Need Advice: How to start in I.T. Career?

[DisconnectedMX]

Not a simple question as far as im concerned.

How to start an I.T. Career especially in Web Design and development when you are 30 yrs old and have no IT professional experiences but you are computer science graduate and have little background on desktop programming 10 years ago?

I graduated in college 10 years ago, since then nasa business na ako. I managed my own internet cafes, programmed my POS, then now into image-video editing business. my business doesn't need my hands on now unless it's necessary. so i have some free time to study or find additional source of income or wisely use my free time to build up my career. my home-based business is stable as of now, but who knows, ang risks ay kakambal na ng business. so i am thinking about my future, and i like web designing/web programming. I tried to apply in some companies in ortigas (just tries), i realized that i need experience. but who or what company will like to give me an experience? but first another problem is I am not really qualified, i am familiar with HTML,c++, c, delphi, visual basic, but just familiar not efficient with. so i seek advice also about learning path, ano dapat kung pag aral step-by-step? PHP, java, asp, .NET, perl, flash, etc? i know image editing productivity tools: photoshop, illustration, coreldraw, photopaint.

wala akong alam kung saan ako magsisimula, whats in mind now is that if i learn what must be learned about web application and design, then i may develop projects with pay which is next to nothing or may be for free just to build up my portfolio as part of my experience then apply to a company. I have time to do that habang my income pa ako sa aking little business. better late than never.

thanks for reading and thanks for advice.

[Krakista]

Take on the newer technologies so that experience becomes less of a factor as it levels somewhat the playing field. Microsoft's Windows Presention Framework and Adobe Flex come to mind as the next generation of the web (and desktop). Create WPF and Flex applications patterned after existing websites or desktop apps and let these sample work do the talking to potential employers. Don't think yourself as a 30 year old but as someone who just came out of school and pretend you're just 22.

[DisconnectedMX]

^thanks for the info krakista. googling here....


i really need advice like that.:)

[Gide0n]

Familiarity is not enough. If you want to be a web designer, then I advice you to start with (X)HTML and CSS. Master those things. Download some (X)HTML and CSS video tutorial at Lynda (http://www.lynda.com) or Total Training (http://www.totaltraining.com/) for your basic training. IMO, visual training is best for beginners.

Additional tips about (X)HTML:
http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/HTML_vs._XHTML#Differences_Between_HTML_and_XHTML
http://dev.fyicenter.com/faq/xhtml/index.html
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/html-37-steps-perfect-markup
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype/

... about CSS:
http://www.csslicingguide.com/
http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/01/19/53-css-techniques-you-couldnt-live-without/
http://www.barelyfitz.com/screencast/html-training/css/positioning/
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/css-properties-you-probably-never-use
http://www.crucialwebhost.com/blog/master-stylesheet-the-most-useful-css-technique/

... web design inspirations:
http://www.cssmania.com
http://zeniltuo.com/

Web standard sites is one of the most in-demand web design job, at least in the freelancers world. After you master these things, you can now move on a much higher skills like AJAX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29) to develop a web 2.0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0) type of sites like Digg (http://www.digg.com/), Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) and Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/). After that of course other stuff like PHP and Ruby on Rails.

Just like Krakista said, let your porfolio do the talking. You said you have some free time to study, then don't waste it. Practice makes perfect, no matter what your age is.

:cow:

[_Reversed_]

it seems like we are having the same dilemma here ;) I'm a management info system grad yet I'm just familiar with some programming languages. even though i applied as programmer trainee, the competition is very tough since there are so many IT grads nowadays. passing the lengthy exam is not enough, you still need to prove yourself while you are in training. hmmm...since you have lots of free time, you can follow the advice of Gide0n or you can enroll at training centers which will not drain out your budget. they will also give you certificate of completion that you can add in your resume. UPITTC (University of the Philippines Information Technology Training Center) offers Web Development and other programming courses. You can also try Meralco Foundation (www.mfi.org.ph) which offers affordable short courses in programming ( I think it's around 6-7k) If you want to earn certificates but you want it to be home-based, I suggest you check Yapster E-learning (www.2studyit.com) and its just P650 per module and they will give you 3 months access to finish the module.

I hope this info helps. Goodluck and God bless you :)

[DisconnectedMX]

thanks guys, keep em coming.

[Krakista]

YouTube: Code Monkey (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Wy7gRGgeA) by Mike Spiff Booth

[Pasensyoso]

If you are interested in Microsoft technologies, I would suggest that you take .NET. In just few days you can make a database driven website. Well that's just basic but think of what you can do in months time. .NET is intended for rapid development. Self-study will be easy because its really friendly.

The best part of taking .NET is that once you learned to program in desktop, you can use the same technique on web development. What I mean is syntax is exactly the same, no adjustment. I suggest also that instead of taking VB.NET, take C#. C# positions itself to the future of software development.

I can give you few materials if you want. Just PM me and leave your email address.

About your age, wise companies dont mind it esp if you are playing better than the rest. take it from Krakista, pretend you're like in 20's. Kasibulan ng mga yuppie.

[DisconnectedMX]

^thanks for that pasensyoso. i have knowledge in c# also, may be i'll try that.