Do Web Designers Need Degrees?
An interesting question for such a self-taught and talent driven profession; do we need the degrees we have; should we care? The educational system (in the U.S.) has been far behind in the teaching or all things web design; the focus being that it is more of a vocational skill than anything of academic substance. And most whom have truly succeeded in this profession, the talented of them all, are primarily self-taught. I am reminded of “Good Will Hunting”; did we waste tens of thousands of dollars for what could have been achieved with a $1.50 in late fees from the local library?
I don’t proclaim to question the social character building aspects of upper education or even the forced nature of broadening our academic horizons through diverse course-loads. What I wonder is, if you are a self-taught designer, front-end and back-end developer with experience full of both quantity and quality work to which most employers would gladly pay over a $60,000.00 annual salary to with or without a degree; does the degree matter? If you know you can get a 5% raise annually and are even perhaps content at maxing out around the six-figure salary rage, does the degree matter? If you know your professional ambitions can be achieved without limitation for over a decade, the age of 21 to 31, does the degree matter? We live in a society where degrees have become essential; and thus now achievable at any stage in life – even a decade later.
In the world of web design, what is more valuable; quantity and quality of work or a degree? If the work ultimately outshines the degree, should we question spending half our first decade getting into debt as opposed to building a career? You might suggest one do both; why do both at your youthful prime than not later at your matured stability? At what point does experience trump a degree; does it ever? And forget debt as an issue; if quantity and quality of work do matter most then your time and how you spend that time is now most valuable.
Most progressive employers don’t hold it against you and those who might proclaim to, don’t ultimately check. And in such a talent driven market, does the talent have the upper hand and ultimately the control? We’ve been taught to do everything we can to get our resumes on the top of the pile; but in this field aren’t the employers the ones doing the seeking? Isn’t the pile now the inbox of the talent and it is the organizations who are fighting to the top? Organizations such as AOL, Ogilvy, The Motley Fool, Discovery, National Geographic and even our favorites like 37signals all hire extreme talent even if a degree is lacking. Many of these organizations even have or have had senior executives, without formal degrees, running their creative teams. And we all remember where Bill Gates dropping out of Harvard ultimately got him.
Again, I don’t proclaim to suggest that there isn’t value in what is obtained through getting a degree and that the value inherent doesn’t ultimately make a designer better, perhaps even great. As a “business oriented designer” my classes in Art History, Advertising, English, Journalism, Communication, Economics and Marketing have all made me the well-rounded designer and entrepreneur I am today. Knowing the fundamentals of everything from color theory to the psychology of visual and written persuasive communication is crucially important to me. But is the only way to obtain that well-rounded balance of understanding through obtaining an academic undergraduate degree? Can you obtain the same knowledge, and perhaps more, by working along side great and inspirational talent at creative and progressive organizations on large and exciting real-life projects?
It feels down right inappropriate and even morally wrong to try and suggest that anyone not go in pursuit of higher-education, especially if you have the means. But, I really wonder, and now question, why? We have to remember that it isn’t for everyone; I wouldn’t trade my time in college for anything in the world … but not everyone would share that sentiment. Almost all of the best talent I know are self-taught; and several of those amazing designers never got the degree. I always aspired to get my MBA later in life, but now I wonder has my, or will my, life experience equated to the same?
Is a degree in this field worth anything more than simply being able to say you have it?
- July 28th, 2008
- 44comments
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Here’s where I think your question needs adjustment. You’re asking if designers of the web need degrees, and for the most part the answer to that question is “no.” You’ve pretty much said so yourself in the above post. But the real question here is, do web designers gain anything from getting a degree? And in my opinion, the answer to that question is a resounding “yes.”
Getting a college degree (or, from university, as the Brits would say) is more than learning and passing enough tests to get a piece of paper after 4 (sometimes 5, like in my case) years. It’s more than having the name of a university on your resume. And it’s much more than telling your next prospective employer that yes, you do indeed have a college degree, so you’re more qualified for the position.
To me, what college is really about, is learning to interact with others, gaining valuable life lessons, making connections that may last a lifetime, and gathering knowledge from not only your professors, but also your fellow classmates. I can honestly say that I learned more about design, programming, and working as a team from the people that were also paying for college than from the people that were getting paid to teach us. And that’s not a dig on my professors, many of which were both amazing people and amazing teachers. It’s simply the way I interacted with my friends and classmates and the experience I gained from doing so.
Now that’s not to say that those designers who didn’t go to college aren’t ready for the real world (I can think of 2 friends and fellow web people that prove me right here). But if you’re thinking of skipping college in order to get started with your career in web design, just remember that you’re missing out on more than just piles of debt and bad cafeteria food.
Couldn’t agree more with Patrick. My degree is in Television Production, and I have to say it’s not often I require those skills in my day-to-day design work at Clearleft! However, I can attribute my career to date to my degree in some respects, more in the sense of it putting me in the right places, talking to the right people years ago, and one thing leading to another. And of course the life-lessons a few years at university provide are invaluable.
You can gain that same knowledge from co-workers / mentors / senior members of your team. I didn’t go the college route, but the connections I’ve made over the equivalent of a college degree have proved invaluable, not to mention having all that work experience in the ole resume.
It depends.
Higher education works great for subject matter that is established and remains unchanged for long periods of time. Although Design has core principles and values that are important to teach, it relies heavily on a tech industry that changes very rapidly. Which tends to be its weakest point.
What you end up with is subject matter that’s enough to get someone up and running in a shorter amount of time, but not so good for the long term career. Because hands-on practices will keep you more knowledgeable of what’s going on right now.
I would say to not discourage people getting an education too much, because there’s still a great deal to learn: best practices, responsibility, self-management, having a professional attitude, etc.
Having that, and being open to learning new techniques through experience is probably a good path to success.
Think of a degree as a Key. Those that don’t have a degree, have to pick the lock to get past a door. Those that have a degree, use it as a key to open the door. The issue is that if you don’t have a Key then people won’t believe you can pick the lock until you show them you can. On the other hand, if you have a Key then they will believe you can open the door. Of course, if you’ve picked enough locks, your Reputation as a lock picker becomes the Key.
Also, if a job depends on reputation, then a degree probably won’t be important since reputation can be used to differentiate oneself from the crowd. If a job is not dependent on reputation, then a degree will be important to differentiate oneself from the crowd.
I think one important thing to keep in mind is that not obtaining a degree should not equate to the stopping of learning. I think if one does decide not to pursue an undergraduate degree … they must keep learning and be open to learning.
Considering that a great many web design programs are just a tad (or, you know, a lot) behind in terms of web technology I’m not sure that a degree is actually helpful. Certifications, such as those from the IWA, seem to be a better way to go. On the other hand, in many large companies you have to get past the HR department before you can get to those who are qualified to evaluate you technical skills based on a portfolio of work. In those cases you need either a lot of past experience or a degree of some sort just to get in the door (both bumps you to the top of the list). If you want to work for 37signals and the like, a good body of work is by far the most important.
As someone who is currently going down the Certificate and self-taught path in order to transition to a web design career, I agree with the Author. Although college gave me a well-rounded education, it is not helping all that much in this new pursuit (I’m pretty sure that’s agreeing with the Author!?! :).
I would sure hope that talent would be more of a factor than a diploma in this visual-driven field. I’m sure it wouldn’t go over too well when a client tells you that your design sucks, and the only way you can defend yourself is by waving a diploma in their face. I don’t care what’s printed on that paper, they’re still going to very unhappy.
I hate to be the second person to reply with: “yea, what Patrick said”, but I agree with him on every point. Higher education isn’t so much about learning the exact skill that you’ll need in your career as it is about learning how to go about attaining skills when you need them. It’s about problem solving, networking, portfolio building, social interaction and that silly piece of paper. While the degree itself might not make you any more prepared than somebody else applying for the same position, it serves as a great tie-breaker between potential employees who are equally qualified.
I’m currently wrestling with a similar question: Do web design instructors need a masters degree? I’m not even sure if teaching on the college level is even something that I want to do as it will likely equal more work and lower pay, but it’s definitely something I’m interested in and here’s why: If the technical aspects of a college education actually prepared students for the web design industry, the question of whether or not a degree is worthwhile would be much easier to answer. I’d like to be one of those instructors that make that degree worthwhile and I hope that more industry professionals will do the same.
My friend Aarron Walter and the other members of the WaSP Eductation Task Force are making some great strides in this direction but there are a lot of respectable universities out there that are still teaching wannabe web designers how to build table-based pages in WYSIWYG editors…and that’s the problem with many degrees in web design.
I think that genius doesn’t necessarily come from possession of a degree, Frank L. Wright is a good example, but it does show a level of completion and dedication. A degree is an aid to bouncing back from unemployment, where lack of a degree is a bit of a detriment. I would encourage everyone to pursue education as a lifelong endeavor.
I agree with Patrick as well ….
As I said in the post, “I don’t proclaim to question the social character building aspects of upper education or even the forced nature of broadening our academic horizons through diverse course-loads.”
I guess my question becomes, can you (someone of talent) get those experiences elsewhere? Can you spend four years at school or 4 years at four different start-ups? Can you help inspire an entire industry by being the next designer at 37signals instead of taking that same time to complete school? Can you be a part of revolutionary ideas like Digg, Flickr, Facebook and the next Google and get just as well of a rounded educational and social experience?
I honestly don’t know the answer — and I’d tell people to go to school and get the degree. However, the reality is that everything I took away from higher-education within four years really only needed two. Did I waste two-years? I don’t think so … but there is that personal debate, play young or play old?
Four years out of the industry is a life-time. Think about how the web has changed and shifted from 1995 to 1999 to 2003 to 2007. Talk about good times, bad times and a million amazing opportunities in between.
I think a degree is an amazing thing to have … but I do see how it isn’t for everyone and do acknowledge that it by no means defines the creative talent. I’ll never look for a degree when hiring creative talent.
My degree was in “Electronic Media Art and Communication” (http://emac.rpi.edu) - it didn’t teach me advanced web design, though it did introduce me to various multimedia techniques like sound editing, video production and 3d animation. I also took a wide range of writing courses and random stuff like Advanced Dinosaurs. Nearly nothing I learned in college gets translated directly into my work now, but all of it shapes my designs in some way. College made me more well-rounded and gave me a lot of experience working with teams and within tight time frames. And having the name of a well-respected institution behind me was what got my foot in the door for nearly all my early jobs. Even though I’ll be paying student loans till retirement, I think it was worth the expense.
That said, most of my actual web design education has been self-taught or gleaned from a good peer/mentor.
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A very close friend of mine asked me if she should go to school to become a web designer. Initially I wanted to be like ” heck no” and then I thought about it. You do not NEED a degree to become a web designer, you do however, NEED a portfolio. For many going to school is the best way to build a portfolio of work that shows a variety of capabilities. While you can build a portfolio on your own school gives you the opportunity to work without the pressure of real world deadlines so that you can master the fundamentals, and then go on to use those fundamentals under the constraints of a real world working environment. Just as there are plenty of web designers out there who are awesome and have no degree, there are plenty of web designers out there who have a degree who are terrible.The degree is not really the root of this discussion, it is the experience of going to school and what an individual makes of it.
@Samantha,
Yeah, I agree with that sentiment. I wonder though … that building of a portfolio, learning how to deal with deadlines and clients — can that be better achieved with an intense internship at an agency? Perhaps even by independent freelancing or working with a seasoned freelancer?
I can think of many ways to build a portfolio that are faster than the four year commitment of college and much cheaper. A couple years ago I wrote about “An empty design portfolio, where to start?“.
Everyone wants to see a portfolio and no one will hire you without one; so how do you get a portfolio if the only way to build a portfolio is by having a portfolio? My advice is simple; start making stuff!
From my experience, no - in fact, a degree could well be a hindrance, as I’ve seen many CVs for people applying for jobs with us to see a ‘web design’ module as part of their degree, which turns out to be a few weeks of FrontPage or Dreamweaver, as Jason has said.
Certainly, a degree can help - I find software engineers have a greater understanding of team work than those doing ‘information systems’ or similar courses, and team work is a large part of how we build websites. They also have some comprehension of QA, which is useful.
I know that Anna Debenham is planning to study a Computing and Design degree, and, from a business networking perspective, it can help to know that many more people.
When tendering for larger projects (especially those for the government), the CVs of those involved are often asked for, and, in that way, it helps to have a degree in order to get the tender.
As a high school web design teacher and a member of the WaSP Education Task Force I can say that we are working hard to update education.
It’s a shame but there aren’t too many opportunities for higher education in quality web design programs. Often times students have to make a choice to go comp sci or art, which isn’t too far off base because we are designers or developers but there should be something that more closely hits the mark.
If you think about it, our industry is very young, time will provide us with an expanded higher education offering. I think the best answer is to offer opportunities to our young people. Find the closest fit for you and run with it. If school is not for you then beg, plead, and steal to take out the trash at a design agency (or developer agency) hoping that you can slowly (and I do mean slowly) work your way up but also soak up everything you can. If school is for you, make your designer/developer decision and find a program you think fits. But above all never stop learning. The reason we are where we are is because we agressively pursue knowledge in our field. We read 2 million blog posts a day, we read books, and we attend gatherings in hopes that we will learn something.
There’s the teacher speech, now to get personal. Personally, I feel that a degree is worthwhile. While yes, @Anton, the industry does change frequently it’s the concepts that persist. In my computer science degree I learned about 6 or 7 languages, many of which I can’t remember the syntax for today. But what I can remember are the common programming elements of languages, with that I can program in nearly any language as they fade in and out of popularity. I pursued a CS degree, which took, eh hem, 4.5 years. When I graduated and began looking for work I was offered the same position at the same pay my friends held who chose not to attend college. I think that the difference is that I had a broader understanding of the concepts that they did, their knowledge was focused on their job tasks, while mine was not task specific.
Push for change in your local educational facilities! No matter where you stand on this article topic, web education needs updated, help us.
I’m curious, Martin which route did you choose and why?
@Jeff,
No one will disagree with you there (or they better not) — higher education is a positive in every aspect; but you are right. The issue now is the disconnect between new and old. I think what you and others like you are doing is more than anything really shaping the industry more than anyone else — it’ll just be 4 to 8 years before we all realize it.
I did go the higher-education route. I went to the University of Maryland and got a BS in “Advertising & Graphic Design”. But I write this article for a different person; a person younger than I and with much more talent than I had at that age. I didn’t know what HTML was until my junior year in College — and just by chance (chasing after a girl) did I learn anything about Web Design.
I, like many others, went to college to figure out what I wanted to do than to learn anything specific. I changed my major midway through and had no idea where I’d work once I graduated. For me, college courses were like mini-internship sprints where I could learn the basics about a profession and see if it sparked any interest. I write this article for the lucky few who are young, talented and know exactly what they want to do … and all that before they’re old enough to drink.
It makes me so happy to see what the people at MICA and Boston University are doing for emerging talent coming into Web Design — or what Jeff and his High school are doing — and I want to do everything I can do to support that effort! I hope to be contributing much more shortly.
Would you really want to work for a business that wouldn’t consider you if you don’t have a web design degree?
I own a small web development shop. If I were to hire a new web designer, the very first thing I’d like to see is their portfolio to confirm they can do the work. Then I’d ask them about their portfolio to see what kind of thought and consideration went into their work. Then I’d look at work experiences, personal interests, and involvement in activities outside of work. I’d want to know is this a team player? Do they have a variety of interest and experiences to pull from? What sorts of things motivate them? Only after all that would I consider their educational experience.
I have a bachelors degree in something utterly unrelated web development. The variety of classes I took in theater, language, sociology, psychology gave me a lot of perspective and have probably helped me in way’s I don’t realize. You also have to have some self-discipline to complete a 4-year program with decent grades. A degree; especially from a liberal arts school could put a web designer a notch above someone without one. Still, it’s a lot of money and time for something that wouldn’t be my first consideration.
I am with Brent — I’ll never ask if they have a degree. I will only look at the work and personality and make sure we are a good fit. You get the portfolio and personality anyway you need; as long as you get it somewhere somehow.
Its not necessarily the requirement for a degree, but having better degree programs that focus more on web design, usability, and development. I’ve looked around (for my own education) and could not find any worthwhile programs that do focus on these topics, or those that did could not provide anything better than what I’ve already taught myself.
Until more design programs emerge, the web design industry will need to thrive off self-taught, motivated designers seeking to discover a new field. But their foundation can only come from learning fundamentals of design/programming from other fields.
I myself am working nearly full-time for a web development company and trying to get through school (one semester left!). I’ve butted heads with most of my faculty on my choice of pursing a graphic design degree to become a web designer/developer. But I continue because even though my degree many not mean much in my field, going through a design program that focuses in print and publication does help build a foundation in the fundamentals of design. I’ve learned to take and question principles of print design and apply them to web.
My degree will only show that I’ve been taught in the fundamentals of design. And for many, fundamentals is something you can’t get from a book. If and when web has a better hold within university programs, seeing web designers with art & design degrees, programmers with MIS, business, or other conceptual/analytical degrees, and developers with a wide range of backgrounds will be a common trend.
Martin -
I think the key factor is achieving what you call a “well-rounded balance of understanding.”
I’d agree that a web-related degree may be irrelevant except for the employment opportunities that require credentials - both because the web changes faster than curriculums change, and because web design/development can be self-taught and enhanced by raw talent.
But I think most websites are fundamentally about communication - communicating the essence of the entity and organizing its details for the users. The skills of being able to design what is right for an organization require your “well-rounded balance” - knowledge of business, economics, humanities, science, etc. - sort of like being a non-fiction author, someone who can communicate and translate the business or subject matter to the wider world. A solid non-technical, non-web base of knowledge is required for this, in addition to design and technical knowledge. Degrees are not the only way to start achieving this, and are only a start because of the need to keep on learning, but they do offer the time and the space for concentrating on learning. I think that many of the designers who skip degrees succeed because they are so self-driven that they manage to acquire a comprehensive education out of their own motivation. But for the designer who is not an omnivorous consumer of knowledge, a degree may fast-track learning they would not have gotten on their own.
While an education may definitely not be necessary, as mentioned already, it provides a basic understanding of fundamental design principles. Lately we’ve seen techniques that focus on issues like grids and typography which, is a result of more designers trying to bring traditional design principles to the web.
So while you will always have to teach yourself the latest techniques, it’s the understanding of those the principles and fundamentals that are driving the need for better techniques.
Also, in the long run, it can also help a designer mature faster. Allowing them to move beyond just aesthetics and progress more quickly to other disciplines of design like problem solving and framing.
This is a good topic, something that I have thought a lot about.
I think it says something about our field and the education for designers that a degree is not necessarily required or even and indicator of probable success. Is it simply that education is not providing the skills needed? It sure seems like it. In our local area, only one or two programs even cover fundamentals like typography and color theory. None of them offer web instruction other than how to use Dreamweaver; in fact many of our programs seem to be less about theory and more about how to use specific software, i.e., Photoshop 101. In hiring I look for visual communicators, not graphic design software users.
Probably the best thing about a college education for designers is the time, in my opinion. At no other time in your career can you really explore a project without the encroachment of reality; no budgets, picky clients, bad choices, timelines, deadlines, etc. In college you get tons of time to really dig in and solve design problems in an idealized environment. Designers should relish that time and will learn so much. A self-taught designer can certainly pick up a marketable skill-set without school, but they’ll never hand-draw letterforms or hand mix/paint swatches on a color wheel. Those exercises teach at a more fundamental level and ultimately make our work richer, and more valuable.
That said, like the others, I never look for degrees when hiring web designers. But I wouldn’t give up my degree for anything.
Absolutely. A good body of work is a requirement. Even if you’re just starting out, you should have an online portfolio of things you’ve created as a showcase of your talents. Create a series of pieces for fictional clients.
And you better be able to talk the talk in an interview. You better be able to talk with authority about such things as usability, whitespace, user interface design, web standards, typography, color, etc…depending on the type of job you’re applying for. If it’s more of a coding job, you’d better be able to discuss things like development environments, IDE’s, etc.
To answer your question in the way you phrased it, no. A designer does not need a degree. Should they have a degree? Is there a benefit of having a design degree? Yes.
As someone who is helping build the Web Standards Project Curriculum (more details to be disclosed at SXSW Interactive) I can say that there are a number of schools failing to meet certain requirements for the modern web designer not on a level of visual design but on a level of markup, CSS, and general understanding of things such as usability, accessibility and information architecture.
@Nick — thanks for the comment.
I do think there is a lot of value to a “design degree” for a “designer”. I think for anyone going into the profession as a designer (or Web Designer), that would be a highly recommended route.
But I also agree, it isn’t essential — especially as many of us in the profession now didn’t get traditional “design degrees”. I sort of wish I had in retrospect — somewhere down the line someone made me think there was no money in it.
I’m a designer (print, web, products, branding), musician, and published author.
I do not have a degree.
The article and comments from Patrick, Martin and others lead to the most important aspect of growing as a human: the continuing desire to learn.
For many, this desire (as well as the means with which to learn on one’s own) is instilled at university, rather than earlier levels of schooling. While learning social interactions is frequently lauded as a primary function of the college “experience”, it isn’t something that can’t be learned and practiced elsewhere—in fact, I’d suggest that the social interactions possible in most formal education systems are indeed hindered by the limited range of ages a student interacts with on a daily basis. The “real world” (a term I usually avoid, but just like “web 2.0″ it serves its purpose from time to time) is full of interactions with a much wider range of people, ages, languages, races, economic classes, and so on, than a typical university could ever hope to achieve.
I strongly believe that if you have the desire to learn something, it is possible to create the right circumstances for that learning to occur. That’s how my entire life seems to have played out so far: first comes the desire, which creates the motivation, which leads to reading and research, which leads to conversations and then inevitably to meeting and interacting with people in person, which all contributes to a deeper understanding of the subject.
To say there are any absolutes in the learning process is to limit that process. Everyone does best when following the path that makes the most sense to them, based on their style of learning. Whether or not that involves formal education is, and should be, up to the individual.
@Dan, great response!
I think you are right on with, “I strongly believe that if you have the desire to learn something, it is possible to create the right circumstances for that learning to occur.“.
What of what has put me where I am today has been the trial-and-error of freelancing. That and the continuous pursuit of learning more! Just assume you’ve never learned enough.
Great topic. Even better discussion. I went to college for 2 years in the ’80s then left because there didn’t seem to be a good fit for me with any of the majors offered at the time. Back then, the internet (and web development) was not a well known, established career choice. Had it been, I might have stayed. But now, I’m in the market for a job and wondering if it is necessary to get the degree I did not those many years ago.
Most of this discussion seems to lean toward the importance/relevance of college at a young age. What about one who would consider returning to college well, well, well into adulthood?
Admittedly, I’m encouraged by the fact that many talented people don’t have a degree and are self-taught. However, is acceptance of this breed of talent likely to continue?
YES - Designers formally trained in design and GUI design will produce better products.
This is why you see so many bad web sites or ripped off web site designs.
@Corey — by that logic, if I decide after I graduated undergrad with a business degree that I now want to be a “web designer” — do I have to go back to school to get a design degree to “produce better products”?
I don’t believe that to be true at all. Many of the best web designers I know got their degree in something completely different than design; if they got a degree at all.
I do advocating perhaps taking some design related courses, seminars, attending conferences and doing some independent learning (perhaps at the local Barnes&Noble) … but a second degree in my opinion isn’t necessary at all.
[…] reading a friends blog post on weather or not people in the web design/development profession needed degrees, I thought […]
Great article, and equally fabulous responses. I like the idea of encouraging young students to study a combination of art, CS, and business in high school and college to see what they end up liking more.
Unfortunately many of the Universities are behind in terms of teaching xhtml, css, and the like, but the foundations can’t hurt.
As a fellow teacher along with Jeff, I would also have to say we are doing our best. And I am more impressed with the community colleges in MD than I am with the Universities in terms of offerings for students.
I thought the most important thing about college was exposure. I tried communications, accounting, business, IT, etc..
I really love the field I chose. I really like where I am at, sure I could have gotten here sooner, cheaper.
I think it’s a huge advantage to get an early start in your field, when you are young it shouldn’t be about making money but acquiring a passion and skills to make a living pursuing that passion. Because you are liekly never going to have that energy, time, and lack of obligations/dependents again.
It’s why I’m not going to let my kids lifeguard summers in college, and I’m going to push them to get accepted into a top university and really not care if they dropout, I rather they discover what it is they want to do, then get a degree and be unsure of what they want.
I would also suggest to a young person to study abroad. You can do that through a university without attending that university. In fact not going to a university full time or worrying about a degree would theoretically free you up to just taking the classes that most interest you, even auditing them.
Steve Jobs talked about dropping out of colelge after six months only to live on campus unofficially and sitting in on classes that interested him for 18 more months.
College was great for meeting the opposite sex in an environment much better than highschool, but really you only have to take a class or two at a university to get a lead on an internship, meet people, join clubs, write for the school paper, do a project for any school department, etc..
often less is more. I know freshman out of stanford were making 80,000 in the late 90’s when 80,000 was a lot doing simple SQL. That’s why I’d push my kids to go to a top university, because opportunities are better, as getting in was likely a bigger accomplishment than finishing a degree itself.
I really agree with the folks that talk about the burning desire to keep learning. I admire folks like that, in any industry. For example, Seth Godin (the marketing guy) is always thinking, thinking, thinking, whether he’s going to a restaurant or talking about a major corporation’s marketing goof.
While I have not questioned the value of a college education, I have had a related question bouncing around my head for several years: As I have transitioned in my career from simple print designer to a hybrid creative position that includes web design, do I need to get a post-graduate degree to advance past a certain level? If I want to work as a freelancer, I’m thinking that the piece of paper doesn’t do a whole lot. Certificates are OK, but they are not a graduate degree. MFA’s and the like are nice, but is the debt and personal time spent really worth it? While I agree that it’s nice to have the luxury of time to really explore things you can’t get to in a real-world environment, I’d say no.
If I want to remain an in-house creative, the answer may be different and I’m still looking for that answer. Now, I’m actually at a nonprofit organization, so it’s a bit of a different ballgame there. Multiple positions are often merged into one, and it appears that graduate degrees have some value if you want to move beyond a manager position. I’m curious, is it like that in for-profit corporations? If you’re a senior web designer and want to be, say, VP/Senior Web Designer at a major corporation, do you need a grad degree?
Very, very true. One should never stop learning, whether you go to college or not.
[…] Ringlein of Maryland Media recently posted Do Web Designers Need Degrees?, a piece in which he questions the requirement of a degree to become a professional on the Web. His […]
I’m a self-taught designer and I think that’s the best way to go.
I’ve been to college and I’ve dropped. The courses were slow-paced and quite outdated, I was bored to death and at some point I was feeling it was so much a waste of time I had to reduce my number of courses considerably and get a job.
But it’s probably the fact that I was already self-taught long before college which made the courses look like slow-paced. With the web’s situation (the fastest changing), there’s no way any course could keep up with it. I think the only way to make a successful course for web design would be to have a teacher who’s constantly aware of the changes and can get a good grasp of them quickly to educate his students. The course would be different each session and that’s something our current education system doesn’t support.
I always thought the education system was flawed. It’s just not natural to teach that way, most people I know just memorize the matter and spread it all over a few sheets of paper called an “exam” that’s suppose to test your skills on the subject. But it only serves to test how well you memorize stuff.
On my own I’ve learned how to do web design, user experience design, XHTML, CSS, RoR and PHP coding, writing and understanding English and many other things. I admit I’m not perfectly efficient in all these domains (as I am concentrating on user experience), but I’m quite capable, enough to have a job as a web designer and be a good one at that. The fact that I was self-taught makes me very good at finding information on the web, assimilating new concepts fast and on the cutting edge of almost everything related to web technologies.
I do understand the benefits of having a diploma, as for most people who are still thinking like if we lived 5 years ago, it’s important to get the best jobs. I’m very unhappy with our education system, because I’d like to be on the same level as anyone who has a BS in web design (or something), as I have passed the last 7 years of my life learning online by myself. I think that’s worth something. Earlier you said there was no downside to having college education, but I found it slowed me down considerably.
I suspect this is all too circumstantial. I don’t think there’s much people yet in Montreal recognizing the value of experience of a designer. So that might just be why it’s so frustrating for me.
Another interesting fact. I’ve posted a job for web designer (because our work load here for interface design just got huge) and out of 60 resumes, I didn’t find a single one that had that little touch most recent website have. Resumes I received were mostly from people with a diploma in design (not from a university, but something that’s supposed to make you a pro) and their quality of work was less than acceptable. Maybe my expectations are way too high too, but I think a designer needs to be aware of current trends and it must show in their work.
As a member of the ‘no degree’ army, I must confess that I’m slightly biased here. However, my job puts me in touch with numerous design/web graduates, and much of what I see/hear makes me cringe. One would imagine (and hope) that a degree will launch a student to the front of the pack, but at least in the web design industry that doesn’t seem to be the case.
As others have so rightly pointed out, many web design courses are a few steps behind the industry, and as for design courses that teach a smattering of so called ‘web design’ I can safely say that even the best I’ve seen are about 10 years behind… still teaching table-based layouts or (even worse in my opinion) the ‘just-throw-something-together-in-Flash’ technique. For them, even the most basic information needed to make a website successful - such as good SEO practices, accessibility, or using tags - goes above their heads. And yet, these are the people who wave their certificates about, thinking they “know all about web design”, and get given responsibility for some of the worlds most important websites.
Away from the technical side of things, I’m also intrigued by the comments from some people about the social aspects of university life - learning to interact with others, gaining valuable life lessons, making connections that may last a lifetime, and gathering knowledge (to quote from Patrick’s initial comment).
In my experience as an employer and mentor, it’s these very things that a graduate is desperately needing to pick up ASAP after they leave university. Even things as simple as CVs seem to be a major hurdle for some of my student contacts - and this is after 3+ years ‘preparing’ for their career.
The result is (and no disrespect to those who’ve slogged their guts out for 3-5 years to get that degree) that in my design agency real-life experience is valued FAR above a degree. I hate to sound cynical, but first-hand experience dictates otherwise… Sorry!
[…] tends to be more flexible. Web design is a similarly talent-driven industry, so there’s still debate on the weight of design education. And formal education in SEO is a trickier […]
“Web Worker Daily” continues the discussion (debate):
How Important is Formal Education in Web Working?
I do agree to a point with needing a degree to be a web developer & webmaster, but only to the extent that the core focus on the college degree should be liberal arts. The rest could be easily handled with self-taught, online courses where the technology is being applied. Hand-ons demonstrations are more in synch with teaching the arcane languages such as PHP, HTML/CSS and JavaScript as well as showing the student how to manipulate images using Photoshop and Illustrator. As in learning the Windows, the best way is just to start pushing random buttons to see what happens.
As for web design, knowing which layout and presentation is best suited for the clients’ needs is the core ideal: it is one thing to push on the un-Web2.0 savvy client web gadgetry and having them understand it how to customize and use it.