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Mission: Skillbuilding 2007
14 January 2007
Throughout my career as a web designer, my core competency is and remains visual design. I love interface design challenges, logo design jobs, and the occasional print-media project. But I want to offer more. Two-thousand and seven marks the year I learn advanced web development. I'm determined to make myself valuable at any point in the development cycle, from front-to-back.
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of website design is the logic puzzle one faces upon completing the final set of templates. Generating a working site from a PSD is a pretty complex process. No matter how amazing that concept or mockup looks, you need mad coding skills to make it work. My skills are all in the front-end: visual design, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
It's time to bolster my skill set by delving deeper into web technologies, including Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, XML, regular expressions, etc. I want to learn how it all works in order to deliver more value to clients and employers. During 2007 I intend to pursue extensive formal study in these areas, either through university, apprenticeship, or both.
I'm very excited to start learning. Tomorrow I will attend an orientation session which kicks-off a competition for apprenticeship at a local web design company. Should I succeed in securing a seat in the program, I receive 2-months intensive training, followed by employment at the company. This overwhelming opportunity is the best way to begin learning more about advanced web technologies. Wish me luck!