Adobe Dreamweaver is the starting point of study for almost all web designers. It is probably the favourite environment for web development on the planet.
Additionally, it’s good practice that you gain an in-depth and thorough understanding of the full Adobe Web Creative Suite, including Flash and Action Script, to have the facility to facilitate Dreamweaver as a commercial web-designer. This can mean later becoming either an Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) or an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE).
Getting to grips with how to construct the website just gets you started. Creating traffic, maintaining content and programming database-driven sites should follow. Consider training programmes with additional features that teach these subjects perhaps HTML, PHP and MySQL, in addition to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and E-Commerce skills.
One of the most important things to insist on has to be proper direct-access 24×7 support from trained professional instructors and mentors. Far too often we see trainers who only provide office hours (or extended office hours) support.
Find a good quality service where you can access help at any time of the day or night (irrespective of whether it’s the wee hours on Sunday morning!) Ensure you get 24×7 direct access to mentors and instructors, and not simply some messaging service that means you’re constantly waiting for a call-back – probably during office hours.
As long as you look hard, you will find professional companies that provide their students direct-access online support 24×7 – even in the middle of the night.
Never ever take second best when it comes to your support. Most students who fall by the wayside, are in that situation because of support (or the lack of).
One fatal mistake that we encounter all too often is to choose a career based on a course, and take their eye off where they want to get to. Universities are stacked to the hilt with unaware students who took a course because it seemed fun – instead of what would yield their end-goal of a job they enjoyed.
Imagine training for just one year and then end up doing the job for 20 years. Ensure you avoid the fatal error of opting for what may seem to be a program of interest to you only to spend 20 years doing a job you hate!
Take time to understand your feelings on career progression and earning potential, and whether you intend to be quite ambitious. You should understand what will be expected of you, what qualifications will be required and how to develop your experience.
Obtain help from an experienced industry professional who ‘gets’ the commercial realities of the area you’re interested in, and is able to give you ‘A day in the life of’ synopsis of what you’ll actually be doing on a day-to-day basis. It’d be sensible to discover if this is the right course of action for you long before you start on any retraining programme. There’s really no reason in kicking off your training only to discover you’re on the wrong course.
Commercial qualifications are now, most definitely, already replacing the traditional routes into the industry – so why should this be?
Industry now acknowledges that to learn the appropriate commercial skills, the right accreditation from such organisations as Adobe, Microsoft, CISCO and CompTIA most often has much more specialised relevance – saving time and money.
Academic courses, for example, often get bogged down in a great deal of loosely associated study – with a syllabus that’s far too wide. This prevents a student from understanding the specific essentials in enough depth.
Assuming a company knows what areas they need covered, then all they have to do is advertise for someone with a specific qualification. Syllabuses are set to exacting standards and can’t change from one establishment to the next (as academic syllabuses often do).
Searching for your first position in IT is often made easier with a Job Placement Assistance service. The honest truth is that it isn’t so complicated as you might think to find a job – as long as you’re correctly trained and certified; employers in this country need your skills.
However, what is relevant is to have advice and support about your CV and interviews though; also we would encourage all students to update their CV as soon as training commences – don’t put it off until you’ve graduated or passed any exams.
A good number of junior support roles have been offered to trainees who are in the process of training and have yet to take their exams. At the very least this will get your CV into the ‘possible’ pile and not the ‘no’ pile.
Normally you’ll get quicker service from a specialist independent regional employment service than any course provider’s centralised service, as they will be more familiar with the area and local employers.
Certainly be sure that you don’t spend hundreds of hours on your training and studies, and then just stop and imagine someone else is miraculously going to secure your first position. Stand up for yourself and start looking for yourself. Put the same focus into getting the right position as you did to gain the skills.
(C) Jason Kendall. Look at LearningLolly.com for clear information. www.dreamweaver-training-london.co.uk or Dreamweaver Course.
