Forum Moderators: phranque
What career paths could someone with 6 years web development experience in ASP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash, Photoshop, SQL, XML and a few other things, look at? Whether it's web related or not. The catch is that the salary has got to be similar to what I get now...
I don't want to be sat at a desk, doing updates to sites, fixing bugs, doing £$%£@#@ screenshots etc etc
What have other people done? What are the options within the industry?
Ive decided to take up my hobby as a side track and try to generate it into something I can do in the long term, of course the web stuff I knob about can always be used alongside it so im not going too far off track.
As far as work goes you could just try to do something slightly different.
- Lean on these 2 skills -->SQL, XML and mixin either 1 part c# or 1 part vb.net and get into web services. This adds a general purpose programming language to your skillset.
- How strong are your sql server skills? The DBA role is completely different from the web developer role and extremely challenging.
- Go to the dark side and get into project management.
I've recently been trying .NET with VB.NET and too be honest, my brain does not work well for programming. ASP is fine, actionscript is fine..... anything like java, vb.net or anything else that starts inheriting classes from super sub protected private things just hits the off switch for my brain.
There's lots I'd like to do.... but they would all involve halving my salary, and i'm just not in a position to do that just yet.
Glad to see it's not just me thinking like this though...
I am actually in the process of moving to web development full time. I am starting college in a few weeks for my Associates degree in E-Commerce Technologies. I started going this stuff as a hobby and after working in IT Support for over 7 years now I need a career change.
Out of curiosity are you married? Do you have children?
The reason I ask is because I am married and have two children. My wife is unable to work so that makes me the sole provider and no matter how bored I am I would keep a good paying job and sacrifice for my family. Hence why I have been in the same crap job for 7 years :-)
I am not suggesting that you wouldn't do the same thing for your family by any means though I am just curious.
I think another cause is that the projects I've worked on have all been for subjects that just don't interest me plus most have been intranet type projects so no-one outside of the company can see what i can do.
i'm not married (have a girlfriend though) and have no kids, but i see where you are coming from. I guess I just want to be in a fulfilling job for when i am married with kids and can't risk the change then.
Your last post made it crystal clear. You need to be challenged and because you're not getting that mental stimulation from the lackeys that see you as a screenshot artist your bored to tears... leave em high and dry and go get a challenging position.
That's what keeps me cooking. I tell my customers to bring it on. I don't care what the problem is... the harder the better because I like to build stuff. It's what I really like about programming. I have no idea what I will be faced with when someone walks into my office.
12 years ago I was an executive with a background in purchasing. Let me tell you, that sucked high end wind. Same ole crap every day. Once the contracts were set you get to sit around and watch inventory levels and cut purchase orders. I took a 50% pay cut, went back to school and got an entry level programming job.
He he - sounds like my old job when I did web development for a company.
this has also led to " company logo's & business card design side business and it just keeps expanding.
go look out side of the box your locked in...
i've been toying with the idea of freelance full time, which i think could be a bit more mentally stimulating and I could be a bit more choosey about the projects i took on, but it's one hell of a jump to make for me where a regular income is a critical factor.
then there's the side of me that just wants to get out of computers altogether, but there ain't much else i'd be able to jump into without loosing a major chunk of salary.
I guess I just want to be in a fulfilling job for when i am married with kids and can't risk the change then.
I felt the same and took up part time lecturing at a Further Education college. It was certainly challenging, and keeping the "day job" meant that the salary drop was not too bad.
As far as freelance work goes, I did this for about 20 years in IT, you must work on the idea that you may be without work for several months at a time - in fact, although I was lucky during my 20 years, I know people that lost homes etc because the work dried up. I seem to remember reading that you should allow 3 or 4 months a year to cover sickness, holiday, lack of work.
guess I just want to be in a fulfilling job for when i am married with kids and can't risk the change then.
With that comment I have no doubt that you will be sucessful. I wish I would have taken those steps instead of doing them in reverse order. Good luck in all you do.
If you are willing I would stick in the same industry and apply your knowledge and work experience towards a new more challenging position.
A friend in construction said of having his own contractors' license, "There's nothing like knowing when you drive that first nail in the morning, you're doing it for yourself."
The catch is that the salary has got to be similar to what I get now
This self-imposed "requirement" is going to chain you. Sure you may last another five years. But you'll wind up right where you are.
A couple months ago I came to an epiphany in the holiest of all holy places, my vegetable garden. Like yourself, I concluded that humans are not meant to sit in unventilated windowless closets in front of computers stressing over someone else's problems. We are meant to till the earth and marvel in its wonders.
Last Friday was my last day of employment. My plan (and suggestion to you) is to build your OWN sites, generate your OWN income. It's not enough to just thinkoutside the box, you have to believe outside the box, otherwise you'll always live in the box, and the box will be owned by someone else. :-)
I'm well over 40 (not saying by how much :-) ) and my only regret is not ding this when I was your age. But maybe I wasn't ready. Are you? :-)
I do run a couple of my own sites. I've been trying to crack affiliate marketing as I can see what other people have done from various methods, and can see it's potential. That's going to take time though as I don't have the initial cash to get going in the more profitable areas.
Teaching is something I've always enjoyed, within some of the jobs I've had I've taught several 'beginner level' html and css courses. The responses were good from the people I've taught so maybe that avenue needs a little more exploring.
this is all helping though... making me think a bit more about what i want and can do....
At the moment I have been doing a lot of writing and digital photography for my own site, in the hope that someone will notice me and offer me a job in either one.
My biggest achievements would be getting a refernence for work on my own website (it was a fan site for a band), having my site used on the promotional material on another band and being asked to write for a short film screening night due to the reviews I had posted on my site.
I am hoping for something different and even applied to work at a leather fetish store earlier this year (it was part web/admin and sales.) If I can't find anything for a while, I would at least be able to keep myself happy with projects I do on my own time.
Thanks.
