Getting in as a junior designer/developer?

Dave!

Hey dudes,

On Monday I'm about to start my job hunt, and I'm hoping to find work in web design or some related area, so I'm just looking for general advice on how I can improve my chances of finding work?

My background is, I'm 23, BA Computer Science (and History -- don't ask), and have been messing around with websites and the likes since I was about 15. I've started taking it seriously the last 2 or 3 years, and want to pursue it as a career.

I've put together a half decent portfolio website, although there's only 3 live sites in there (and 3 mockups). I'll try churn out a few more in the meantime though.

The only related work experience that I have is 6 months working as a technical assistant for a travel-related website in Australia. It was great experience, and I did a good bit of (mainly) front-end development work, and learned alot while I was there. However I'm still learning the trade really, so I'll have to go in to my next job in a junior capacity anyway, and work my way up as I get experience.

So I'll obviously be digging through the job sites to try find relevant jobs to apply for, but I'm wondering is there another avenue I should pursue at the same time? Should I just fire off CVs to a bunch of design studios etc in Ireland? How did you get your first job in design/development (I know they shouldn't be used interchangeably)?

Also, since the jobs I'm applying for will be alot to do with design, should my CV be slightly more... fancy... than if I were applying for another kind of job? I presume images are still a no-no, but would a creative design be appreciated? Or should I just go with a basic one with nice typography?

Cheers guys, any help appreciated.

And any jobs going in your places, fire me a PM please

Axwell

A lot of it is going to be based on your portfolio more than your CV to be honest. While they will have a read through it they will be more interested to see your past work. Maybe put a link up see we can have a look, also the more work you have the better and the more variety so get as many mockups etc up there as you can. Also do jobs for friends or family for free if you have to or anyone else to get some more live sites up.

Good luck with the job hunting.

Dave!

Cheers Axwell

The site is www.davidmcginn.ie

I can't think of anything decent to put on the main page, but other than that I don't think it's atrocious

Abelloid

Dave! wrote: »

Cheers Axwell

The site is www.davidmcginn.ie

I can't think of anything decent to put on the main page, but other than that I don't think it's atrocious

Down at the moment...

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/http://www.davidmcginn.ie/

EDIT:Back up again..

en.r4cart

Keep studying new tech and good luck

KylieWyley

Be familiar with CMSs like Drupal, Joomla and Wordpress (not strictly CMS, I guess) if you're not already. A lot of firms use these instead of in-house software.


Just noticed- you've a mailto link on your contact page. This should generally be avoided as its only going to cause you a lot of heartache in the form of spam. Get yourself a nice contact form with a CAPTCHA.

JonJoeDali

Consider a move to the UK - many more opportunities for youngsters over there.

Adam

make sure you're not making basic mistakes, for example the images on the portfolio page of lk construction are very large, but squashed in to a container rather than resized.

cormee

Adam wrote: »

make sure you're not making basic mistakes, for example the images on the portfolio page of lk construction are very large, but squashed in to a container rather than resized.

Your (Dave) link colour is the same colour as your decorative/highlight colour so there's no way of distinguishing between the two visually. Underline links or change the colours.

You've no meta description on any of your pages.

Not a biggie, but some of your links are relative and some are absolute, for the sake of consistency decide on one and use that.

Most prospective employers will be looking for issues like these.

As already mentioned, focus on optimising your portfolio that's what will interest employers, not your CV style.

@justinoval - cool link (http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/) thanks.

BopNiblets

I've also wondering about this, unfortunately I haven't done many websites, one years and years ago where I was using tables (lawl) to throw up some pictures of a some travel I did, do you just make the concepts for sites in your portfolio them up yourself?
I don't think I'm too artistic in that respect, for example I came up with a Batman Comic shop for my college course... :pac:

Also wondering does hosting your portfolio on free hosting as I have look unprofessional?
Occasionally I can't get access to my own site, like right now for some reason...
http://randomblob.110mb.com

Eoin

KylieWyley wrote: »

Just noticed- you've a mailto link on your contact page. This should generally be avoided as its only going to cause you a lot of heartache in the form of spam. Get yourself a nice contact form with a CAPTCHA.

I don't agree with this. Some people like to know what your email address is - they don't want to use a contact form.

If you do have a contact form, then captcha should be a last resort - there are less intrusive ways of blocking spam.

BopNiblets

Does writing out your email address with "at whatever dot com" fool most harvesting bots?

Eoin

I don't know, but it's annoying for some people who just want to copy and paste your email address. Don't make it harder for people to contact you than is necessary.

p

Right now, your visual design isn't very good. It's not professional standard, which is not to be expected since you haven't studied design.

There's always lots of jobs for people who can take a photoshop file, and turn it into a template in XHTML/CSS that validates. Also, bonus points for knowing how to setup & customise a CMS like Wordpress, Drupal or Expression Engine.

Focus on getting those skills and you'll easily get a job with a bit of door knocking. Aim for 'junior dev' or 'front-end dev' jobs.

p

JonJoeDali wrote: »

Consider a move to the UK - many more opportunities for youngsters over there.

Stupid comment - the web industry in Ireland is very healthy at the moment, and anyone with decent skills will find work.

Trojan

David, it might be worthwhile posting your site up on the Website Reviews forum. Also good to have a look at the other threads there - some great general advice from some posters there.