Starting to explore new career possibilities can be time-consuming and fraught with misinformation.
No matter if you're looking for your first job, or you've notched up 3 decades of work experience under your belt, we've put together a useful 'one-stop-shop' reference web site under 15 main categories for you to start your search.
Read more by left-clicking the career buttons...
It's impossible to imagine a successful company today that doesn't have it's own website. A presence online is now seen as the norm with the explosion of the internet into so many homes around the world. Corporate web sites have many roles - they inform, teach, promote and sell all from one URL. As customers, our first port of call when we're looking to make a purchase is very often a search on Google, Bing or Yahoo to find a suitable website.
Clearly when you have a growing number of web sites you need a growing number of designers as well. There are a number of training course options available if you're looking to study web design. Some are entirely in-centre based, some entirely home-based and some a combination of the two.
Don't decide what's right for you by just looking at one or two training organisations. Get a feel for the quality of the training itself, and how you'd fit the different study methods into your current lifestyle.
An ideal training course should give you a good level of expertise in various web design skills. But first you should understand that there are web designers and there are web developers.
If you want to get involved in web development work, you'll have to learn how to create software programs to take care of the back end functions like product availability checks and secure encryption etc. Our focus here is on training and careers for web designers, who are generally involved in the look and feel of a website.
Artistically InspiredWeb Design appeals to people with a creative, artistic flair. In addition you'll need a good ability to listen, to get the most from your communication with clients. Many customers have given some thought to how they would like their website to look. Then the real work begins - and a site has to be produced that is not only to the client's specification, but also is attractive and intuitive.
Naturally, the designer will also look to advise the customer with the benefit of their professional experience and knowledge.
Professional web designers need to know how to use different Adobe software packages. A number of Adobe certifications are available, and their packages are currently the most widely used in industry. Study both Adobe Dreamweaver Creative Suite 4 and Adobe Flash Creative Suite 4 - they are two of the most useful products you could know. CS3 is still taught by some training establishments, but you are advised to always go for CS4. An Adobe Dreamweaver training course will show you how to use professional tools to create stunning website designs. And learning how to use Flash as well will really help you to create magical eye-catching animations and effects. A web design student couldn't ask for two better packages to work with.
...And CertificationsYou should build a collection of your own showcase websites as you progress through your studies. Any prospective employer will want to take a look at what you've already done, to see if your style and standards match their expectations. If it's your intention to become a self-employed Web Designer, then commercial accreditations may be superfluous. But if your game plan includes professional qualifications, then you need a course that leads you to take the ACE certification (Adobe Certified Expert) or the ACP certification (Adobe Certified Professional).
If you only pick up skills to make your websites look funky and attractive, you're going to miss out on a lot of commercial opportunities. To be commercially competitive, we would strongly recommend that you look at training courses that include a range of additional skills. You will benefit from an in-depth tutorial on HTML and CSS. They're the underlying languages and layout descriptions that Dreamweaver creates in the background for you.
If you want your websites to be more than simple catalogues, you'll need to cover PHP Programming and dynamic HTML. A professional Web Designer must in our opinion also have a working knowledge of how an e-commerce site operates.
And lastly (for now...) there's Search Engine Optimisation, which you'll often hear abbreviated as SEO. The internet is a crowded place - which is why it's so important to learn the art of featuring highly on Google and co. It doesn't matter how fabulous your websites are, they can't do the job they're designed for if nobody knows where they are.
Stunningly Stimulating!Careers in Web Design and the Internet can be exciting and innovative. Training now to become a part of this industry will prepare you for a dynamic future. Website building is evolving constantly - video is now commonplace, and it won't be long before we see full screen three dimensional presentations on sites. Those who embrace these evolving changes will enjoy a rewarding and stimulating working life.