Out of interest:

how many people using this forum are "self taught" like myself instead of getting some kind of Degree in Web Design?

Is it possible to become a pro without having some kind of qualifcation?

I think you'll find most of us are self taught and yes you can become a professional and make money without a degree. I don't think there are degrees solely in web design, though it's possibly there are. The degree would be one in graphic design or something similar.

But you don't need a degree to make a living.

Self taught here as well and making a decent living from it

I've spent a lot of years in business but have rarely seen anyone with any formal qualifications that were really worth their salt. The real talent, in my opinion, is usually found in motivated and creative people who want to excel at what they do - degree or no degree.

I don't have a degree. My only educational background is in electronics repair. I think there is nothing wrong with having a degree, but the most important thing in this field is to have the drive to keep learning, which is why so many people are self taught.

Also, the fast pace of web technology is very hard to teach formally, because any curriculum developed by a committee is bound to be outdated by the time it hits the presses.

I have learned everything i know by learning it myself, i have a different opinion about people getting a degree, i think a lot of the people just want the degree to show it of to get a job which is good, but i think it is pointless. I mean if you are good at what you do then no piece of paper is going to define who you are or what you can do so other than showing it off to an employer a degree is a worthless piece of paper.

I'm not a designer, but a programmer.
I'm partly self taught.

I've followed a technical formation spending 4 days in a firma, and 1 day in school. I don't know how to say it English (google translate tells me it's "learning").

At work, I started by asembling pc's and solving customers problems.
Then, I got my driving license and was doing onsite support and emergency IT counseling.

In school, we had some electronic theory, and the rest of the day was split between English courses, Pascal/C programming, VB programming and some trivial stuff.

After getting out of school, I landed in a small web agency, doing server management.
As there was not enough work for 2 people as sysadmin, I was told either to look for another job or to enter the webdev team, which I did.

And there, my C background helped quite a bit.
I fell in love (literally) with SQL and enjoyed quite fast PHP programming.
My chance was that every other people I worked with had followed a degree, and passed on me their development techniques and knowledge.

So no, a degree is definitively not needed, but today, it can make the difference between having the job and not, sadly.
It was not the case in 1998...

I believe learning in school would have the benefit of getting the "streamline" knowledge which companies would be looking for; although now adays there are a lot of "freeform" companies and they would rather have the self-taught people such as myself.

I'm also self taught but I'm studying for a degree at the same time. My oppinion is that if you're making a living from home then self taught is fine but the downside to it is that you mainly only learn what you need to know which COULD be useless in industry.

Personally I am self tought. As most other people here seem to be. Both in design and programming. I do it cus it is a great way to be creative. I have been on and off on my coding for a couple of years now and each time I start up again i am pissed at myself for ever stopping since it is like going back to basics again. After a while though it lets off and it is awesome again

To be selftough feel way better than to read something in a book and then apply it to whatever you want to do. To experiment your way to accomplishments is a great feeling.

Qualifications may help you win a job but self teaching makes you excellent.
I think "excellent" always wins and it is the strongest qualification one can get.

I've been working as a web designer/developer since my first year of community college. All the web jobs I've had never required me to have a degree. I ended up getting a degree in the general field anyways, but my portfolio and experience was much more important than that piece of paper.

I am self-taught, and rather opposed to going to any kind of college for learning web design. For the large part, the information is outdated and inaccurate. It's a waste of time and money, and the degree is close to worthless. Here is an interesting thread...

- Steve

I can't blame anyone other than myself for whatever you might find on one on mine.

self-taught alll the way. i started out on PageMill for Buddha's sake

when i was going for my degreee, they were stilll teaching "paste-up" for graphic design... so... yea... even us "old people" can do it

i started out on PageMill for Buddha's sake

Are those as bad as the FrontPage I started with?

I had years of fun cleaning up that crappy code.

I started with FrontPage, then Dreamweaver. Lord help me.

Last time i used FrontPage was probobly -98 or someething. I did go for Dreamweaver for quite some time, not for the WYSISWYG editor but for their excellent color coding and the syntax db which helps a lot at the start

Now it's notepad++ all the way though!

Originally Posted by Concept211

I've been working as a web designer/developer since my first year of community college. All the web jobs I've had never required me to have a degree. I ended up getting a degree in the general field anyways, but my portfolio and experience was much more important than that piece of paper.

What exactly did you get a degree for? Computer Science? Graphic Design?

In graphic design, I'm self-taught, just bought the programs and learned by doing. In web design I started out by getting a web design certificate through NC State's continuing education program, but most of what I actually use today is self-taught, because web design requires continuous re-education.

Now, in many metropolitan areas I am finding what's called a "brain glut". Many employers will opt for the one with the degree first, and if any positions are left they might look at the person with qualifications but no degree. So in those areas where there are scads of individuals with degrees (and in this economy many of them laid off) the ones without are SOL. That's certainly the case in my area, which is why I'm still a freelancer.

tim

Self taught, my degree plan was in something non-computer. I never finished.

I've been self employed for 20+ years. Some Good. 8 Bad thanks to Bush.

Obama has been very good for my business. I live in an extremely economically distressed area now and Obama has brought the people around here back to life.

If you want to work for someone else, get a degree. If you want to stay independent, do whatever it takes. The more you know how to do, the more you will make.

One thing I do have an advantage with is my non technical background was business, marketing and sales. I can service clients far better than most of the web designers around here because I have the business and sales background.
I am trained to Market off the web too. Most businesses love my additional expertise.

In a nutshell, NEVER STOP LEARNING.