New career option for smart savvy MTs - Web design Posted: Jun 17th, 2017 - 3:19 am
I have tried and not been happy with several ways to transition from MT including general transcription (low pay, too many hoops), freelance graphic design and writing (I have decades of experience, but freelancing has been largely destroyed by offshoring/underbidding/shoddy work/nobody trusts anyone anymore on either side/need to be very internet focused), and I have finally found my niche: Web design.
I'm lucky because I was a typesetter decades ago, another formerly lucrative career (that one destroyed virtually overnight by the advent of PCs)...lucky because to my shock the coding is virtually identical and NOTHING to be afraid of. So with a degree and experience that fits right in, I have a head start, but that experience also tells me it's not only not that hard to do, but it also involves a heck of a lot of skills we all possess (including perfect writing and proofing skills; web designers who can write are in high demand) (also fast and accurate typing, use of macros to duplicate effort, and so much more), you can work on-site or from home as a freelancer, no one is ever too old and, best of all, it does not require a degree, certification, or even formal schooling. You can learn from home at your own pace, absolutely free, from freely-available resources. You can be a web designer or developer at many different levels of competency, and if you are really motivated, you can be up and running inside a year (sometimes well inside). The more complete your self-education, of course, the more you can earn. You can start learning just for fun (and it is FUN) in just a few minutes to see if you have a feeling for it (see below shortly). I just saw a news piece on a group of Appalachian coal miners involved in a retraining project who have had their lives transformed by it. Google anything you can think of in terms of how to learn it, what it pays, resources, formal schooling vs. self-teaching, etc.
As a typesetter, I programmed computers before there were PCs. Then PCs intimidated me, they were like the "instamatic cameras" of computing: The underpinnings were hidden and I thought it was far more complicated than it actually is. A few weeks of studying web design (a few lessons, a few stolen hours, really) and suddenly my PC, the internet, and tech support were largely demystified...and I had been completely technophobic for decades.
So, to have fun and try it out (I found these after much research, trial and error), check out W3School (W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium Standards) free web tutorial, start with html. It is a comprehensive curriculum set up in learning modules, and you will discover in the first brief lesson or two ("Hello World!") the ridiculous simplicity and fun of making the internet display what you create. It is SO immediate gratification, all the time.
I also highly recommend a book (available as a download) called Head First HTML and CSS, which is as addictively fun (and effective) as Alton Brown's Good Eats (and no I am not making any money anywhere on this stuff). (Look for their very long nice sample.) I am working my way through this book and loving every minute. I can't stress this enough: You can be a complete technophobe, as I was, and this book will make you feel like a genius very fast. They pride themselves on that.
I'm learning the nuts and bolts from Head First (especially the WHY, not just the HOW), before I graduate to using wonderful starship timesavers like Dreamweaver. It's a job you can learn the basics of quickly and then spend a lifetime adding on to. If you weren't intimidated by MT, you shouldn't be by this. It's one little step at a time, and my experience at least is that by the time I was less than 1/4 of the way through Head First and had Googled every question I could think of, I "got" the whole thing: The scope, what I have to learn and what I don't, and how many resources there will always be to fall back on when I need anything.
I hope to stay in MT for awhile while I learn this and build a new career. I may even stay in MT as long as it's feasible. But it is so liberating to know I can do this, and how to do it, to have an income while I learn...it may not be for everyone, but I for one was hopelessly addicted when I took the first lesson that showed me how to write something and open it in a browser. If I never earn a penny from it, I already feel an incredible sense of accomplishment. All I can say is, we are hardworking, intelligent, educated, disciplined, multitaskers, self-starters, hard-headed lifelong learners...if anyone can do this (and after reading Head First I'm convinced almost anyone can), we can. I hope this helps someone.
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