What next for me?

[mavrick]

hi all

i have not been in the web industry for long, and i know i should not be complaining about my current situation, but WHAT DO I DO NEXT?. i have a job in the web development field in a relaxed company. but i feel i should be doing some more. i want to study but i am confused as to what to study, i want to know more but don’t know what to study. What is next for me, where do i go from here.

Is, were i am now, the place i stay and start growing up, or is it just the beginning. i am confused

Please some one show me the way or point me towards the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel

mavrick

[Shak]

How old are you?

sorry for asking a personal question, but it will help in answering :)

Shak

[WildAngel]

Hi Mavrick

hey you're not alone...im in the exact same situation:(

Angel

[edit_g]

WHAT DO I DO NEXT

Move over to the commercial side of the business and start making some money. ;)

It's going to get harder and harder to "make it big" as a designer or developer - there's just too many out there (and as many coming every year).

[LeeJ26]

I agree with edit-g, web development is a saturated market. You could get invloved in the e-commerce sides of things and specialise in increasing the visibility of such sites (web promotion)

Hope it works out for you.

Lee

[rcjordan]

Learn all you can about scripts, database-driven websites, and CMS (the last two are often closely related, but not necessarily the same thing). Design is an accessory item.

[mack]

I think you need to look at the bigger picture, perhaps focus in one specific area of web development. Design is something a lot of people are wanting to get involved with, there are a lot of very good designers out there. Try and make your self different. Instead of being a designer think of yourelf as a developer. Learn to understand not just that things work, but why they work. In this game knowledge is king.

Mack.

[bunltd]

mavrick, I agree with mack, make yourself different... and learn everything you can about the how and why of the technology - that kind of background will win out over time. It's an ongoing thing - don't expect to take one class and be done - because it changes all too fast.

Like edit_g said, there are lots of designer/developers out there... But I think that being different means that you expand on your skills: you can be more marketable by being able to work in more areas of site development. It could be that you work on skills in design, programming/scripting, and marketing/promotion - you'd be well rounded - and more valuable to the job. (the one you have, or the next one) And don't forget to devote some time to the server-side aspects - it really comes in handy.

LisaB

[dragonlady7]

I'd been wanting to post something like this for a while, too. I'm fresh out of college, never thought of what to do with my life until I started job-hunting. Thinking of going back to grad school but for what? Am interested in web design and web development, looked for a job as a web developer but lacked the programming knowledge necessary. Don't know what to learn.
At the moment I'm a technical writer and general publications and webdesign gopher. (the job and the workplace, unlike mavrick's, suck-- insane people, not such good pay, too much to do and too few people, no lunch breaks, no perks, nada. Tough job market.) I have the amazing good fortune to be living with a very intelligent, very articulate, very very skilled software engineer who is willing and in fact eager to work with me on developing The Ultimate Website. He's already written us a database. The design and content is all up to me. What a great opportunity to figure out what I should learn, and to learn it! What a great opportunity to show off my skills! I have 3 GB of webspace, a brand new computer to learn things on... I'm very excited.
Unfortunately I have a little bit of a block and don't know where to start...
..........

But I'd be interested to know-- what would be the most useful thing to learn? And people say "get into the commercial side and make yourself money"... all these people on this board who own their own businesses and have been fabulously successful. How? What do you all even DO? I don't even know where to start. What's the big new thing? What's a good skillset to concentrate on, if you don't have much of a head for hardcore programming? Would night classes in graphic design be more useful, or classes in basic business accounting? Nobody has time to do it all, especially with a day job. Should I work up my decent copywriting skills, should I try to learn/master graphic design, should I try to wrap my feeble mind around javascript, should I make sure this wonderful boyfriend of mine never never leaves me ever ever ever (j/k... he's even cuter than he is useful, and he's more useful than I can even understand)?
I guess I should say my mind is boggled by too much opportunity.
:D
All I know is I hate working for a crazy man 9-5 and would love to be more independent. So I join mavrick in asking: What should I do now? Enlighten me, all ye venerable sages. ;) (most of you are probably younger than me, but that doesn't make you less venerable. If, that is, your advice is good.)

[mavrick]

hi guys

thanks for the advise, in some way if you put all of it togeather it makes sense. market myself, by being different, working hard, learning more and never think on a one track mind. i have been thinking of spreading my wings and going out into the world. hopefully if i get out there i would learn more and different things, but i know that i could learn nothing and do nothing.

from what u read it seems i am scared as most people, i always want to succeed and be the best, because as everybody knows only the best succeed and earn the big money, . The future is what I am concerned about, I don’t want to be here in a few years. I am trying to learn more, and with a 8-5 job it is not easy. There is so much out there to learn, so may different programs to learn.

I am just going to go no and no about this I AM SORRY!

I am going to take the advice and drift towards the e-commerce and the marketable world of web site development. It is good to know that there are others out there who are in the same situation u are in (not that I would want any body to be in this situation), and there are people who can help and give advice.
I wish I could give u other guys advice on the world of web.

Hope the future holds well for aspiring web developers out there.

Thanks again and yes Knowledge is KING!

[shrirch]

I'm going to jump in and share some of my thoughts. I've been contemplating a change in direction. My perspectives are a bit different as I'm in a good situation, which while extremely frustrating at times, has the benefits of a stable income which pays for the mortgage and other costs that go along with being married and having a young kid.

I don't want to sound like some pseudo motivational coach wannabe.. but here goes. Apologies in advance, I'm in a bit of a Yoda mood. ;)

I am trying to learn more, and with a 8-5 job it is not easy.

This statement forced me to unlurk. Learning is a life long process. Ever sat at a bar and watched the bartender manage a tough customer? Did ya learn something? Ever read a post on webmasterworld and go .. wow I didn't know that? Read a Tom Clancy book and discovered a factoid you never knew before? I hope you get what I'm trying to say..

Learning does not have to be a formal process, it is a life long activity as important breathing and feeding ones face. If I don't learn something new every day its been a bad day. Learning and teaching go hand in hand. If I don't teach someone something new, I have learnt feel a bit bad about it.

Move over to the commercial side of the business and start making some money.

Not everyone is geared to be a business oriented person. It takes a certain genetic make up to be a commercially savvy person, just like it takes a certain unknown gene to be a kick-butt tech.

Ask people who know you. Find a mentor in real life who you really admire and get advice from them. Find some old friends who you can chat with, brain storm and get drunk with. Tubelights will go on eventually. I'm a beliver in seeking advice from people who are extreme experts in the field of knowledge. When it comes to "me", people who're experts in this area are people who know me in person, not on forums.

Forums like this are extremely good places to pick up ideas and work on them. Don't plan your life around them.

what would be the most useful thing to learn?

Learn your strenghts, weaknesses and ambitions. You'll always find it easy to get knowledge in the path that knowing yourself leads you to.

More later.. I hear a happy hour and a ciggie calling me. :)

[shrirch]

One of these days I'll be able throttle the flow of thoughts enough to allow me to type proper sentences, check grammer and fix typos. :)

[deejay]

shrirch, you should delurk more often.

Very nice post :)

[lazerzubb]

Become a SAP consultat.

[photon]

Did that, working with one of the Big 5 accounting firms. My first SAP client was located in Miami. Spent 15 months there, living in an apartment right on the beach. That was pretty exciting for a land-locked Okie boy.

Sadly, my firm priced itself out of the market. I finished up in Miami in July of 1999, spent the rest of the year sitting at home but still getting paid. For some reason at the end of the year they let me (and many other consultants) go.

But it sure was nice while it lasted.

[hannamyluv]

I would say definately agree with the getting into the ecommerce side of things. I actually emailed my former boss and thanked her for laying me off b/c, in a desperate attempt to get a job after that, I sent my resume into the place I work for now on a job that sounded interesting ("Send out bi-monthly emails" Hey, I can send out an email :-) 1,000,000+ emails later...). I never looked back. I read constantly and keep developing ideas.

If you already work for a web company, I would suggest this. Read, read, read, suggest, suggest, suggest. Don't just learn, tell them what you have learned. Ask if you can try something new. Keep asking! Eventually, you will either come up with an idea they are interested in or annoy them so much that they will let you try it just to shut you up. (I've actually done that. It does work.)

[le_gber]

Hi mavrick, I'm in the mood of giving you advices as well. ;)

From a HR background I was really luck y to ba able to work a couple of months for an insurance company developing their website. (I learned a lot of things there - my real first job as web designer/developer)

After that I've been working freelance on and off for the IT manager (bit more learning in design)

Then I've been hired by a web design company and there I've learn lots in design and lots in programming.

After 10 months working for them I had to leave the job thanks to my GF (been offered a job elsewhere) and I started working for myself.

I am now in a small town with what I believe has great potential. I work for 3 other more established web companies as a subcontractor and look for my own customers. I've got ideas on how to expand my companies that I could have never thought of before. At the moment I earn less than what I use to learn, but am sure that in a couple of months (once all the project I'm currently working on are in place) I might earn more.

My advice is use your current company to learn and do things that you wouldn't be able to afford if you had to start on your own. Learn from you colleagues and company and once you think you used all the knowledge around, move to the next and bigger company, doing slightly different things and learn some more. Once you believe you can do all of the things on your own, start you own company and all the bright ideas that you had for yourself. There again you will learn and improve things.

One thing though, learn from the pros. What I learned in a week in this forum about SEO is more that the 10 months spent with the design firm :)

Hope this helped.

Leo

[Michael Anthony]

There is a simple answer to this. Work out what you want first. Then think about how to get there.

My favourite book in the world suggests that you start with your funeral and work backwards. So you end up with goals for each step of your life from today onwards, which of course you change and evolve as your life moves forwards.

I guess what you've done here is ask on a public forum ... "help me, I can't work out my own ambitions".

Guess what? There are no shortcuts.

The best way to get to your own goals is to take some time out - possibly a holiday, weekend away, whatever and just ask yourself where u really want to go. It will never come from others, either in person or online.