I know i will hear cries of ‘just work for yourself!!’, but this does intrigue me. Live in northwest UK, and see lots of jobs in jobpages looking for certain skills, often with good pay, often with poor pay…
Question is this really, if a guy with nil experience of this industry logged on to, say…W3schools and taught themselves PHP, or javascript or whatever really, would they be ‘employable’? I mean if they approached companies and said yes ive built a,b or c with the skills ive learned, would it really be enough to even get a foot through the door for an interview? Maybe there are people on this forum who are quite senior in a big organisation, would you listen to a guy who has self taught in this manner, nil ‘corporate’ experience, but clearly has a passion and the skill? Im not in this postion by the way, i chose the ‘kop out’ option of needing the formal study backing and am currently plodding through all of that, but was tempted by the other route lots and would be good to hear other thoughts on that?
You’d have to learn from a better site than W3Schools.
Though theoretically [you] would be employable assuming they could show proof of work, etc.
Albeit usually when you go for an interview at minimum they expect to see a portfolio and typically a certain amount of ‘work experience’ in web design and references, etc.
If your portfolio was good or let’s say you’d done a few websites for local charities or friends you would stand a chance. I have ‘presence’ so it gives me an advantage…
Your best bet is to at least get one or two sites created even if it’s free for a neighbour so you can backup your theory with physical examples.
If you have skill of learning then you can learn it from anywhere but you need to have real knowledge and execution skill so you can show that to interviewer. I would like to add one more thing you need to have a degree or certificate for getting a good job as mere skill doesn’t work in today’s world.
Hi Alan
Yes without a doubt if the person had an aptitude for what they did.
I have been in this industry for 10+ years and when I started had little or no interest in computers at all let alone the programming side of things.
I went self employed in 2000 but have also worked for other companies in house for short periods. If you can build up a portfolio of sites/designs/code that you have done then you stand a good chance of being seen and interviewed.
From my own exprience, i had no idea of what affiliate marketing was, but got into this field somehow and now an affiliate manager for a network. and it happened in a short period of time. Whats the key? I guess being willing to learn and a swift learner.
And I am currently hiring people for the company. Honestly I could care less about degrees. I wanna see the potential in that person I talk to. It’ll be a plus if they had previous experience in the related field, be it corporate experience or just self taught. Well, of course this depends on what the position is about and what the company is looking for.
