Dive into the archives.
- How to Get Your First Few Web Design Jobs When You’re a Student or Graduate
Web design is a very sought after skill - almost everyone wants to have some sort of online presence. Web design is also something you can learn fairly quickly and to the computer literate it isn’t overly hard. If you want to be really good however, that’s another story, but generally speaking if you have an interest in web design you can teach yourself the ropes pretty easil through books, tutorial websites and trial and error.
The bad news is that there’s a lot of competition when it comes to getting work. When I first started offering web design to people in exchange for money I got very little out of it in the monetary department. At one point I even found myself working for free just so I could get some experience.
With websites such as oDesk, Guru and RentaCoder that allow you to apply to web design jobs, I’d say that there are more opportunities to get web design work - but websites like this don’t make it any easier. I’ve often found that by quoting a reasonable price for a web design project I’ll be declined simply because I won’t work for $5 USD an hour or less. My minimum hourly rate is actually £10 which is more like $19 USD.
So - if it’s so hard to get work - what chance does a student or graduate have of getting their first few jobs? Well, for students and recent graduates in the UK, there is Student Gems, a website where businesses and individuals can find students to work on various jobs, including web design projects, by matching their needs with student skills. Though still in beta, the site has quite a following already so if you’re in the UK and looking for work, check it out!
Ashleigh
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- Web Design Inspiration That You Can Hold In Your Hands
As a Professional Freelance Web Designer it is not uncommon for me to spend 10+ hours infront of my computer in a single day. Every day I lookup design/technology news, I design a website (or work on a website in progress), I spend a half hour on Qassia (a site for webmasters looking to promote their websites aswell as earn money) and I dedicate some time to planning my upcoming projects (Illicit Butterfly and the You and What Army Street Team).
At the end of the day I might have a look around for design inspiration and development insight, and often frequent the Web Designer Wall. This last activity can take up a lot of time without me realising it and after having spent 10+ hours on the computer already there are some days where I’m on the computer until I have to force myself to stop and walk away due to a headache.
What’s a girl to do? Well, after doing a little research using my favorite search engine, I subscribed to .Net Magazine and Web Designer Magazine.
- Web Designers / Web Builders.. There is a Difference
It is often said that anyone can become a web designer but I don’t think that is true. To correct the statement I think it should be that anyone can build a website. To be a “Web Designer” on the other hand is a completely different thing.
