Career Decisions

[Jon14]

Hello all,

I already introduced myself in the introduction thread but wanted to post some questions for those who are already established in their careers.

In about 2 months I will be graduating with an AS in Web Design and Interactive media, now with the student loans the pressure is on to move onto the next phase which is getting a job!

I feel like there is a lot that I have not learnt through my schooling, we mainly did HTML, CSS, some Flash, using Creative Suite for most things.

I was wondering if anyone here could give me some tips as to which direction I should go, what I REALLY need to learn to be effective in the industry, and just any help you could give.

I have been doing a few freelance projects but I feel like it will be difficult for me to earn a sustained living from this.

Any help is greatly appreciated and sorry if this was a bit long winded!

 

[chrishirst]

I was wondering if anyone here could give me some tips as to which direction I should go, what I REALLY need to learn to be effective in the industry, and just any help you could give.

And how can we do that without knowing how capable you actually are.

Paper qualifications are all well and good (whatever an "AS" is) but they don't really mean you can "DO" anything.

Oh and of course knowing what country you are living in might be a help as well.

 

[websonalized]

Hello,

I am guessing AS = Associates?? What exactly do you want to do as a career path? Web Design is a lucrative field for anyone whose a professional. Once you know your stuff you can always get jobs. If you're having a hard time using the skills that you've learned maybe u bit off more than you could chew? or perhaps some of the techniques that you learned arent being used anymore? I ask this because now theres HTML5, CSS3 and ActionScript is now used over Flash in my opinion.

 

[Phreaddee]

ActionScript is now used over Flash in my opinion.

???
actionscript is flash.

jquery/javascript possibly?

practice practice practice, put in a few hard years of freelancing
you probably wont get much to live off to start with but to think its an overnight thing would be silly. after a few years you should have enough of a portfolio to get a job with a larger firm or design studio (assuming your skills are good enough) you really need to push yourself whilst the client work is slow to keep learning. school most definately isnt enough...

 

[AsheSkyler]

You might could find work with a small company with just HTML and CSS. Most larger companies I've seen require a minimum of a Bachelor's along with a substantial knowledge of Flash, javascript, jquery.

 

[Presence]

Wish that CSS and java were taught while I was in school...that would have made things a whole lot simpler.