How to avoid the old catch-22: you can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job.

When I first started working online, in 1994, all you really needed to know was HTML and how to save JPGs and GIFs. It wasn’t because that was all that web browsers could support – but it wasn’t far off that – and in any case, such was the web’s infancy that those who wanted sites built weren’t looking for much more than a few simple info pages. Web browsers were basic, and so was the software you needed to know to build a page. A Photoshop-esque package and Notepad. That was it. There were no web and new media courses pushing out highly trained graduates every year, so the competition for work was not as fierce.

Web design is a broad church
If you’re graduating in 2009 it’s all completely different. The Internet has become vast and as such the variety of roles within the industry have multiplied exponentially. Of course, you can still have an aspiration to be, and can succeed in being, a ‘web designer’, but the knowledge and experience of various systems and packages will vary hugely from job to job, as will the degree to which you need to be a master of one skill or a jack of all trades. To get that dream job online, you need to try and accrue as much experience as you can – but of course, there’s the old catch-22 that you can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job.

So how can you start your online career?
Use the beauty of the web. There are no barriers to entry in terms of making a site. You can still make a site in 2009 in the same way I made my first one in 1994. Sure, that’s going to look shocking, and in any case, you’re probably way beyond that level already, but there is nothing to stop you just building, experimenting, trying things out, dipping into different technologies. If you can build a credible portfolio of sites, be they for mates, family businesses, or if it’s just to try something, anything, in Flash or Dreamweaver, then you will broaden your skills, the stuff you can talk knowledgeably about and you’ll have something to show on your CV and at an interview.

What skills do you need?
Do you aim to become an expert AJAX coder, a PHP developer or a graphic designer? What skills do web agencies and companies look for? It depends very much on the type and size of the company.

Most companies that are involved with online run on extremely tight resources. You may want to be a JavaScript programmer, but there are few firms that can have the luxury of supporting someone in such a dedicated role, and these are likely to be bigger companies. And big firms, unless they have graduate recruitment schemes, are likely to want to see some vocational experience.

Smaller firms prefer all rounders – people who can competently perform a number of duties, show some adaptability and good time management skills. Here the focus will very often be on simply getting stuff done and so, if you can demonstrate projects that you’ve got up and running on your own, you could be well on your way to getting your foot on the ladder.

So, if you are starting out, don’t pigeon hole yourself early on. You may have left uni a great PHP / MySQL developer, but in two years’ time, you could find that your real strength lies in project management, front-end development or information architecture.

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

The new sign outside our office lasted just three days

I got a call from one of the team today to tell me, that for the second time this year, one of the signs we’ve got outside our offices has been torn down.

I think when the first sign got vandalised, we probably all thought this was the random act of some clueless idiot. However, I guess, it now having happened a second time and us seeing to be the only business in our office block who have been targeted in this way, we’re going to have to put this down to being the act of someone who for some reason has decided to have a crack at us.

I just want to use this post to say, “Why do you bother?” If you have some kind of problem with miggle, then let us know what it is. If it’s a competitive issue, then bear in mind that we’ve got more avenues to winning business than the signs we post outside the office. We know that operating the sort of business we are in Brighton puts us in a crowded market, but the sort of companies we know we are competing against are savvy, respected and talented enough to win work on their own merits. We welcome that kind of competition – it’s part of what makes Brighton such a fantastic centre for new media. None of those firms would resort to these kind of tactics.

Anyway – undeterred, we will get the sign remade. The idea behind it was from one of the new guy’s in the team, it’s the first bit of work he’d done for us and he was looking forward to see if it worked. Our designer who put it all together takes a great deal of pride in her work – it’s a disappointment for her too. Neither of them deserve to have had their efforts trashed by you. Grow up.

We’ve logged the incident with the Police and I’ll pay a small sum as a token of our appreciation to anyone who helps us make a claim or get a conviction against the person who did this, and who probably will so again until we find out who it is. And, of course, if any one reading this wants a free consult on web design – please feel free to get in touch.

Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed more and more tradesmen’s vans out and about on my walk into work. We’re well into the spring and that always seems to be start of people getting professionals in to get stuff done to their houses. And in that, I’ve seen a bit of a selling opportunity!

A lot of vans I walk past will carry the business name, the trade, a phone and mobile number – sometimes even an email address – but often a lot of these are bereft of a web address. So, it’s a perfect chance to ask the question – “Do you have a website?”

Travelling promotions
The interesting thing is that some of these businesses do, but they don’t promote the fact on their vans, or the banners that hang from scaffolds. This seems to me to be missing an obvious opportunity. As I’ve said before – a functional website is just the starting point to making the most of your business online.

Of course there are those vans that do promote websites – and so, when I see a web address I tap it into my iPhone and check out what’s there. Right now, web access via mobile phones only makes up a tiny percentage of overall access to the Internet, but of course that’s only going to increase as the availability of both phones that can access the web increase, the functionality of the browsing software improves and designers start really thinking about hand held experiences. Here at miggle, we’re also betting on .tel domains playing their part in making the web more mobile.

Think mobile for your website
Even though that slice of users is small right now, I think they represent a valuable niche. If a user has taken the time to access your site on their phone, then it shows that they really really wanted to see that info. Something has created that moment and that’s a powerful impulse. Visits driven on this sort of emotive level are probably some of the most qualified traffic you might get. So, there are two things – one, you’ve got to work hard to try and create those moments. If you’re a tradesman and you own a van, it can act as a moving billboard for your business – so use it as such. And, two, if what’s on your van has the power to make someone act straight away – which is likely, in someway to be facilitated by their phone, then make sure you’ve got a credible experience on hand held devices.

Once example I had today – nice looking van, clean, good logo, clearly a professional job on the branding (as opposed to Comic Sans and some clip art vinyled on to the side), talking up what seemed to be a quality product and service. I tap their address into my phone – and I get no site. Why? Because it’s all been designed in Flash, it has no back up option for people who might be accessing a site on a device that does not support Flash. “So who gives a ****?”, you might say – its hardly like that’s going to make up much of the visits to the site. True enough. But a web design company that delivers a site that ONLY works in Flash is probably not a web design company that’s thought about the challenges of making a Flash site work well from a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or an accessibility perspective, or even a basic user needs perspective. That client’s site probably makes a nice portfolio entry on prettybutpointlesssites.com – but that’s about it.

All that from my walk to work. I’m glad it’s the weekend…

>> Get your business a .tel domain

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.