[Sussex] An odd question....

[Geoff Teale]

Gareth wrote:
-------------
>Hi
>
>i'd just like to tell ya my experiance, I have 1 years experiance in
>doing PHP/XHTML/CSS/MYSQL  with a lot of nkoledge of the web tools etc.
>I wen to college for 2 years and did one year of a HND (i found this to
>be to easy and was not computer orinated enough.). after getting that
>job when i left i was made redundant a year later.
>
>no i am finding it real hard to get a job in the same area of expertice.
>(this is largly cos of my location probaly) but my point is with a
>deegree i dont know but its not easy getting work these days as there is
>way more ppl wanting the jobs then before.

Gareth,

A couple of things:

1\  
Yes your location is a big part of your problem.

2\ 
Web developers jobs in particular are a _bad_ part of the market to be in
right now.  Web development is an area where a very large number of people
were employed a few years ago - the majority of which are now unemployed,
and looking for work.  

How did this come about?  

Easy.  In the .com boom web developers were employed left right and center,
they drew from a number of fields: graphic designers, programmers and people
with no experience at all.  The perception was this, HTML is very simple,
web programming is simple.  What has happened over the last ten years
however is that the content on the web has become far more complex, far more
interactive.  The programming skills have become more and more important as
we look to increasingly complex back end processing, client side scripting
and the rise of the scemantic web (think XML - SVG, XForms, RDF, XSLT).
This increase with complexity combined with the bursting of the .com bubble
has left us with with a small market for skilled programmers and skilled
designers and a very large number of "web developers" competeing for these
jobs.  Ultimately I imagine around 75% of people employed as "web
developers" in the late 1990's will never work in IT again (without
significant investment in training).  For the few jobs left you're need to
be either a qualified/experienced graphic designer or an
experienced/qualified programmer.  My advice, if you know how to code go
looking for programming jobs and market yourself as a programmer, the web is
so ubiquitous now that those skills are just another part of a programmers
job, "web developers" per se are a dying breed.

I predict this trend will spread to the MCSE, Microsoft Certified Solution
Providor market as well (though not to the same extent), how long will the
small percentage of cowboys survive in a more technically rigorous market
where there is _real_ competition? 


-- 
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk
tealeg at member.fsf.org
      _________________________________
     / _______________  ______  ______/\
    / /\_____________/ /\____/ /\_____\/
   / / / __   __    / / /   / / /
  / / / / /\ / /\  / / /   / / /
 / /_/_/ / // /_/_/ / /   / / /
/_______/ //_______/ /   /_/ /
\_______\/ \_______\/    \_\/



The above information is confidential to the addressee and may be privileged.  Unauthorised access and use is prohibited.
 
Internet communications are not secure and therefore this Company does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message.
 
If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
 
Claybrook Computing Limited is a subsidiary of Claybrook Computing (Holdings) Limited
Registered Office: Abbey House. 282 Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7NJ
Registered in England and Wales No 1287205
 
A Hogg Robinson plc company