Web Development·11,947 discussions

Finding employment

Tags: It employment

I have studied Web Development for 2.5 years by doing an online course which earned me a Level 3 Certificate in Web Design and Development. I studied lots of different areas and have learned HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I have also learnt the basics of server side scripting. The problem is when I look at job adverts, they are asking for people with knowledge of frameworks, very rarely do you see an advert for a job that requires the basic skills. It feels like I wasted 2.5 years doing a course that hasn’t give me the necessary skills to get a job in the area that I’ve studied. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

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It’s time to self study

In reply to Finding employment

Being in web design and development means never stopping to learn. You have a great foundation with the skills you already possess. If you already know JS, it’s easier to learn frameworks than if you know nothing. Check out freecodecamp.org. They offer free courses in just about anything coding related.

Aside from that, it seems like you are missing the skills to market yourself. I would advise you to read some blog posts and/or books in that direction. A book that I like is called The Education of Millionaires by Michael Ellsberg. It’s all about acquiring success skills that traditional education doesn’t teach you like marketing, networking, and sales.

Good luck!

Finding employment

In reply to It’s time to self study

Thankyou for your reply. I just feel disappointed that the course said i would have the tools I needed to work as a web developer. That would be ok if I could work whilst learning the new frameworks, but it seems I need to learn these frameworks before I can even get my foot in the door. I have just started looking at freecodecamp. It looks good. I will give it a try to further my knowledge. Is there any way I can use my existing skills to find any work in the meantime? Once again, many thanks for your reply.

Of course there is

In reply to Finding employment

Just because you don’t know frameworks doesn’t mean you can’t find employment or someone to pay you. If you know HTML, CSS, and JS, you are capable of building websites, which is a valuable skill. Plenty of people are earning money with that.

I think the most important thing is that you put together a portfolio. Do you have work that you can point to to prove your skills? This is very valuable when trying to convince someone to hire you and makes it a lot easier.

In addition, as far as I know, sometimes people get hired without having all of the required skills. Employers expect for you to do some learning on the job. However, I have always been a freelancer, so I wouldn’t put my hand in the fire for that.

I recommend that you swing by Reddit’s /r/webdev channel. There are a lot of people there that have been in your position and can give you solid advice. Questions like yours are asked regularly so don’t be shy to ask for advice there.

Freelancing

In reply to Of course there is

Thankyou. I am currently working on some websites for a portfolio and am interested in working as a freelancer but not sure where to look for work. When I build myself a website to advertise my skills, it seems I have to lie to make it look acceptable and i don’t like doing that. Other developers sites state how many technologies they know. I do enjoy building sites with plain html, css and js, but it doesn’t seem to cut it. But i will soldier on…

Finding employment

In reply to Finding employment

A developer’s someone who has to learn throughout their life, you can’t learn just 1 framework and be satisfied with that. You’ll have to keep on learning about the updates for all the frameworks that you work with and in general in the world of s/w development, as everything’s changing pretty fast, and the demands from the Customer are really high. So just keep on working and don’t give up

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