As Greg mentioned earlier in the week, the web industry is slammed. Everyone I talk to tells it the same — nobody can keep pace with demand.
Outside the industry, that’s called a good problem to have. Inside it, it’s frustrating. As the work becomes less and less mechanical, the effort required to find the right people becomes more and more difficult. The mindset to differentiate between done and done right has become as important as the skill set itself.
We’re losing someone who differentiates. (Jason is going startup mode.) So, once again, we’re experiencing the effort.
Which brings me back to the post at Airbag. Greg’s proposing a simple curriculum could help people *new* in the industry improve. It’s a great idea. Anyone who cares enough about the craft could benefit from something like this. An important side effect would be knowing who really does (care).
Maybe it would make finding the right people a little easier.
Weird that Greg would even mention the W3C. Learning from W3C docs directly is like learning C++ from ISO 14882.
Perhaps a standards board could use such a curriculum as a checklist to criticize or approve the many existing workshops covering web development, thus advising employers and would-be students. I think do-righters (who are typically self-directed learners) would be more inclined to use such workshops if they could quantify the benefit.
I think Greg was referencing some recent discussions regarding the w3c more than the ongoing efforts of the org itself.
The benefit to participants of curriculum workshops would be pretty clear via the impact it could have on their career. There are a lot of people who’d love to know the things you already do but don’t know where to start.
i care.
Yeah.
I wish there were better schools out there and a certain standard curriculum for schools to follow. I went back to school to try to help find where I fit in and was let down. There was even a lack of consistency between instructors and one was even teaching tables based design. There was no entry level course and people are allowed to graduate with a degree in Interactive Design without knowing what a div is and how to use it. Hopefully things will change but not likely anytime soon.
Me too Jennifer. AListApart.com, thinkvitamin.com, etc. have more helpful ‘curricula’ than you’ll find in schools — not sure if that’s good (because it’s free) or bad (because there isn’t something formal). I spotted on your site you’re reading / have read Bulletproof Web Design. If I had to pick an instructor, Dan would be the guy.
Web training is really a crazy thing… people come from so many places: areas of IT, design, print media and all around. Plus the Web is constantly evolving. It is great that there is such a variety of backgrounds available when working on teams- but a universal training isn’t really out there. Some pick up the basics from their computer science degree, some go to ‘webmaster’ schools, etc.
When hiring, I have always paid close attention to books people are reading & have read and also sites they get their daily/weekly web doses from. Often the driven & passionate are looking everywhere to keep on top of their game and develop new skills. Sometimes the best folks are people who one day were browsing the web & wondered, “How did they do that?” and looked at the source code. Next thing they were blogging… html became habit, javascript looked easy…
Those are the people I like - the “tinkerers” that have “wondered” themselves into a new career. I wonder if you can teach that in school. :)
@Sheldon. Agreed on all points. I’m not for “school” per se. I’m for a curriculum that motivated types can find their way into. As an aside, we pay a lot of attention to the extent that candidates maintain personal presence online (i.e., blogs, flickr, twitter, etc.) It says a lot about how much a person believes in what they do.