http://alistapart.com/articles/2007surveyresults
A thread about getting a job as a web developer reminded me that I intended to start a thread discussing ALA's survey results a while back but forgot.
Just briefly the survey is from A List Apart and asks web designers, developers and whatnot from all over the world for their background - education, location income, etc, and their opinions about things like relevance of education, perceived bias in the field, titles, blogging, etc.
Anyway, I thought it'd be interesting if people read through the survey and posted their thoughts about it.
And also it'd be interesting to hear how people came into the field.
my thoughts
The first thing that struck me was the honesty of the survey. Many people I know just assume that it's a technology field and there's a lot of money to be had. I guess that you definitely have high chances of earning more than the average salary in the U.S. but the numbers from places like salary.com rather inflate people's expectations.
So me:
AGE: 23
GENDER: female - surprise!
TITLE: I use "web content manager" and designer, so I guess I fall into the "other" category.
EDUCATION:
I have a bachelor's but it's in International Relations and Economics.
BLOG: nope. Have a site but hasn't been updated in ages.
EMPLOYMENT:
I made websites - mostly fansites - as a hobby as a kid but participated in an educational website competition and didn't win but got recruited to do some work for the school. I've been freelancing for them ever since. I started as just another hand, but learned design, some programming and eventually moved much of the web stuff to software management. I spent a lot of time redesigning the site and implemented Movable Type with several plug ins to let the teacher basically run the site with as little reliance on me or anyone else as possible.
Back in June I turned down a job as a content manager (teaching English abroad right now) with a subsidiary of large bank in downtown Boston. I would have worked designing an internal information system, worked with programmers and writers and reported to the president of marketing. For me, this is more along the lines of what I want. I want to use technology to get into the door but ultimately I want to work in management, specifically design or content management.
Ok, let's hear your story!
A thread about getting a job as a web developer reminded me that I intended to start a thread discussing ALA's survey results a while back but forgot.
Just briefly the survey is from A List Apart and asks web designers, developers and whatnot from all over the world for their background - education, location income, etc, and their opinions about things like relevance of education, perceived bias in the field, titles, blogging, etc.
Anyway, I thought it'd be interesting if people read through the survey and posted their thoughts about it.
And also it'd be interesting to hear how people came into the field.
my thoughts
The first thing that struck me was the honesty of the survey. Many people I know just assume that it's a technology field and there's a lot of money to be had. I guess that you definitely have high chances of earning more than the average salary in the U.S. but the numbers from places like salary.com rather inflate people's expectations.
So me:
AGE: 23
GENDER: female - surprise!
TITLE: I use "web content manager" and designer, so I guess I fall into the "other" category.
EDUCATION:
I have a bachelor's but it's in International Relations and Economics.
BLOG: nope. Have a site but hasn't been updated in ages.
EMPLOYMENT:
I made websites - mostly fansites - as a hobby as a kid but participated in an educational website competition and didn't win but got recruited to do some work for the school. I've been freelancing for them ever since. I started as just another hand, but learned design, some programming and eventually moved much of the web stuff to software management. I spent a lot of time redesigning the site and implemented Movable Type with several plug ins to let the teacher basically run the site with as little reliance on me or anyone else as possible.
Back in June I turned down a job as a content manager (teaching English abroad right now) with a subsidiary of large bank in downtown Boston. I would have worked designing an internal information system, worked with programmers and writers and reported to the president of marketing. For me, this is more along the lines of what I want. I want to use technology to get into the door but ultimately I want to work in management, specifically design or content management.
Ok, let's hear your story!
