Re: Away with web careers?

Hey Mr. Will --

Im glad you pointed this out. Im in the middle of trying to immigrate
to the UK from New York City. I actually had to write a 7-page paper
explaining the business and the shortage of qualified people to handle
the work. Thank god at least MicroSoft Europe had position papers
available from the European Employment and Training Summit which goes
into great detail about the shortages facing the IT industry as a whole
-- but specifically point out that internet development is really
lacking.

Im still wrangling with the Home Office, but I do have my ticket to fly
in July 22nd LOL. At least Inland Revenue (the Brit version of the IRS)
was enthusiastic and didnt need any explanation -- apparently they are
on the lookout for qualified internet consultants <g>.
I told them Im not taking work away from EEC or British workers because
according to their governments there is a shortage of people with
legitimate qualifications.

About working for free -- I understand the principal -- but things like
that undermine us in terms of getting paid what we should for this
work. --- Ive had too many instances of not only "anyone can do what
you do" but "why should I pay you when plenty of people will do it for
free" -- yep even with Fortune 500 companies in New York City. Your
time, labor, experience and knowledge are worth something. People are
happy to take advantage -- but without a contract and fees a lot of
times you get little out of it. Including credit for your work.

Cheers and Toodley Pip

Lisa

--- WSherratt(at)aol.com wrote:
> Heya gang,
> 
> I am kind of new to these lists, so forgive any
> ignorant comments I may 
> happen to make.
> Nuff said, I enjoy reading all these posts from
> various webmasters etc.
> 
> Regarding the point of the web designer's role
> becoming somewhat diminished 
> due to Frontpage and the like, I have only to say
> this:-
> 
> I am glad that such things are being brought out,
> and that people are having 
> a go themselves. Quite simply the problem here in
> the UK is that there is not 
> enough knowedge about the Internet or it's
> possibilities. Add to this the 
> fact that when these people actually fumble and make
> their attempts using 
> these tools, it will be far easier to impress them
> with your design skills 
> and expertise.
> 
> Case: Ezio Merchandise
> A rather good band named Ezio has a good following,
> but not enough to warrant 
> full record deals etc. and I suggested to the
> merchandising head that they 
> sell directly to the fans over the Internet, came up
> with a plan for them to 
> use the URL on all promo materials etc. and offered
> to do the site. Being new 
> to the industry I offered to do this for free, for
> the references, and to 
> actually get in with the band.
> They took all my suggestions, bar the web design.
> "Oh, one of our ladies is 
> learning frontpage" they said and gave me lots of
> free CD's, tickets etc. 
> WHen I looked at the site, she had apparently spent
> weeks and weeks on it, 
> there were mispelled tags all over the page, and it
> was only one page. I went 
> back and said "look man, split the page up into
> sections, use navigational 
> frames perhaps and put some photos of the
> merchandise in so people can 
> actually look before they buy". She sighed "How the
> F*** am I supposed to do 
> that?". She was rather happy to let me do it, and do
> it well for her.
> 
> Perhaps I went on a little too long there, but I
> must also stress that the 
> computing departments consider their job to be
> wepages, however, they are so 
> stressed that they can't afford time, or money to
> put people on courses, and 
> will gladly outsource what seems to be cheap in
> comparison to other media. In 
> fact one of the problems may be that we aren't
> charging people ENOUGH to be 
> taken seriously! That may sound crude, but the best
> selling brands tend to be 
> the most expensive.
> When you offer a media solution that costs less than
> the MD pays to have his 
> lawn mowed, is it any wonder the service is not
> regarded as serious?
> 
> Anyway, I think I have lacked focus and clarity, but
> I hope I was of some 
> help.
> 
> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Mr.Will
> 

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