

Who wants to give me a job? - Noel_V

Hello Hackernews,<p>I&#x27;m rather good with HTML and CSS, I can implement Javascript and Jquery elements wherever I&#x27;ve tried. I&#x27;m getting better and better with PHP and am about to start the second year of Higher certificate of web technologies. Really however, I&#x27;m pretty much self taught without any commercial web design experience.<p>I&#x27;ve been working at my personal business site for about six months which you can find at www.wildhives.co.uk<p>Its taught me a great deal about SEO, google analytics, PHP and basic things such as HTML and CSS. I&#x27;ve recently gotten interested in bootstrap.<p>Its pretty much running itself now however and I&#x27;ld like to take a step into a different river, that of web design and development.<p>You can find a few further details about me here www.noelvock.com<p>You can question me further here.<p>Currently I&#x27;ld be interested in small roles, large projects, big roles and small projects.<p>Is there anyone who would be happy to have an apprentice under wing?
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EnderMB
Higher Certificate? Perhaps my knowledge of this is dated, but after you
finish your second year can you not go onto the final-year of a university
course? That was the case for HND's a while back.

If you can move on, and get a degree within the next two years then I'd
probably stick with the course you're on, and to continue freelancing.

From what I've read, you seem capable, but your tool set seems rather dated,
something I've noticed a lot from students that study for web-related
certifications. Sadly, the mere mention of Dreamweaver is usually enough to
scare people away from you, despite the actual knowledge you need to use any
IDE.

~~~
Noel_V
The degree course I could continue to do has some modules of questionable
value and I could learn at a faster more specific rate alone. I used to be
somewhat anti dreamweaver, and I still never use it in design view for
instance, I use it as a text editor, but as was suggested in another reply to
this post I've downloaded netbeans and I'm starting to use that. First
impressions, netbeans seems very nice.

~~~
EnderMB
I know the feeling all too well. In my opinion, a lot of degree courses are
not fit for purpose. I studied at an ex-poly that had over 15 different
Computing related courses and the only ones of real value were Computer
Science and Software Engineering.

I know for a fact that some universities will consider a transfer for your
final year to another course. One guy I worked with was on a HND course in
Computing and he managed to get into the second year of Computer Science at
Bristol University, and one managed to get into the final year at an ex-poly,
again in Computer Science. It might be worth considering if you think your
grades will be up to scratch.

However, to be fair, most people on here will agree that your skills show far
more than what degree you have. Frankly, the value in the degree isn't
necessarily the knowledge you attain, but the whole experience, as well as
working on projects of a certain scale and complexity. Once you've got a job
behind you, the degree is nothing more than a slip of paper.

In regards to IDE's, as long as you're using something used in industry and
are using something you are comfortable in there's no need to worry. When I
was a student I worked a ton of internships and picked up C# and .NET that
way, so my career went down the .NET route, although I've dabbled a bit in PHP
and Python where I could. If you're itching to work, then I'd highly recommend
sticking with the course, and working over the summer. There are always
schemes out there for students, and the experience is invaluable later on.

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Morphling
A quick question what kind of IDE do you use when developing?

Couple things about the sites, you might be - as you said - good with HTML and
CSS, but you don't have very good design sense. The pages you've linked don't
look visually appealing, at least to me.

Also you say on your page that your websites are "coded to W3C XHTML strict
guidelines.", but noelvock.com uses HTML5 doctype (as everything should imo)
and wildhives nets almost 30 validation errors.

It's a good start and at least you are putting yourself out there, but these
would be the things you'd get burned for from my experience.

~~~
Noel_V
I've had some good feedback about the Wild Hives site with regards design, but
hey, preferences like that are largely subjective.

My portfolio site definitely needs some updating and with regards the
validation errors, I could fix them, but its low in my list of things to do.

The ide I use is Dreamweaver. I'm also familiar with Photoshop and Fireworks.

Thanks for the feedback, its very welcome and hoping for further suggestions..

~~~
Noel_V
Here's something I whipped together in 45 minutes

[http://www.noelvock.com/sgto](http://www.noelvock.com/sgto)

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gus_massa
There is an official "Who is hiring?"/"Freelance?" monthly post the first day
of each month. They usually get to the first page. You should post there. Wait
until September 1st.

To get an idea of how it works, see the August editions:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139927](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139927)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139937](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139937)

~~~
Noel_V
Wasn't aware of that, thanks.

