I just want to work on the web!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

With all the crazy stuff going on with the economy right now, I guess I should be happy to be gainfully employed. I work at a university in New Jersey as a Programmer Analyst, and I would be deservedly struck by lightning if I complained about my salary, which is pretty good for someone my age (27) with my experience and education (B.A. in a very non-technical field).

But I want out. I want out bad. I’ve been working here just over a year and I’ve decided I’m just not happy. I’m not overly happy supporting end-users on an Oracle application, and I’m especially not happy living in this area of the country. It’s ugly, cold, and dirty here. I want to be someplace pretty, warm, and clean.

So I’m building up my skills. With this job and my last one, I have some HTML experience. Whenever a webpage needed designing, I was the go-to guy. I took a bunch of classes, and I’m getting closer to a certificate from the Continuing Education division of Rutgers (my alma mater) in e-commerce. I have knowledge of, but no experience with, Perl and Java, and I actually have the Programmer certification in Java from Sun Microsystems.

Bottom line: I want the web. I’d love to be a JSP developer or a servlet designer, or anything of that nature, and I’d be perfectly willing to work my way up to it. I also think I’d be spectacular at it. But my experience is soft. I’ve designed a webpage here and there, and I’ve written Perl and Java programs for my own personal use. But if you do a search on Monster.com, you’ll find that all the interesting jobs require like five years of experience in extremely specialized technologies.

So you can’t get a job without experience, and you can’t get experience without a job. It’s a cliche, but it’s true. If only the want ads read more like “Motivated, talented individual wanted for trainee web programmer position in tropical paradise” :). But alas, it’s up to me to hunt up the openings for the job I want. It’s such an intimidating process though.

So, if you have any advice or want to commiserate, post here! I’d appreciate either!

2

You’re on the right track, but most of the companies that need to hire web developers need much database stuff. So pick up some SQL and ASP/PHP skills, and you’ll probably have much better luck. (Except it won’t really be “luck” but you know what I mean.)

KKB - who only knows HTML and CSS and can’t find a web job to save his frickin’ life.

3

I’ve got an M.A. in English Lit and a Web job, but my job involves minimal actual coding; that stuff is all done by our gurus. I organize the news on our site and stuff. It’s more of a journalism/layout thing than an actual programming thing. Oh yeah, and I work until 1:30 a.m. four or five nights a week (e.g., tonight). Yee-ha.

And by the way, I have a suspicion we’re going to be hiring a part-time SQL-type person soon. We hired one a few weeks ago, and, while no one ever tells me anything at all (I’m usually alone in a room at a computer), a few small clues have made me suspect he’s not working out. So e-mail me if anyone wants info in case we’re looking (job is part-time, in Memphis). Again, it’s purely speculation on my part; no guarantees that we’re even going to be looking.