i’m in my junior year of high school and i want to major in web design/development.
but i don’t know if i should attend a university or a technical college.
i’m thinking technical college, so i just focus on my major instead of wasting money on classes i won’t even need.
however, i don’t know what most employers would prefer.
What’s The Best Path For Web Design?
February 26th, 2010 by CTO WebOjO.com website designers Lahore Pakistan Leave a reply »
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I agree with the previous comments, but would like to add a bit more….
Experience is a must in this field, but with the job market so competitive, we almost always take the applicant with the degree over the one who doesn’t (all qualifications equal). A bachelor’s is better than an associate’s. Don’t think of it as a waste of time. You will want to show that you have what it takes to get through college (it’s not just about the degree – it represents a lot more).
You want to go ahead and learn some of the tools of the trade to see if it’s what you really want.
LEARN THE CODE
Learn XHTML, CSS and PHP for starters. You want to also become familiar with MySQL. These are all freebies and you don’t need the professional software to learn them. There are lots of free tutorials online for this stuff. Once you master those, you might want to move into JavaScript and/or AJAX. You might also want to dabble into multimedia stuff such as putting videos on the Web or using Flash (both will require software).
I can’t stress enough about the need to understand database queries. Websites are no longer static HTML pages – they are dynamic and database-driven.
GET FAMILIAR WITH THE SOFTWARE
Professionals use Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver (among other things), but don’t depend on Dreamweaver for your code.
GIVE IT A TRY
Go ahead and get a domain name and some cheapo hosting at GoDaddy.com (if it’s in your budget). Your domain name will be about $8/year and the hosting is as cheap as $4.00 a month. There are other free hosting places out there, but many don’t offer the same tools such as the back-end database.
Make websites for your family, friends, etc… just to practice.
DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF
One last thing – it’s always helpful to learn about Web servers. It will help when you are in the know about how the server works and should be configured.
Good luck to you
In this field, employers tend to look for experience rather than education (most of the time). So, if I were you, I would start building a portfolio now (build sites, create graphics, etc.) Then I would look into local tech. schools and universities and see what each has to offer. A tech school may be best if you are certain that is what you want to do bc a tech school with only train you in the field you go into. Whereas, a university will give you a more well-rounded education and expose you to various fields. So, look up schools on the web, request information, and see whats best for you!
Im in the same year you are and want to do what your doing….if it were ME I’d pick a technical school.
1) it sounds cooler lol
2) it’s probably more prestigious, and your right, why take all those classes you won’t need.
3) employers are most likely worried about whether or not you went to college and not WHERE you went