easy to become a website designer?

pinpin

How hard is it to learn to build websites and make a career of it?
I've been trying to think of career ideas for the last 5 years or so. I don't have a genuine interest in anything career wise, so i'm approaching it from a different angle in terms of 'anything' that I would potentially be able to do, as opposed to 'finding a career that involves doing what you love doing' which is often the advice given.

The reason I'm asking about website design in particular is because I have a 'friend' on facebook. (He's actually a friend of a friend and I've not spoken to him in years)
He was working in a minimum wage factory job like me for a long time.
He updated his status about 6 months ago saying that he had got a job as a trainee website designer for a local company despite having zero experience in it.
Pay was a fair bit more than he was on previously, too.

Fast forward a few months and he has quit this job and has started his own website design company and from what I gather (from speaking to mutual friends) is doing fairly well for himself!

It all just seems so quick.

I'm further intrigued, because, like me, he isn't particularly clever, so it wouldn't seem that my lack of intelligence would be too much of an issue!

Is this something someone can teach themselves in a few months?
I don't really know anything about it, but if he can do it, i'm wondering whether I can do it, too!!

agrinnall

I certainly think you could teach yourself the basics of the technical aspects in a few months. But the key to website design is the design part of it, not the technical bits. Perhaps your FB friend has got the vision to design websites that people want, and that might not be something that's so easy to learn.

vouch0r

there are lots of great beginner sites, w3c for example will teach you the basics from the ground up and you have to see if coding is your thing, have a play with basic coding and see if you like it.

only one way to see if its for you

DevCoder

Most "clients" will expect a decent SEO part of any package, learning how to successfully do that tends to be harder then the design. Its quite a bit of effort to achieve "design", "code" (which you either have a knack for or don't) and SEO all in one person. I would say "a few months" is pushing it. Learning Javascript , PHP or even HTML/CSS can take many months and most coders are still learning years after starting.

I dont do web design but am a programmer, and have never stopped learning since I started over 25 years ago.

[Deleted User]

Just teach yourself HTML, CSS, JavaScript, some SEO, design, handling clients, marketing, copy writing, database design, server-side programming... it's dead easy to be a web-designer

I'd try to do the same as your 'friend' and find a firm that would take you on and train you - or even contact this guy and find out how he started learning it. There's a big big learning curve ahead and I hope you enjoy it

BTW - if you ever get a private client make sure they write down exactly what they want, what you're going to do, what you WON'T do, when they'll pay you, what you charge for changes ect..

SailorSam

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Just teach yourself HTML, CSS, JavaScript, some SEO, design, handling clients, marketing, copy writing, database design, server-side programming... it's dead easy to be a web-designer

Is that all ?
And what do i need to do in the second week of training ?

[Deleted User]

SailorSam wrote: »

Is that all ?
And what do i need to do in the second week of training ?

Learn to make a decent cup of tea...

I had a very short career in web-design. Did it at uni to pay my way, earned a bit as a summer job. When it came to looking for 'proper' jobs I discovered web-design just doesn't pay as well as other branches of IT.

KrytenIceCubeHead

Familiarise yourself with the videos on this site : http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com. It's all you need to know about a job in IT.

pinpin

this is how i see your replies
Mainly exlamation marks and jibberish.
At first I thought it was an inside joke about 'coding', but is there a problem with
the site?!!:

trukdiver

pinpin wrote: »

this is how i see your replies
Mainly exlamation marks and jibberish.
At first I thought it was an inside joke about 'coding', but is there a problem with
the site?!!:

No, it's not a joke. The site's been hacked. A lot of posts (including very old ones) have been turned into gibberish. There have also been a lot of spam postings.

cally6008

site not been hacked, mse forum team playing with spam settings
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5087757