These things have helped me as a working Web Developer/Designer. While going through college I felt like it was a whirlwind of information. Trying to balance that with children, working, and home life was a circus act at best. So much to do, so much to see, and in a flash, it was all done. When I look back I wish I would’ve known these things during school. Or at least been told about them in school. Perhaps it’s a part of the journey of higher education. It’s about finding your path and making it work for you. While you have a professor to guide you, not all of the answers to resources will be provided. I completed my entire program online. There is no manual or neat little pamphlet about navigating that road as a 30-year-old. But the perspective I had was this: I attempted ‘conventional’ college three times prior in my early and mid-twenties. With almost a decade behind me, I knew how I learned, what worked for me and what didn’t. Most importantly, I knew exactly what I wanted. A degree. I heard from various people who’d already gotten their degrees that it wasn’t anything to aspire to. Always easier to say from the other side, I think. I knew my potential and growth, not only as a person but as a student depended on me sticking through this and making it happen.
I say this for anyone considering going back to school or currently in school. If you want something go for it, regardless of what anyone else has to say. It is your life.
As for my experience in school as an older adult, the things below are some things I found on my own while trying to find answers or were direct experiences I had that left me with the thought “man that wasn’t really covered in school”. My hope here is to help someone who might not be aware of a resource or to offer reassurance that YES you can do this and NO you are not alone!
This first one was a direct experience I had with my first client meeting. I went in with an idea and specific program in mind. A completely different outcome from my initial expectation happened. Let this lesson help you avoid unnecessary stress and to remind you, you are here to offer the client services best suited for THEIR needs, not the other way around.
1. Let go of any and all expectations when having a client meeting. Instead remain FlUID.
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This was something I learned early on. Everyone will present differently. As you acquire more meetings you will learn what questions to ask right away. Equally important, you will learn the answers to those questions will reveal what type of client they are and how you will proceed. Or decide to not proceed in some instances. It is important, however, to remain fluid throughout all of this and to make no decisions until you have had time to look over your notes. This will avoid discrepancies later down the road. What sort of discrepancies? Pay rate, deadline expectations, and all the finer details that take time to sort out. A great tip I received from my mentor was this: “a big part of project management is EXPECTATION management.” This is both true for the client and oneself.
This next lesson comes directly from my experience when I was learning C#. My first ever time trying to code ANYTHING and in my googling I came across stack overflow and GitHub. Game changers. Not only did I find a resource to help me with class and homework, in actual practice I’ve seen it used to help solve more complex coding problems in a business setting.
2. Forums like Stack overflow or Github are your friends.
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These forums you will see often, especially stack overflow, as a joke that any expertise of a developer is actually the ability to search stack overflow. All jokes aside, these sites are awesome. One, the accurate information they give you about web development is unmatched. There are always various ways to do the same thing. Many times you will find several ways why it may or may not be the best solution for your project. It gives you a sense of community. I like to use stack overflow as a ‘google’ search for a question I might have on executing a certain task. There is a high probability someone has already asked the question you are seeking. In the event that it has not been asked, you can ask it and someone on the site will answer. The cool thing is you can also ‘give back’ and answer questions that you have a good grasp on for someone who may just be starting off. What I like most about this approach is not only are you helping someone else but you are also strengthening your own knowledge as repetition is key when learning and retaining any knowledge.
This last lesson comes up every single time I sit down to do any sort of design or developing work. Programs are changing to be faster, more efficient, more this, more that, just more! But what good is all of it if you don’t know how the features can help you or how to use it. Remember, if not now maybe later it will be handy so learning as you go will be beneficial to you in the long run.
3. What you Learned in the Beginning of Your College Major may no Longer Apply, Research and Stay with the Current Day Technology and Trends.
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The gift and curse of technology in our era is it’s changing lightning fast. This means programs you used in the first year of college may no longer be as prevalent or may have had drastic changes in your final year of school. What’s more, when you get a job there could be other programs you will need to learn that were not covered in school. This is all OK! Why? Because learning is a lifelong endeavor. It just so happens the field you are in requires you to remain a student. There is always something new to learn and that’s the excitement of it. So if you aren’t keen on learning more or new things this might not be the field for you. Consider taking on a daily practice to keep your skills sharp and relevant to “today’s” technology. What I like to do every month is take some time and do ‘training’ to familiarize myself with new features of programs I regularly use and to do some tutorials of programs I use sparingly. This keeps things fun and the information fresh in my mind. You never know when you will use these new bits of information in future projects.
~Bonus~ It will feel like everyone knows everything about the subject matter, they don’t. Don’t feel overwhelmed or behind. Just keep asking questions and finding answers.
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Seriously, it will feel like you are the only one who doesn’t know the answer to a “simple” question or that some concepts just don’t make sense to you, and only you (insert ANY new programming language now). Just know, everyone started somewhere and through consistent hard work they came out the other end with a little bit more knowledge than when they started. Even now as a professional there are some things I find myself looking for answers for. I try not to get so caught up with the fact that I even have to look something up. I know for me, learning means doing, writing, and writing again how to do that ‘thing’ and repeating the process. I have reference notebooks and as I blog more I hope to share more of my knowledge through this medium. It’s all relevant. If I didn’t and worried instead at the fact that I’m having to look stuff up in the first place I wouldn’t be as far as I am now. No one can tell you how you learn. It is up to you to push past those feelings of inadequacy and to dive in headfirst curious and ready to gain as much knowledge as you can.
Thanks for reading and let me know. What were some things you feel would’ve been beneficial to learn in college while earning your degree in design that you learned on your own instead?
Till next time….peas J.