I absolutely love reading other people’s stories of how they got to where they are today, for me their stories are a reminder that we all have to start from the beginning and that anything is possible. So today I thought I’d share my story on how I became a web designer and the steps you could take right now to start your tech career…
When did it all start?
I was always a bit of nerd from a very young age, school holidays were spent surfing the (rather slow dial up) net which often always led to hefty monthly bills! I remember creating personalised icons for my desktop programs but secretly wishing I actually knew how to create the programs. It was only natural that in high school I choose computers as one of my subjects but man it sucked, too many numbers, but for some reason it didn’t stop me I still knew I wanted to do something in the tech industry and nerdily proclaimed in my end of school year book that my whatever career I choose it would definitely involve computers.
Where did you study?
I skipped University and went straight to work… well not technically but it sure felt like it, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day for one full year. Fall behind and you have to pay more! The work I did in my last 3 years of high school I did in the first week at CTI – Pretoria and it just made complete sense. I couldn’t believe how easy it was, why didn’t I get it in high school?! I blame the teacher, ha, ha!
What did you study?
Like all my peers I started off with the basics gaining a Computer Science diploma but then when the time came to choose my ‘speciality’ field I had to of course be different. I choose, what at the time, was the difficult option – to specialise in Web Design & Development and learn Java. Our final project was to create a dating website and I passed with flying colours and way before all the suckers who had to pay more for falling behind.
In a nutshell what happened next?
Sadly by end of a full year of nothing but computers I was over it, I wanted nothing to do with them anymore so I packed my bags, went travelling and did lots of non-related techie jobs for about 8 years! 3 years ago I moved back home, met the right people and fell back in love with the internet, blogging and coding again and now work full time for myself.
What skills are in your tool box?
I studied 10 years ago so you’d think those skills are so outdated but the basics haven’t changed, like HTML and CSS, sure they may have gotten fancier but the principals are still the same. In the last couple of years I’ve added WordPress, Genesis Theme Development, PHP and SEO to my tool box.
What do you love the most about being a web designer?
So, so much! I love that in this ever evolving industry my passion for learning gets fed every. single. day. I also love how my mathematical brain is constantly being challenged and that often the answers come to me in the shower, while I’m out doing something completely unrelated to work or even at a party.
What’s your advice for newbies?
Honestly the list is endless when it comes to great online resources for budding web designers. Also if you know how to work Google you can basically find and answer to all of your coding questions. Below I’ve listed some of my go to resources that you may find handy….
- Team Tree house – they do a 14 day trail and offer courses on basically EVERYTHING!
- Learn to Code & HTML – This is an awesome FREE resource for anyone that wants to learn both the basics and the advanced in’s and out’s of HTML & CSS
- WP Theme Development – If you’d like to dive into WordPress Development then this course by Zoe Rooney is a must!
Where do you find all your clients?
This could be a whole blog post on it’s own but in a nutshell I get most of them through word of mouth, Social Media and Facebook Groups. The later I’ll be blogging about before the end of them week.
Final thoughts..
Designing & Coding is a trial and error process, I learn more from the things that don’t work than from the things that work!
If you have any questions about starting a career as web designer then drop me an I’d be more than happy to answer them.
Thanks for sharing your story, looking forward to reading more and also trying out your suggested sites, especially the HTML and CSS sites, it’s something that I’m interested in but haven’t had a chance to explore in depth yet, so these resources will be a great help!
Another great site for free coding courses is Coursera (www.coursera.org). I’m just finishing off an introductory course to app programming and looking forward to the next one which will be starting in a few weeks.
My pleasure Cath and thanks for the Coursera resource, looks like a goodie for the bookmarks!