How Can I Get a Job as a Web Designer?
It’s a question we hear all the time and one that doesn’t have a straight answer. Here are a few of our favorite resources to point you in the right direction:
First, read Joe Gillespie’s post Web Design as a Career over at WPDFD, he takes a stab at why this particular phrasing of the question is so hard to answer and talks about the many jobs that fall under the broad term ‘Web Designer’.
WetFeet.com gives a more generic description of the career path, but it’s a great place to start out and is geared towards the student or recent grad.
As for actual resources to help you on your way, Design Mentor Training has a great resource page specifically for Graphic and Web Design. A traditional career research tool is a ‘job outlook‘ – you can look at employment trends, how the industry is growing, and salary ranges.
For more reading, About.com has a great collection of articles on professional web careers.
Finally, experience is key and freelancing is a great way to build up your portfolio and continue to develop your skills. Check out The Monster List of Freelance Job Sites (2009) for where to go to find jobs. A few of our favorites: Freelance Switch, ELance, and Guru.
Tags: jobs, professional, resources, web design career
April 21st, 2009 at 6:28 pm
I agree, experience is the only way to learn. Get in with a good company as an intern and learn your craft with big time legit clients.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Web designers are in-demand these days. However, you have to show that your work is good because clients are willing to pay good money to have their websites look decent and catchy at the same time. Try building a portfolio while you’re looking for a job.
May 7th, 2009 at 2:02 am
Today Web Designer is the term used to describe web developers along with designers. It is good to have multilevel skills in related fields. for example, development in dot net or php based data driven sites or SEO practices might improve chances to get a Job.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
My suggestion is pitching the company directly with an actionable portfolio. Check out this guy’s (Jason Zimdar) portfolio to see what he did to land a job with 37 signals. He proposed 2 possible redesigns of one of 37signal’s products in addition to describing his design process. What a great idea!
http://jasonzimdars.com/svn/
July 11th, 2009 at 2:05 am
I think to be a web designer in today’s time a person should have a good knowledge of there own field but also should posses a good command over programming search engine optimization etc and they should update themselves in with the new technologies.