Journal Entry:
Tue Jan 15, 2013, 8:35 AM
As the title explains, I'm looking for a little advice possibly from someone who has experienced such a thing.
The specific subject is about turning my skills into marketable products for the modern world.
I'm an artist and writer, but I've also always been a big fan of graphic design. I design all my websites and book covers. Sometimes people are more impressed by my book covers than the comics they contain (lol). That's fair.
Everywhere I go with my career, I end up running into the same roadblocks. As a graphic designer, it's difficult to get a job in media, because everything is turning towards the internet. On the internet, programming is a desirable skill which I do not have in the least. My skills are HTML and CSS, and I have a very limited knowledge of how PHP works. A working knowledge of PHP has been almost prerequisite to designing anything for the web for years. With my comics and writing, I run into situations all the time where I need to find someone with programming experience in PHP/SQL. Video game and animation programming are getting very integral to the whole experience, too. It is getting harder to just sit back and be "the artistic talent" while someone else does all the hard work of programming.
So, I have been brushing up and trying to learn a few of these things for myself, but I am totally in the dark. Here's what I'd like to know.
What programming languages are the most common in the website programming field? I know that I run into PHP and SQL a lot personally, but are things like javascript still relevant?
What's the best way to go about learning Flash? Which version of Flash would be the cheapest without being totally outdated?
What programming languages and software (besides Flash of course) are used in video game programming?
Is it worth it to go to school and get a degree in these fields, or can they be self-taught? Does getting a degree really help in finding a job?
I am still thinking about going back to school in a year or two.
Sta.sh
Theme
Total prizes reach 1000 
!!!! 
But of course there are always the rules......
Please please please fave the journal!
Make another journal about this giveaway and provide a link of that journal in the comments (this will help spread the word about this giveaway)
this journal 
Rules
Should be about School Times!
, comment and watch!
oints:
Lavender Legend 
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Lavender Legend books on sale --> 
[link]
I don't so much advise against a formal, structured class, if that's what you need, since you can find some like the one I mention above... but I do advise against spending money on them unless you know you'll be able to commit to the whole run (I just wasted a bunch by falling behind an online course last year D: ) ... or it just seems like an especially good opportunity. And I definitely advise against enrolling in school for it as it's almost certain to be more time and money than would be necessary for your needs.
As for PHP. Try this:
[link]
as a primer, it's wonderful. I don't think you'll have too much of a hard time picking up the basics once you get going. I'm not super good myself, but just a while and I was able to pick up enough to write an RSS-feed....thingy.... for my website.
As for Java and Flash(You mean ActionScript, right?), I second the "figuring out what you need to do" thing, although it's not a bad idea to study a OOP (PHP is one, as well). I was working with AS3 for a while, and I've gotten distracted from it, but I'm planning on going back. It really isn't strictly speaking necessary if all you're doing is webdesign though. And AS3 isn't necessarily the best place to start, either. I personally wanted to make flash games, so that's why I started picking it up.
This is mostly all hobby for me (partially it's also volunteer work for a nonprofit), so I will admit to maybe having some things wrong, but here's my advice, for what it's worth. ^^
Whatever you do though stay away from Perl, if someone wants you to make something in Perl, just run, far and fast.
I'd also be careful about going back to school in any capacity, as you've already discovered it saddles you with debt and may not bring any measurable benefits.
I am going to try to learn what I need on my own, and see if I can do it.
Java won't be a "all in one" language, but it's very viable to the point that whole games have been made in Java...and done so because it is on almost any device that can connect to the internet.
I can only suggest trying to disable your javascript on your browser and looking around at websites you normally go to.
Really, you may need to expand upon on what you really want to do with these programming languages, because we really don't know what to suggest in the long run. I feel like I might be leading you on the wrong path, but I could be leading you to the right one if you're looking for something that can do drop down menus and that stuff.
I know a website like this one: [link] Uses a lot of "graphical flare" through java. The bobbing characters, the background, and the way that header bounces all are Java ouo
If you're not looking for things like that, then, really just ignore what I said before XD; At least about Java.
I am looking at some colleges that offer both associate's and bachelor's degree in programs with names like "software engineering" that seems to cover everything I am interested in, and skips over the stuff I probably don't need, like so many advanced mathematics courses that the regular "computer sciences" degree requires. I never made it to calc or trig in high school, so that would be very hard for me.
I am just debating whether I want to go back to school and incur such an amount of debt. Is it going to provide work with regular income? My previous experience with technical school (in computer graphics/design) has not yielded any results. I got stuck with the debt and no job.
And when it comes to math in programming, most of it is algebra if I remember correctly. You don't exactly do logarithms with it XD;
Honestly you might as well try learning it on your own for a while. You should be able to learn the basics and see if it's something you are up to. I really can't say anything else about this because I have no experience in that situation at all. I can't say if that will get you a job or just put you more in debt.
And lord only knows how many more people will be fully educated in the same field as you when you're done. People still clamor about the jobs in web design and programming, but I can't see that many jobs being open when so many people are flooding to it.
Whether I will or not is debatable. I would love to have a reliable job I could do from home, or at least from an office cubicle, and not on a salesfloor, because I'm just not a "people person" as they say. But if it costs $20k a year for tuition, that's simply unrealistic for me.
So yeah, I will just continue self-taught methods until I figure out what I want to do.