Everyone has to start somewhere in the digital world
A while ago I asked fellow potential web developers to asked me questions regarding the web development industry. I got asked by Jenni and Malin the following question:
How do you feel confident enough about your skills to make the leap into applying for jobs? Or would you suggest the freelance route?
Applying for a job
When you apply for jobs, you need to make sure you apply for those that match your level of commercial experience. Experience from personal projects is a bonus but it’s not used to measure your years of experience. You need to go for the graduate and junior roles where they are seeking inexperience individuals. Some agency still counts one years experience as a junior role so be sure to read the job description carefully.
All required skills will be listed in the job description and they generally want basic knowledge. Agency will normally look for those with some knowledge in HTML, CSS & Javascript. I’m sure all potential web developer will definitely have those skills.
Demonstration your skills
Freelance work will definitely help but it isn’t necessary. It’s good to bring some example to the interview so you can demonstrate your skills to the interviewer. The examples can come from freelance or just personal projects. The interviewer won’t be expecting you to show anything amazing as they know they are interviewing an inexperienced candidate. Your personality, attitude and ability to grow is more important. Some agencies may ask you to do a technical test as they don’t expect graduates to have many examples.
It’s a good idea to freelance while seeking a job as it can be months before you find a suitable one. A bit of income is always good as well as some experience.
Not skilled enough?
Don’t be scared to think that you’re not good enough. There’s always a room for a young developer. Agencies hire graduate developers because they are cheap to hire and they need someone to do all the simple task that doesn’t require an experience developer. Over time you will become experience and be able to take on more challenging task.
If you have any other questions, please do ask me. I’ll reply to them as soon as I can.
Great advice. This doesn’t apply strictly to web developers too. A lot of what you said above is what I would tell to anyone who asks me. And just as an after thought, if the person asking is still in college then that is a great place to be as internships are readily available and they are the easiest way to gain experience, build on existing skills, and get networked.
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Great tips, it really helps when you have enough experience to do more challenging task and is also willing to learn more.
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I work as a web developer right now, and I think this is basically spot-on. My job is an undergraduate student position, and when they hired me last year, they said that my knowledge of HTML and CSS was all they were really looking for and that I might have opportunities to learn and apply some PHP or something, but that it didn’t really matter that I wasn’t very experienced with it. They seemed a lot more interested in how I got into what I do online and the fact that I actually like styling things. Apparently that’s a rare attribute at my work.
I interviewed for a student graphic design position recently and did not get the job. It was a good learning experience, though, because it was the first time I had ever had someone NOT look at my online portfolio before an interview. It was my first time having to print up, bring in, and actually talk about my portfolio, and they gave me some pretty helpful tips for the next time I have an interview like that. (They also said I had potential as a logo designer, which was pretty neat.
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Great advice! It really helps to have some experience when applying for jobs and being confident with your skills and capabilities when applying.
but people starting off have to begin somewhere, too.
Again, great advice!
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Good advice! It’s nice to know how to deal with it. Especially when you’re a starter in the digital world.
People always need to make a start somehow! 
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This is really useful advice, thanks! I’d love to offer site design, but I always worry it’s not going to be good enough :/
Jas xo
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This is a good advice for those who are starting out in this web design/development field. I think the biggest fear people have is the fear of being rejected and not accepted. My own fear is that I am not good enough.
Going freelancing is one way to promote skills, and having an online portfolio certainly is a bonus. And I think going freelance is good for those who want more flexibility and freedom.
But as you said, you just have to start somewhere (eventually).
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Aww this is really good advice! I always read these things … because I like to pretend I’m working towards my dream of the 3D animator which I would think is related to digital work and freelancing. Ahhh how I’d love to be a web designer / developer.
Well your work you say you’re out of the house for 12 hours. My dad when he does work here he only works about 5 hours at most in the day. Hahhahaha why am I bothering to explain his behavior … I understand if he’s drained from work I just think as a parent he shouldn’t make promises if he can’t get to them. I’m a little old to be upset but he’s been doing it for many years.
The wifi at home just doesn’t work. And my mom won’t let me buy a new wifi router so the only thing left is ethernet cable. I have no idea how to install them in my room so I guess I can only be the girl who doesn’t know technology and waits for the guys. =(
Haha that is romantic! Unfortunately he has relatives to go to. Maybe in the future.
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I still apply for jobs even if I don’t fit the criteria, because I think that they might be looking for candidates they can take on as an intern or who are willing to learn. I’m always willing to learn and at interviews I try to show a confident personality and keenness and interest in the job. That’s what got me one of my jobs and I struggled through the first couple of weeks and they said I was chosen for my personality even though I didn’t have the best skills… it kind of sucked to hear that, to be honest, because they wanted me to improve as I was too slow for them. I don’t work there anymore as I haven’t been called in… but whatever.
It totally showed me proof of that. The way you present yourself does matter.
I think that freelancing is a good way to go if you’ve got enough experience or if you don’t have enough. If you don’t have enough you can find clients and such, but that is always a challenge. You usually have to learn in your own time. At one of my current jobs I am taught some things at work and that’s fine with me; I actually like it a lot. My boss had the patience to teach me.
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Great advice! I’m nervous applying for a web dev or design job, I always worry if I’m good enough. As I might have mentioned before, I study web development and I’m at my last and second year. The education has been a huge disappointment. 80% of the courses we have had has been like “read this and then to the assignments”. So basically, we all have been googling us around every assignment, we haven’t even used most of our books! I haven’t learned even half of what I expected because of that.
What do you think the minimum knowledge for a junior developer to be? I’m thinking in areas such as Java, C#, Javascript, Ajax, PHP, etc? I’ve had basic courses in Java and C#, but I don’t even know how to program even the tiniest program. Feel cheated on, spending so much time and money on a shitty education
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I’m assuming you want to a web developer specifically and not a software developer. Within the web development field, there’s two more specific type: front end and back end. Front developers specialise more in HTML/CSS/JavaScript and they are usually very good at it and also have some creative design skills. Back end developers would have good knowledge in HTML/CSS/Javascript (its common for all web developers really) and they will be brilliant with back end (in another words programming, the language required will vary from company to company but most common are PHP and ASP).
I’m confused which side you want to go for so I’m going to assume you want a front end/design role, you will need the following skills as a basic:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript/JQuery/AJAX
- Photoshop + Illustrator
- Good to have some programming skills as well but isn’t always required
If you can’t program well and don’t enjoy it as much as the creative aspect then I won’t even bother touching that field at all. Back end development is very technical and pretty difficult. I was a back end developer once, it was okay but I’m much happier after moving to a front end developer. It’s so fun building websites and doing fancy things with it. Off course it’s all personal reference.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
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I thought I replied to your comment already. I guess I didn’t!
Anyway, thanks for your reply! I think I will go for front end development, so I’ve applied for some classes in Javascript and PHP in the fall, in another university, so hopefully I will learn more there.
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