16 - Web-Designer - Not taken seriously -Need Job

[samsonknight]

Hi,

I am 16, a freelance web designer and semi programmer.

I had a job lined up for me this summer, to work on my schools intranet site:

http://www.angelfire.com/emo/samsonknight/fhs2.html

I made a template (as shown above) and compared it to the professional web designer site that my school hired for there internet site:

http://www.foresthillschool.net

So that I can prove that I have good skills in both HTML and flash.

And so far the guy who has supposeably hired me has not replied, he says he will look at it but has not replied.

I feel discriminated and feel like I have not been taken seriously. I mean they approached me with the job in the first place. Yes I am 16 just finished my schooling but it doesnt mean that I am **** because of my age. I have spent almost 2 years learning various programs and languages, such as Flash5, Poser 4 , Bryce 5, HTML, Photoshop,QBasic, Javascript, Actionscripting etc. And feel that all that I have learnt has been a waste.

I know I am not the best web designer around, and I certainly dont think I am. But all I need to complete my training is some work that requires me to use my skills. I know I have protential, but without any work, how am I going to develop my protential.

Well if you are intrested in my work, my portfolio web address is:

http://www.angelfire.com/emo/samsonknight - The design needs a bit of working on, which I will be doing soon.
Server is slow because its angelfire which is free and the only thing i can afford.

Alternatively you can e-mail me at samsonknight@btinternet.com

Thanks for reading this essay . I will be looking foward to your replies.

[erova]

web site development is a lot more than just photoshop and flash.

communication skills are also imperative, and maybe the school can't afford to have misspelled copy and awkward sentence structure throughout the site.

maybe the school requires contractors to have liability insurance, or go through the school board and submit requests for proposals to bid on the projects.

obviously i don't know the specifics of your case and your school's procurement procedures, but there could be a whole world or reasons you haven't been contacted that are far more justifiable than age discrimination or your skills.

[samsonknight]

Thats just the point. They approached me and thought I was up for the job. They have seen my skills in action; from my GCSE IT project which I used flash to implement it, to my earliest HTML based works.

Regarding the communication skills, I seriously do not believe my grammer is so bad that I will have grammer based mistakes on everypage. Even if I do make the odd mistake it is not impossible to correct it.

I have proposed 5 templates and am not lazy, the reason why I have given you this link is because it is the best template out of the five.

Thanks for your reply.

[monsterfx]

Well, if it gives any perspective, I'm 30 and have gotten two "we love you! We'll call you back soon." and no callbacks (and no commitments when I call them back) recently. You may be experiencing age descrimination or you may just be experiencing a wishy-washy client. In fact, I'd bet on the latter since they already knew your age and were willing to talk to you in the first place.

Keep calling them back and ask *when* they will be able to give your work a review. Ask *when* they will be able to give you an answer. If they won't commit or want to know why you need to know, tell them you are trying to prioritize your projects for the summer and need to know for scheduling purposes (mmmm....bluff...). It may backfire, but at least you'll have an answer.

If they tell you they decided not to use you/go with someone else, ask them why. Nail them down to particulars. At least you can use that as a learning experience when trying to land your next client.

And above all, no matter how much they may pi$$ you off (and they may), stay professional. If they give you a laundry list of reasons they didn't use you, refute them politely if you can, and thank them for the feedback if you can't.

There's a lot of rejection out there. Just remember not to take it personally (and buy a punching bag - it can help sometimes ).

-monster.

[samsonknight]

I think its the student-teacher relationship...They cant see me as a professional designer, they most prob see me as the student so in a way they may be undermining me for this reason.

Yeah for 3 weaks I have been calling him. I have phoned his mobile and his house number! If he picks his mobile up, he makes promesis he does not keep..Other times he never picks it up, although it rings. When I phone his home number, he is "sleeping" or busy or something.

I really need experiance, that is y this job was important; that is y i have written on this forum....I have a lot of skills as mentioned in prev post and the fact that i cant implement them is pi$$ing me off.

Idealy i would not mind working as a team, its fun, more innovative, more efficient.

Currently I am looking for a new project, as tjis one seems to be a dead end.

Thanks for the reply monster, maybe I can work with you

[Asclepeos]

add another 10 to your age, then maybe you'll have more of a chance of getting a job. Companies don't trust teenagers for two main reasons:

1. inexperience
2. They think that kids play instead of work.

[samsonknight]

Well thats just discrimination.

[ViperGeckoFreak]

get a real website. get known. then jobs will come.

[hurricaneone]

Originally posted by samsonknight
Well thats just discrimination.

No, that's not descrimination at all - you see, the fact that you would immediately assume that his not contacting you was a form of discrimination says that you are not mature enough to assume the responsibility of a professional position.

Why you (or any other guy or girl in the same position)have your heart set on becoming Joe Professional at 16 is absolutely beyond me. It's great that you have all those software skills, but maybe it'd be better to use them on your college application and get yourself into a better school.

Even you did manage to land a full-time job, I can't see that benefitting you in the long run. By the time you're 30, you'll still be sitting in the same chair, passed over time and again because of your complete lack of mereted qualifications, wondering why you made such a basic mistake as not even trying college.

Look, take the advice of a guy who was in your boat exactly, wanting to get out of the house, have some independence, respect etc. Go out and enjoy what you've got and don't go on about what you have not. Meet some friends, have a party, get laid, be a kid. You'll be a more rounded person for it in the long run.

Cheers

[TheOriginalFlashDavo]

Don't get immediately defensive on the points being raised here. Not all of them will be entirely correct, but on the other hand not all of them will be entirely wrong. If you're asking from advice from professionals then you need to accept some of it.

Professional communication involves more than just "good grammar", and this is an area that skills in Flash and/or Photoshop just don't cover.

Saying that, there's no reason why you can't be a success, but at your age it will be about getting off your butt and dong something outside the norm, otherwise you will need to be patient and go the High School -> Design College route.

Don't look at things not working out as a set back. Learn from them and work out what you could have done differently.

Cheers
Dave

[Gloomycus]

It doesn't matter if you have really bad grammar or anything. If you have even the slightest spelling mistake in a resume or project it is grounds for not hiring or contacting you.

And it is a good idea to get yourself out there and get known, lik viper said. I've got my site out on most major link engines and recieve tons of hits. I don't get that many job inquiries, but its the choice of the potential client, not mine. Don't think that because you were turned down for one job that its the end of the world. Learn from experience - improve, improve, improve. Though you may have knowledge in a given area, but unless you've mastered it, its almost like you have no knowledge at all. It's the only way your going to get anywhere.

[kallok]

I think it all depends on what you are doing. I mean you wouldn't work for a business and wear FuBu and talk ghetto, you would want to dress nice (Polo or something) and use proper grammer.I do think that you have to have a well organized resume, a nicely typed one would do well, maby even a interactive cd presentation.

[Black_phoenix]

Originally posted by Gloomycus
It doesn't matter if you have really bad grammar or anything. If you have even the slightest spelling mistake in a resume or project it is grounds for not hiring or contacting you.

spelling is v important


:samsonknight:

ok i'm Mr J daniels we have the big meeting (in a bar)
will they let u in the bar?, i have 2 leave my car, can u drive me home, my new web dude

u can catch the bus with me, or my mom will pick us up

dont mean to be rude but u need to live a bit, i've done some of the crappest jobs out there 2 get 2 where i am now

i remember me when i was young (not a pretty site) ask your dad what he pays out per month on food clothes gas electric mortgage car water

that is being real, discrimination lol
live a bit the hard part is coming
bp

[Sybersnake]

and with the current state of the world.. argh!! my business was cut in half. And it sux, cuz i want to get a car!

[defuzz]

If you want employers to take your work seriously, when producing a sample of your work you should......

*Not simply take the pictures from the existing web site, photoshop them into a collage and shove them on your page.

*When you use somebody elses code for a DHTML menu, try and at least remove their links from the menu so it looks like you made some effort.



Oh yes and you really should consider getting a proper domain, it looks much more proffesional.

Your Flash movie is huge, no way I can sit and wait for 400k on my connection but the HTML version is not available


Just my 2 pence worth, don't give up though

[Musicman]

Hi,

as was mentioned before - you will have to invest in somthing other than an angelfire or geocities account.
Also, money makes the world go round ... and while design may be very important, money is selling stuff, selling services. Show your prospective clients that you can do that part as well. (This is one more reason to get your own domain, you cannot even run a mockup shop on angelfire)
As for portfolio projects: we just discussed whether a hair stylist would benefit from a site where customers can schedule their haircut

Musicman

[swampy]

Originally posted by defuzz

*When you use somebody elses code for a DHTML menu, try and at least remove their links from the menu so it looks like you made some effort.

and that opens up a whole new ethical can of worms doesn't it ?

[gecko2]

On the first one created by samsonknight, the image quality is poor. I was going to say that it would download slow when the images are sorted out properly, then I realised it was for an intranet. So there's no reason to have poor quality images, I wouldn't even optimise them as there's no need to.

The drop shadow on the central text is amateurish and needs removing. There's thousands of different effects and tricks you can apply to normal text.

Apart from that there's a basis for something good. But out of the two I would hire the guy who did the second one, the image quality is better, the design's ok, but one thing I would definately get rid of is the horrific size of the text.

[defuzz]

Originally posted by swampy

Originally posted by defuzz

*When you use somebody elses code for a DHTML menu, try and at least remove their links from the menu so it looks like you made some effort.

and that opens up a whole new ethical can of worms doesn't it ?

I don't think its a problem because the site its from seems to be openm source but my point is that you should replace their links with some of your own rather than broken links and the link to their site

[samsonknight]

Hey,

Below are some points I'd like to point out:

1, Angelfire, yes I am aware it is a v bad web host, its slow and unreliable..But that is all I can afford at the mo.

2, DHTML menu, yeah I am also aware that there are links to other sites...As I was given lack of resources content wise by my school, I did not know what to change the links too..So to save time I just showed how the menu operates by leaving the existing links...Also I have put some effort into the menu by editing the existing DHTML code via changing the appearence, the main department links, font type etc.

3, As you already know the site was going to be an Intranet site. Loading time will, once completed and put on the school server will be irrelevent via loading up instantly off the file server.

4,As for the image quality, its odd that you mention that its poor, but on my comp at 1024x768 res it seems perfectly fine. Maybe its the crap server, or maybe its because you are using a mac which unfortunantly at this moment of time I do not have access to, as I use a PC.

5, Domain name, someone invest some money in one for me

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I can understand everything you guys are saying, but with lack of resources in the sense they dont give me no proper idea on what they want such as content etc.
It would logically be quiet hard to create a site with limited resources.

Thanks for your replies,

Samsonknight