Advice for a college graduate interested in web design

[TrytoAnimate]

I am posting this question here, as I'm sure most of you have more experience than I do and can maybe offer me some advice. I graduated 4 years ago from a university with a BA degree in Communications focusing primarily in Web Design & Advertising. Upon graduating I was offered a job with very low pay, and quite a far distance from my house. Looking back, I wish I had took the job for merely the resume experience, but I opted for survival & social interaction and continued life as a bartender. Over the past 4 years, I have constantly had people asking me to do sites for them, and I am more than happy to because I enjoy doing it. Over the past year, the private club that I work for told me they wanted to get a website up and asked me if I'd be interested in helping run it for them. For whatever reason, the GM was impressed at how easy I handled things and keeps telling me I'm in the wrong industry and need to get back to doing something like that full-time. Ironically, I've been feeling the same way for a long time.

Here is where I'm at now. I'm currently working on my digital portfolio in flash to show a little of what I've done and what I am capable of. I had been running flash 5.0 for the longest time, and only recently started toying with a trial version of MX 2004 when flash 8 came out. I have been thinking about just getting the upgrade along with the tutorial CDs I've seen out there. Also, I lack a lot of confidence when it comes to html, I will admit that. I primarily use Dreamweaver as my editor, and I understand how to go into the html and fix things which may be enough to impress the average person who has no knowledge of web design, but from a designer's point of view I am probably far behind the times. I have also debated simply going back to school for my masters to really get a grip on design and coding aspects, but several people tell me that I don't need to do that. All I know for certain is that I want to get the confidence I need to be able to take on any project that anyone throws at me and not get in over my head.

So my question to anyone who is listening is what exactly do I need to get done to get my head back in the game? Is there anyone out there who has went through what I am going through? I honestly just want to pick a zip code along the east coast (I need to be semi-near the ocean lol), move there and either start work or go back to school. I have absolutely nothing holding me back and have no ties to anyone or anything. Ideally I would LOVE to work for a company and do more than JUST web design, as my social skills would go to waste sitting in front of a computer 24/7, but at this point I just want to get the ball rolling.

Questions, comments, theories? Any advice anyone could offer would be GREATLY appreciated.

-Chris

[donaldparkerii]

I landed a killer eLearning job. As for tutorial CDs I would recomend lynda.com, that should get you up to speed for everything multimedia. Take a few jobs where you dont make much money but you get the experience (i dont know what your portfolio looks like now). Then check out craigslist thats how I have found my jobs for the last year or two. This is just my advice... take it or leave it

[Rilian20]

find the firm you want to work for. Get a job there. Work as a receptionist, garbageman, maintainance man, coffee gofer - whatever. Show them how wonderful you are to work with. If you are a bartender - you must love working with people. A designer with a healthily pruned ego would be welcome on most teams. Remember, people don't care what you know until they know that you care. That's why you are doing what you're doing with the business you're in. (in the context of developing a website for the bar).

Even better - find somewhere where you can sell. It seems people want to work with you. You can generate alot of money this way and help a company grow. That's what I'm doing. I have a BFA in design and production. I love flash, I love photoshop and illustrator and staying up and just learning. That's what I'd love to do - however, what my company needs now is someone to help grow their business. Get out there. Do your best and don't be afraid to piss off a few CEOs. You're young and it's not only excuseable, it's somewhat expected. Go make some mistakes you can learn from and take your valuable people skills you learned bartending with you. Never look back on that time as a waste.


Joe


Joseph Cook
Director, Business Development
J House Media
joe@jhousemedia.com