Getting Work As A Web Designer
The fight for employment is becoming increasing hostile considering our volatile economy. The web industry has not escaped this hit so prospective designers (like me) need to stay on the inner-curve to stand any chance at all of keeping pace in the rat race. But, that is easy to say and hard to do. This is a topic that means an awful lot to me so I wanted to lay down some different perspectives and things that could be sticking points on the matter. The idea of this article is to further the conversation and, while doing this, try to gain different slants on the issues. So, please feel free to post your thoughts and ideas in the comment area below the article.
The first big issue, especially for freelancers, is job titles. Some refer to themselves as designers/developers, some as simply graphic designers and even some as inflated as “information architects.” The problem is that many customers will expect the developers to be able to take care of all their web needs. That instantly creates a problem because, to avoid turning work down, the person then quickly has to learn more skills. Without realizing it, by doing this, the client is slowing the development of the site which will make it more expensive. Even worse, making the designer learn more skills that they’re not expert in could make the final product suffer. So, we need to find a way to better define job titles which are more universally understood.
Next comes the problem of qualifications and experience. From what I know about the industry, getting work is less about formal certifications and more about a strong and long-standing portfolio of work completed in the past. This introduces the problem of where you get that experience from when starting out. One way that I’ve personally tried to overcome this was by offering to take design jobs at no charge. Doing that for a while really opened my eyes in regards to just how demanding people can be even when they’re getting something for free that would run them hundreds on the open market. This quickly made it crystal clear that, even though it helped me to build a portfolio. I could not possibly devote every evening to it and see no financial return. So, the problem still stands, how the hell do you gain trust if nobody is willing to trust you in the first place?
Add to all of this the issue of not knowing what kind of qualifications and references that commercial design firms will expect and you’ve got yourself a big fat pile of unknowns. On that note, I saw an article that gave poll results from readers of a large design blog relating to the relationship between having an academic degree and their current web design job. I’ll let you go over to the page if you’re interested but, in summary, the results are a very mixed bag. Although I personally believe that a range of skills are important in case you want a career shift in the future, one thing the article does reinforce is that this is not always entirely necessary.
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For the benefit of every non-spambot visiting, following a recent site restructuring I have some rules with regard to etiquette for comment posters. As well as making a better experience for all, they help to distinguish real people for automatic evil machine spam. Due to this, any comment that fails to follow any one of them will be considered spam and removed as soon as possible.
With thanks, Tom
- Coherent English must be used.
- This form has multiple fields for a reason. Only enter a real name or nickname in the first box i.e. "Boats For Sale" wouldn't make it. Similarly, the "Website" input is a pre-determined place to post one link so there is no need to have them in the body area. This is a common technique used by spammers and marketers and, as such is not allowed.
- Your comment must be directly related to the post to which it is a response. The idea of a post commenting system is to further the conversation that began in the given article. For instance "great post" is not a comment. My contact form can be used for suggestions or general communications.
- Responses to other comments must be civilised.
- No sexual reference or content is allowed.
- Duplicate comments are a no-no.
hello tom can i know your emailid plzzz
When the market for any job field is saturated I believe one way to get work is to approach the old school method. Brush up on your networking and hit the pavement. Most people that have been thinking of a website are all around us. They are also afraid to start calling shaddy web people. You might win them over with a more personal approach. I have found that most webbies are socially impaired. You know who you are "lol", so brush up on how to win over people and hit the pavement, say hello, reveal what u can do, have no fear, pass bzness cards out, cause I know for a fact most webbies try to much from an anonymous ,faceless approach.
I'm not a desinger but all the thoughts here are very close to my "startup-suffer" in IT industry. You must build your own facebook or die, there is no way between.
Hey Tom, Nice blog post here. I've been in the web design industry professionally now for 2 - 3 years. Initially I did some Summer work for a company back in my home town which is small in population. Prior to that I had filled the portfolio with little personal projects which was enough to see the part time position in the home town. (16 hours per week). I then completed the final year of study to HND level and quickly realised if I was going to work in the industry it meant moving to a bigger City. So at that point I sent out a c.v. to lots of IT related agencies and showed an interest. Interviews then got arranged, a couple of third party tests along the way. All in all, attended 2 interviews, the first was a huge learning curve and the 2nd the job was secured. However the agency was a small time agency and they liked to hire and fire. Unfortunately I got fired very early in that job for "not fitting in with the office dynamic". Must have been too rough round the edges for them. At that point is was sink or swim, so I was forced to setup a company on the previous freelance endeavours. It's been a struggle, but there are many remote positions out there. You just have to go out and get them. Best of luck mate. A
I agree. Every job is competitive. Working as a web designer/developer, you need to build a unique portfolio to stand out. Having connections is always important too. One good job usually leads to the next.
I remember feeling the same way as you do 5 years ago. It's always daunting going for jobs that require experience and not finding any that offer the said experience. Especially when there is a discrepancy between the skill set you have and the skill set that the client thinks will accomplish what they need. What I have learned is this, if you are a freelancer the absolute best thing that you can do is provide killer work and have your clients be happy enough to recommend you. In addition to educating your clients, you are also going to have to massage your resume and qualifications to highlight the skill sets that match what they are looking for. I am not saying lie or embellish, but allow them to see the words and works that show the same type of work they are trying to get done. The industry is getting very specialized very quickly. As it become more specialized, there is a lot of mis-information and mis-understanding all around. In the past Graphic Designers pretty much did it all, then came the split into design and code and now design tasks and development tasks are continuing to splinter. On the design side there are Visual Designers, User Experience Designers, User Interface Designers, Interaction Designers, and even Information Architects are considered in the design side of things. On the development side, there are Front end developers, Back end developers and Engineers. There are a lot of roles that I didn't name also for both design and development. I have a feeling that it will be a while before job titles do a better job at identifying skills. What I am getting at in a very round a bout way, is that designer/developer's are soon to be extinct as they are too generalized. My advice to make yourself valuable is this: - Gain as much experience as you can in a variety of areas design/development - Find one that you like and specialize as much as you can - Read as much literature as you can find - Dont ever stop learning - Always work on side projects if you have no clients, build out your own ideas - Experiment with new technologies - Create or die I think that you have the right idea so far I hope you don't get deterred. Once you find your niche and what you want to specialize in, there are plenty of different schools that you can get a degree in that can catapult you where you want to go. If my advise is shit I am sorry to have typed so much, if there is merit and you have more questions don't hesitate to ask. -Kris
A very well stated perspective. Here in the United States it has become increasingly difficult to find work. I now work as a freight team associate at Home Depot to pay my bills due to the fact that without a portfolio, I cannot compete in what little market we have left here. Without being able to compete in the market, I thus cannot create a sufficient portfolio, and thus, the vicious cycle continues.
Hi Tom, I've been watching your awesome Drupal tutorials on YouTube and once again with article you provide relevant information that is spot on! I'm from Portland Oregon USA and a few years ago just when Cascading Style Sheets was next big thing I earned a 2 year Associate Degree in Web Design. I also have one in accounting and Bachelor degree in business. Everything I learned from my web design degree is more or less obsolete. Sure the basic fundamentals of HTML haven't changed but it so easy now for people publish online content without even needed know any coding at all. I ended up taking a job in accounting because it doesn't require as much constant retraining. The only web design work I had in my portfolio was a site I created for an internship project and one paid project that I created for someone I already knew but I did it with perl cgi server includes and my client had no idea how to maintain there site once I finished it. That's when I realized how complicated freelance work can be especially if the client changes their mind halfway through or if they don't have any experience creating new pages you either have to train them how to use their site or provide documentation as well. So I have been more of a hobbyist since then. I think cms like Drupal is the best way to go because of it's versatility, but another important skill customers are going to expect from webmasters is the ability to promote the site through search engine optimization, social networking, mobile versions of their site, etc If your client doesn't get a lot of traffic to their site then you won't any repeat business or referals from them either. My site for example has been out there for a few years and most my traffic comes from spammers posting bogus content.
Hi Tom, Great article, I'm planning to do a post on how I got my first client, what sort of things were discussed in the meetings and how the whole process took place. I think I have a rather unique example, as I wasn't seeking, planning or trying to get any work. I was lucky enough to have an opportunity come to me, this meant I was somewhat unprepared and definitely learned a lot from the experience, which I hope to share with others. I strongly feel qualifications aren't that important in the clients eyes, as long as you can show that you are competent enough to handle their project you will be alright. Besides, just like your article on the education system (as well as personal experience), chances are the qualification you get might not be too impressive. Looking forward to more of your posts. Cheers, John