In order to succeed in the freelance sector of the Web Design/Development Industry, I believe I need to have as many skills behind me as possible, however I need to focus on achieving a set level in all basic skills prior to expanding on that skillset.
Through some research it is evident that in order to be hired as an employee web designer/developer you would need to possess solid skills in all of the following technologies:
- HTML
- CSS
- Java Script
- Java Script Libraries (predominantely jQuery)
- Adobe CS3 (Dreamweaver and Photoshop)
It also appeared desirable to possess further CS3 skills in Illustrator and InDesign if you were planning on obtaining a combined position of web/graphic designer.
With some positions being offered, there was also a call for skills in ASP.Net and MS-SQL, however these are technologies specific to Microsoft Web Servers. I currently have business and client hosting on an Apache server and considering that Apache servers constitute more than 90% of the web hosting market, I don’t consider these skills important for me.
In a nutshell, skills that I would like to start out with are strong skills in HTML, CSS, Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Basic skills in Java Script (with knoweldge of implementing the various libraries available) are also on my list of “desirable skills”, with a view to extending these skills through practice over time.
I plan on achieving these skills through the completion of my current studies of the TAFE course in Web Design. The planned completion date for this course is April 2010, however I plan on implementing skills as I learn them. I have various website development projects in the pipeline and will use these projects to practice and extend my skills during my study period.
I would like to learn to use and implement a couple of the main Open Source Content Management Systems available. I believe that this will be briefly covered during my TAFE course, however I feel that these skills will be best obtained by actually using the Systems on some practice web sites. I am currently doing this and plan to continue doing this during the next 6 months.
It is my intention once I am qualified as a web designer to incorporate some print design within my business so clients can use just one company for their admin, web and print needs, so I anticipate needing to learn Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. There are various places in Perth which offer training courses for these programmes.
I have always believed that actually “using” is the easiest and best way to learn something and that is how I intend to learn with the support of online resources and books.
Amanda
