In my four years as an undergraduate, I am so upset that I never went to any mass comm week events. Luckily I got to attend a great panel this year. I attended Careers in Web Development with Josue Plaza from Bravelets, Ashley Hebler from Volusion, and Glynn Jordan from Clearhead. First I would love to say how exciting it was to see that all three of the speakers were Texas State graduates. This has definitely ensured me about my choice in staying in this awesome program at Texas State.
As the speakers were talking, I realized there were many similarities between Ashley Hebler and myself. I like to think that I’m under the same ‘umbrella’ as her. I used to be all about video and graphic design, which I still love, but the more I am exposed to HTML, the more I love it and want to learn it! I never really knew what I wanted to do after I completed my undergrad, which is a main reason I chose to go to grad school, and after attending this panel I’m glad I’m sticking around for 2 more years. This panel also gave me some security on wanting to pursue a career in web development. The speakers assured us that at one point in their lives they were in the same shoes with us. This has been a main factor of my fear that I will never be great enough for a web development job, but maybe one day I will be.
The thing I most related to during this panel was about having to troubleshoot things yourself. As a lab assistant for the web pub courses, I have students coming in constantly asking me questions that sometimes I may not be able to figure out quickly because I don’t know what is all in their code. It is true that with HTML there’s really no one to call on that can be there to help you at all times, it is a smart idea to be familiar with the code you are using so you can troubleshoot things yourself. Josue said “being a web developer, I know how to google s**t” and Glynn said “this makes you a professional googl-er.” I could not agree more with this statement! If I can’t figure something out, I google it, and 8 out of 10 times I will find an answer.
Overall, this panel has reassured me that perhaps going into a web development career could possibly be in the future for me!