the same, or you might get a separate design dept. and a dev dept. doing the front end coding and all the hard back end stuff too.

also don't always (or ever) take job specs at face value, they seem to just take every technology acronym vaguely relevant to the company as a whole and throw it in there. if the position sounds up your street but you're thinking "i don't know MCP/MCSA/MCSE!" then try and find out whether or not it really applies.

Is it an impossible task to learn CSS/html/java in spare time? And from the server guy pov, how useful is one of the MCP qualifications?

It sounds like it takes a lot more effort and skill to become design/coder guy than a server guy, is that right?

Six of one, half dozen of the other. Depends on what you're good at.

been looking at job adverts lately for this kinda stuff, they seem to want you to know every single code known to man to do the job.

also don't always (or ever) take job specs at face value, they seem to just take every technology acronym vaguely relevant to the company as a whole and throw it in there. if the position sounds up your street but you're thinking "i don't know MCP/MCSA/MCSE!" then try and find out whether or not it really applies.

― postcards from the (ledge), Tuesday, 29 June 2010 15:32 (11 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

They probably just want you to at least be confident enough to be able to learn on the job. Once you know one or two programming languages, it's a lot easier to pick up the rest as you go.

yeah agree with that, once you've shown you can learn one or two languages they'll be pretty confident that you can learn any others if necessary

ok, so someone has got in touch with me to ask if i can do a site for them at a low price. they want a portal for defferent categories of people to connect with clients, with online diaries for bookings, databases, statistics, and private messaging and also subscription payments. not sure if that makes what they want clear but it sounds way beyond what i can do. or does that sound relatively manageable to get your head around if i get the right books etc?