Building Web Authoring Skills
A career in the web specialties demands continuous training and skills upgrades. If you love to learn, this career is definitely a keeper. It is not inexpensive to attend professional trainings and conferences. However, you have many free and low-cost ways to keep boosting your skills.
Classes and Tutorials
• Community colleges often have short refresher courses you can take on a week- end or a few weekdays in continuing education.
• For Adobe program free trainings, check out Adobe Creative Suite Video Tutorials, especially since you can pick up techniques while viewing the use of the programs.
• Microsoft also has extensive video tutorial offerings for users and developers.
• Keep an eye on the W3C Schools for continuing information on HTML5 and CSS3.
• Search online for free tutorials in your area of interest, and you'll find plenty from experts and peers in the field.
• Check out Lynda Online Training - $25/month for unlimited tutorials.
• Also look at creativeLIVE! - often has free live online courses and inexpensive videos of past ones.
• Online design magazine sites, like Speckyboy, SmartWebby, A List Apart, Smashing Magazine, Web Designer Wall, and others also provide articles with links to outstanding tutorials and resources.
Get Experience
There is no replacement for getting current experience. Even with a tough job market, you have options to explore to keep adding work to your portfolio and expertise under your belt.
• Look for paid and unpaid internships which give you room to grow.
• Do probono work with nonprofits listed through Volunteer Solutions, Volunteer- Match, Idealist.org, Serve.gov.
• Help your local community center, senior center, or other neighborhood small businesses and social groups with pro bono or discounted web assistance. Treat them professionally to learn project management skills too.
• Check out local contract agencies for creatives to get on their list for contract jobs.
• Check out bit work at online freelancer market websites. Do keep in mind that these markets are international, and pricing for your work will be very low, but you can still get bits and pieces of experience this way if you want to try.
Meet Your Peers
The great thing about the web specialties is that you are in a most superb group of creative and chatty people. You can always find folks in your field to network with, share tips and ideas, and find out about gigs and job opportunities.
• Check out Meetup.com for local web career meetups.
• Find out if Biznik has local seminars and meetings you can attend (or lead).
• Find out when Adobe, Microsoft, and other software companies have local low- cost events and user group meetings you can attend.
• Search online for Unconferences in your area, which are usually low-cost and have a fairly unstructured but fun layout where you can meet and swap info. Look for BarCamp, Social Media Camp, and InfoCamp.
• Find out if AIGA, SPGA, and the Freelancer's Union have local chapters.
• Check out your locan creative/tech agencies to see if they host events, webcasts, and/or have e-newsletters listing events and trainings.
Build, Build, Build
Even if you can't find paid or pro bono work that suits you right away, you can and
should build portfolio items for yourself. This is a great way to experiment with web specialist tools like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, HTML5, CSS3, and free/low-cost products and tutorials you find.
Multiple Templates
For instance, now that you know about templating, you might look at several web page designs that you like, and put together your own starter templates for them so you have a place to start when you begin a build.
You can include several basic HTML templates, and also create two or three CSS tem- plates where you lay out your style coding the way you like, then modify, add, and sub- tract style rules for real projects.
Expand Portfolio and Self-Promotion
When you get started, your portfolio will be lean, often a small website with a few examples of your work. Keep in mind that your portfolio itself, and your own logo/logotype, are part of your professional “foot forward”. The good news is that you can enhance your portfolio with small touches that expand your experience and reach.
• Link to your online profiles. If you are on LinkedIn, have a professional Facebook account, and/or belong to career-related organizations, make sure to link to these from your portfolio. If you are not on these, get on LinkedIn!!! Hustle!
• Create your professional profile on Google and link to it as well.
• Add your portfolio link in the footer of your email messages and in your mobile business card. Don't overdo it - just list a primary.
• Consider contributing to a good blog in your field of expertise, and linking to it on your portfolio.
• If you have time, drive, and enough good, solid tips and information to share, you can create your own blog for professional promotion.
• Get business cards and create mobile device business cards. appendix 1