Chapter 12
In This Chapter
Finding the value of a degree
Getting a two-year degree first
Going for a four-year degree with experience
Getting a four-year degree without experience
This chapter describes some of the higher education programs that you can pursue if you want a career in web development, either before you get started or after your career is underway. One key lesson: Don’t stop learning just because you’ve started working.
A successful career in web development is all about what art critic Robert Hughes called, in his book of the same name, “the shock of the new.” Web development careers exist because new advances are being made. The people who work at the cutting edge of these changes need to be learning continually in order to stay at the forefront of their professions.
Learning takes many different forms, but formal education is usually a vital part of the mix. If you think of your educational advancement being divided into study on your own, on-the-job training, and formal education, only the last one is easily measured and substantiated.
So don’t ever stop learning, any and every way you can. But include as much formal education as you reasonably can in your mix. A bachelor’s degree is becoming an entry-level qualification for most people in most web development jobs. Courses completed, certification programs completed, and advanced degrees are valuable ornaments on the tree of knowledge that you build as you pursue your career.
Most web design jobs require some combination of education and experience. This is tough! The traditional route for good-paying jobs in the U.S., and many other countries, is to finish high school; get a four-year degree at a college university; and then get hired into an entry-level job in your chosen field, a job that requires (or just about requires) a college degree.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, also known as the BLS, uses this approach to web design as a career, as shown in Figure 12-1. Its Occupational Outlook Handbook summarizes pay and typical education for a graphic designer, which is an expert — but non-technical — role when found on a web development team. The BLS considers a bachelor’s degree as entry-level education for graphic designers and also for more technical roles.
In web design, however, treating a four-year degree as a first step can have a big drawback. To a greater degree than in other kinds of jobs, hiring managers want experience even from new graduates. Having a four-year degree but no actual work experience can put you in a very challenging situation as far as getting that first job.
You may want to consider going to a two-year college, getting a two-year degree, and then getting some work experience. (It may not pay much, but it will help a lot in getting a solid initial career-track position.) Then get a four-year degree that leverages both your two-year degree as well as what you’ve learned while working.
This is a complicated and somewhat non-traditional path, but it allows you to interleave paying for college and making some money, and is probably a surer path to a good job than just going through a four-year program without working. Consider all your options as you make your educational decisions.
As mentioned earlier, experience is just as important as education in getting a web development job.
So, to a greater degree than in many fields, web developers sometimes get a two-year degree — an A.A. (Associate of Arts) or A.S. (Associate of Science) degree. This can be from a community college or a technical school. Then they go to work.
Associate degrees are usually only awarded at community colleges and technical schools. (Some smart four-year schools are starting to offer them too, giving their students a lot more options.)
These colleges are usually far less expensive in terms of tuition, fees, and even book costs than four-year schools. Many community college students continue to live with their parents while working at least part-time outside of school, further stretching their education dollar.
For those reasons, going to a two-year college (without incurring much debt), getting some work experience, and then finishing at a four-year school as a transfer student from the community college has a lot of advantages.
In a two-year degree program, you’ll learn how to use software such as Photoshop (for graphics) and Dreamweaver (for web page and website design), plus take additional classes in topics such as typography, color, layout, and design.
If you have work experience, you might find this boring. However, as each of the authors experienced, there’s value in hearing something that you mostly already know being taught in a structured, organized way. If you can keep paying attention through the boring bits, you’ll learn new things about what you’re doing — and about how people react to the information that you already know. These insights can be valuable, although they’re sure to feel hard-won after sitting in a class that only has tidbits of new information for you.
Seattle Central College has a strong two-year web design program, shown in Figure 12-2. The program includes a lot of programming and technical aspects and awards an A.S. (Associate of Science) degree, more highly prized than an A.A. (Associate of Arts). You can see the description for yourself at www.seattlecentral.edu/programs/webdesign/.
There are two different paths to a four-year degree. One is with previous experience, and the other is without experience.
In brief, it’s tough to manage your life while you get some schooling (but not a four-year degree), get some work experience, and then get your degree — but it’s a less expensive path, and you’re learning while you earn (and vice versa). If you go straight for the four-year degree, you need to either get work experience through internships, develop a killer portfolio, or be stellar, either in your prestigious degree program or in your accomplishments within the program.
If you already have experience in web design, getting a four-year degree is usually a great idea. Why?
You won’t waste your time and money in school. Because you have some work experience, you know what you want to study. You know that you’re interested in the degree program, you’re good at the type of work involved, and that there are career opportunities for you post-graduation. Also, with experience and a four-year degree, it’s very easy to get — or keep — a job.
Figure 12-3 shows the BLS page describing education for a graphic designer. It emphasizes four-year programs, but is a good starting point for all graphic designers doing web work.
If you’re continuing with the same employer, this can be a big problem. Your current employer will want to pay you your former salary, plus some kind of bump — say, 10%, or $5,000 or so. This is nice, but may not be appropriate compared to new hires who have the education and experience that you now have as well. The usual cure for being underpaid at one employer is to move to a new employer. But even that might not immediately solve the problem.
Moving up educationally can still create a problem with a new employer. They will already have a salary range for the position. But if your former salary (fitting for someone with a two-year degree, or no degree) was lower, they’ll want to discount from the salary range, or stay at the low end of it, with the idea that you’re still getting a pretty good raise.
The only cure for this is for you to figure out an appropriate salary figure, ask for that salary, and then stick to your guns. Be willing to walk away rather than come in with a salary that isn’t worthy of you. Usually, given the demand for highly educated and experienced web designers, the employer will test you a bit, and then cave. If not, look for a different employer that will treat you appropriately.
The U.S. Department of State’s human resources people have some good advice for any professional negotiating a salary, shown in Figure 12-4. To check it out in depth, visit www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/c21638.htm.
In the big picture, salary problems are, in a way, nice problems to have. As an experienced web designer with a new four-year degree, you’re likely to be a hot property. Work it.
The most common route into web development work is to get a four-year degree, and then get a job. If you don’t manage to get some experience on the way to your degree, however, this can be risky.
If you don’t yet have web design experience, and you get a four-year degree, you may have trouble finding a job. You can find yourself over-educated for entry-level positions and too inexperienced for higher-level positions. You might be willing to work around these barriers, say by taking a lower salary temporarily, but employers might not be.
There are only a few situations where we can recommend going straight for a four-year degree in web development, without getting solid experience along the way: