Open Thread: Does Education Matter for Freelancers?
photo credit: sansreproache/flickr
Rockable Press recently shared some statistics from their up-coming freelancing book, Freelance Confidential, with their mailing list. The book includes results from the survey conducted here at FreelanceSwitch a few months ago that polled 3,200 freelancers on every aspect of their work. There were a lot of nifty facts about freelancing in there, but nothing generated more heated discussion more than this simple line:
44% of freelancers are self-taught and never received any university or technical college training in their field.
Some responses were shocked that the number was that high and saw it as a bad thing for the industry. Others thought it should be higher and that education adds little value for freelancers. I thought the responses were so strong that it would be great to open it up to a discussion for the FreelanceSwitch community. So tell us what you think!
- Does a freelancer need a college education or technical training to be successful?
- Is there a difference between self-taught freelancers and freelancers with formal training?
- What value does formal training or education add for freelancers?
What do you think?
photo credit: Some rights reserved by sansreproache
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Good post pretty interesting. Personally I went to college and I have been freelancing full-time for about 3 years now and I don’t think college had anything to do with it in my opinion. I think experience matters more in the type of industry we work in.
I don’t think education is a bad thing but when it comes to being creative you can’t really be taught that in school.
I started freelancing the same year I started college.
Five years later, I have an increasing workload, but not a degree. I agree with what you said here. In fact, when someone asks me if I’m going to finish my degree I tell them yes. But it’s going to be a personal accomplishment, not something I’m doing to further my career.
I agree with the following comment as well. We’re not doctors or lawyers (careers that are based on knowledge as opposed to inspiration).
Z
I think it’s important to remember that not having a “formal education” doesn’t make someone uneducated. The classroom is only one way to learn things, and since creative professionals don’t require certification the way doctors, lawyers, and electricians do, it leaves options open for pursuing an education.
In my career I’ve worked with plenty of people who had formal educations but still needed significant on-the-job training, and some extremely talented creatives who were totally self-taught. In fact, one of the most talented and brilliant freelancers I know dropped out of school in grade 8. Of course, there are also plenty of untrained freelancers who don’t know what they’re doing, but it shows when you look their portfolios.
Definitely. I think it’s the untrained, inexperienced freelancers that give self-taught professionals a bad reputation. At the end of the day, it depends on the skills of the person reflected in the portfolio.
I think it’s completely dependent on the industry. In publishing, the bare minimum BA in English, journalism, or related field, is kind of the standard just because there is an overabundance of BAs in those fields.
That said, the vast majority of my technical skill set, if not from employment, is self-taught. I think the important aspect here is that you show very real results from your self-taught skills. A portfolio site, a sample Flash game: even though you invested all this time to learn a new skill, I don’t think it counts for much unless you also invest a little more time to display it publicly and easily.
I agree – it depends which industry you are freelancing in, e.g. graphic design, programming, writing, etc.
I think the key skill for graphic designers is creativity. I know some very very talented self-taught graphic designers. The work they produce is extraordinary. For them, their portfolios speaks for them.
For web programmers, I think some form of formal training is a requirement. There may be some talented self-taught programmers out there, but they are few and far between. I have seem way too many hopeless coders in the workplace (as an employee) working at the same pay level as me who can’t even work out how to add a feature to an existing script. They’d Google a new script to do the job.
I think programmers need to have an understanding about the various programming concepts (e.g. OO, procedural, etc.) and best practice when designing programs to ensure ease of maintenance, efficiency etc. which you could teach yourself, but you’d have to realise the importance of it to choose to study it, while universities would emphasise it as part of the course because they’d know this is something you’d need to know.
PS. I have two degrees – Multimedia (major Internet Programming) and IT (major in Software Engineering).
I agree with Adam. I have my bachelors in Mechanical Eng. my Masters in Architecture and currently have my own graphic design firm. In a way, I believe that college will help you solve “visual” problems a lot faster, such as choosing the right font, colors, layouts and of course, a bit of history of GD. But all in all it boils down to creativity and I’ve always been of the opinion that creativity cannot be taught or grown.
Honestly, I think going to college is a great boon for a freelancer, and for a company when evaluating said freelancer. Having a college degree means two important things:
You’re determined, bright, and can get the job done.
You can put up with a certain amount of bull****, and dealing with professors is great practice for dealing with clients.
I’d be interested to see the correlation between education, client size and income. I have a degree in the field I work in – it’s not that useful with smaller clients/projects, but for working with larger companies it has been very useful indeed as a trust builder and differentiating factor.
I tend to agree with Gareth on this one.
But when all is said and done, a degree may help get you in the door but it’s the quality of your work that will keep you there long enough to earn the business.
Doing the work and doing it well is the best school for building a freelance business. You may need that degree to get in with a company where you can learn more and earn your stripes before you go out and freelance. If you’re fresh from high school and hitting the freelance market, you’d better be super talented. If you’re moving from another area of expertise to freelance with no degree, better be super talented too. Otherwise, try interning first or doing spec work to earn some street cred.
I’m not a freelancer, but this article caught my attention and applies to me, so I wanted to comment. I have nothing more than a high school diploma, a Webmaster Certification (about 100 in-class hours) and some college credits. That being said, I’ve learned about 90% of everything I know from self-teaching through trial and error. I just learn better that way. I’ve been a Web Developer professionally for over 7-years and have a higher salary than some people I know who have Master’s degrees. I’m currently taking classes to earn an Associate’s, but that’s only because I can earn more money at my current job if I have that little piece of paper. I could probably teach at least half the classes in the degree program. I’ll conclude with one of my favorite sayings: “If you read the instruction manual for something, you gain knowledge. If you don’t read it, you gain experience.”
My self I don’t have a problem with education. The problem is that in a lot of educational institutions most of what is being taught is either outdated or of no relevance in the real, working world – at least that is true for what most freelancer’s do.
For myself freelancing was a second career. I considered going back to school and I did the math. I could go to school for two to four years and come out thousands of dollars in debt and start, or I could raise some money, buy some tools,teach myself and start recouping my investment as I built my portfolio. I chose the latter path. Along the way I got a couple of jobs as an assistant which taught me work flow and many of the business aspects if my chosen field.
It took a few years but eventually I made the leap to full time freelancing.
Probably the ideal would be a combination of formal education and interning/working entry level jobs in your chosen field.
I think the actual trade skills of many freelance professions can be honed in many ways–lord knows we all have to self-teach and experiment on our own to keep our skills sharp and up to date. But I think did learn some valuable skills from my university education. Especially communication skills – I learned to explain and defend my opinion to large groups of people and adversarial experts. My time completing my degree taught me a lot of professionalism and analytical skills that I might not have gained as quickly otherwise.
You definitely can’t be taught how to be creative: either you have the skills or you don’t.
But you can be taught how to use the software and the understanding of how color, fonts, images and copy can make or break a design.
I was hired in the design field without any design experience, but had a Journalism degree. I taught myself how to use the software and explored my creativity skills on the job. After three years in field wanting to work at a design studio and have more creative control, I had a hard time even getting an interview because I did not have a design degree – even though I had experience and a portfolio!
It wasn’t until I went back to school to get that design degree (which I did!) is when I started freelancing with my own clients.
I don’t regret my schooling because I took required classes such as printmaking, painting, photography, and graphic production that have made me a much better designer to my clients. Plus, I was able to use my work experience in my schooling which was a big advantage, and I even secured an co–op job along with obtaining more freelance clients.
Today, I’m a self–employed freelancer with my own design studio and work on multiple projects.
It doesn’t hurt to go to school. You’ll end up with more portfolio pieces, take classes that can help you in your career (painting and graphic production help me today!), and can even obtain an internship or co–op (paid part–time job plus school credit) while going to school.
And with the number of designers in the field constantly growing, you’re going to have to super talented to even get one client.
I think it helps.
I did a University degree in a course unrelated to my job, and it taught me about deadlines, analysing my own strengths and compensating for my weaknesses.
Those are good skills for any freelancer.
Awesome post, glad I am not the only one who thinks it should be higher. The easy part about a formal education is that it is on paper- it doesn’t necessarily mean you learned what you needed to do well. Conversely, informal education provides a internal driving motivation and even if you have learned it (and starting out)- doesn’t mean other people are willing to take your word on it.
I have a B.F.A and have been self-taught on several things. I agree with Adam, experience matters more. You have to fail or realize how ignorant you are to overcome that obstacle. Then become a more well-rounded individual.
Education or not, success is measured by the person. If they have the drive and are able to work smart, they will figure out what it means to them.
My university degree is in economics. And I used that degree in just one job, which happened to be the worst employment experience I’ve ever had. That was more due to Attila the Boss than anything else.
But, that being said, I am not down on formal education. Not in the slightest. I make my living from what I learned in those commercial art and photography classes that I took in the public schools. Where I was taught by teachers’ union members. (Take that, Republican budget cutters!)
I agree with SDB’s statement that the lack of formal education does not make someone uneducated. I personally went to school for something completely different than design and it wasn’t until after getting a job at a print shop years ago that I came to realize how much I love print design. After over 12 years in the print shop environment at several different companies I decided to launch my own freelance business.
While I do not feel education in the design areas would benefit me much I have had thoughts about going to school or taking classes for business. I think that is were freelancers tend to fall a little short in there knowledge. With that said I know plenty of freelancers who went to school who still do not have the knowledge they need to set up and run a business very well. I think schools could do more to help people with that area, as much as they teach design history and theory.
With that said, I don’t feel education is a necessity to have a successful freelance business. I have never had someone I have done design work for so far ask for my diploma, rather ask for my experience history. When I can tell them the number of years I spent in the print shop side of the field, it helps them realize I will know how to communicate well with the printer and design their pieces to print well.
I dont believe college helped my freelance career in anyway, if i could go back in time i wouldn’t studie computer programming, i would study accounting and business, they are far more useful skills to a freelancer, maybe even marketing.
I have had this argument with many people. Like SDB said, as long as you are not designing bridges and such, I don’t think a degree is necessary. With the advent of the internet anyone can learn (almost) anything for (almost) free with practice.
I personally brag to many of my friends that I have no expensive student loan to pay off for an unnecessary degree. But hey, to each his/her own. Your portfolio should speak for itself, that is all that matters in the creative freelance world.
I had some education in college, was 20 credits away from graduating, never bothered to finish. From what I see college just exercises your brain to make it work to your needs. as far as experience and education, these 2 things have their differences in the freelancing industry.
I think that education is good if you are starting out. It can give you the foundation that you need to understand what it is you want to do, and I would suggest to anyone looking to become a freelancer that they take some classes on business management. This doesn’t mean you need a degree but I’ve found that it helps do at least know the basics of how a business should work.
As for the technical area, I’ve found that the web is a great teacher, but in my opinion there isn’t substitute for the class room when you’re just starting. After you have an idea what you’re doing, you can go it alone.
I meet my college roommate at job fair last month. He dropped out at the end of his Soph year. Yet, he sports a BS in Chemistry on his resume. He has been working in the Chem industry for 15 years. The Dept of Educ states that only 1 out of 6000 people have bachelors degrees in the USA. The US Dept of Personnel Mgnt found that 1 out of 24 MBAs on submitted resumes was real. The dept of Educ stated that only 1 out of 15 people in the USA has PhD level degrees.
Education is really overrated. Maybe at one time education was the gateway to a better life and job. The truth is that by the time you graduate your outdated. Experience and networking are the keys.
Education adds to a freelancer’s life but it isn’t an absolute necessity for success. After finishing my Master’s degree I realized that school doesn’t teach the absolute necessary traits of a freelancer such as how to do business, which I was never taught in 20 years of schooling but learned from my mother, a housecleaner who only studied up to 6th grade. Later I learned quite a bit from a boss who didn’t even finish high school but ran a successful business in New York City.
In fact, overall I find that school kept me back quite a bit because schools aren’t there to help you learn but more to mold you into something favorable to corporations and other groupthink institutions.
Taking focused classes for certain skills is necessary for certain occupations (grammar classes for writers for ex.) but a lot of time is wasted in schools.
I think much of this depends on how you want to measure “successful….” at least this was my first thought.
I believe that you can be largely talenLESS and still make bundles of money. I think that you can have great skill and be completely untrained formally. I have come across a number of occasions where I personally have been called not a ‘proper’ designer as I dont have a degree, but when I look at the output from designers that do have the degree – I find their work shoddy…. my design education came from a combination of a lot personal learning and some formative on-the-job experience.
My personal feeling is that the best is a mixture of the two, leaning heavily on the self-taught side. Formal training helps on some of the structured thinking, but self teaching demands a certain amount of personal drive – and it’s that drive that will help them to progress and get better no matter what industry they are in. Of course there are some of our ‘creative’ industries that do demand a formal education – mostly from a safety point of view – architecture is the one that comes to mind really.
IMHO – self training with a touch of formal for the win. I agree with the viewpoint above that not having a formal education means uneducated.
I should say:
IMHO – self training with a touch of formal for the win. I agree with the viewpoint above that not having a formal education does NOT mean uneducated.
Arrrgh – after all that spiel.
As someone who is quite serious (and fond) of academia, I personally think it does make a difference. A lot of the newly emerging beliefs that college may be excessive are mostly from people arguing that it’s becoming too expensive. I agree with them entirely. But, unfortunately, I don’t think the value of a formal university education can be so easily thrown aside. I’ve been noticing a lot of articles on places like here, Freelance Folder, Six Revisions, etc, that all talk about how ‘wannabes’ imbrue the profession. I think this aspect is a key factor.
College really is a huge learning experience on many levels. Not only do you learn a lot of good theory and critical thinking, but you learn it in an environment involving tenured professionals, relative to other learners, and it’s an environment that fosters a certain type of growth. And for those who say real world experience and hands-on don’t exist in universities, they do if the lab assignments and internships are good, and don’t forget assignments you should get from good professors that make you go out and volunteer/participate.
The other aspect of college you can’t get around is the cultural experience, especially if you go to a place far from home like I did. You’ll meet so many different people from different places. Your political, religious, scientific, and value-based beliefs will all be challenged on a regular basis. New perspectives will constantly present themselves. You’ll either have to consider changing your ideologies or find intelligent ways to retain yours.
A college education is really only as valuable as you make it. A lot of people coast through their classes, graduate with mediocre grades, and aren’t really coming out better on the other side. No one can force them to embrace it. But I feel any person who is capable of self-teaching would be even better off if s/he embraces a solid university education as well. Self-teaching, something I’m very familiar with and do non-stop, is great. But it’s subjective. It can leave gaps and lacks a formal structure (and gen-ed, which if often unfairly cast aside as filler).
You definitely can succeed without a college degree, as long as you love what you do. On the creative field the ones that stand out are actually those who love what they do, we follow blogs, website and some other learning resources that make you rehearse your creative, organization and project management skills. I personally have learned a lot more from the internet resources than what I learned in college (around 10% vs 90%). I hear someone who said “I never let college to be an interrupter of my professional development” and some one else who said, “on the creative field – you must stay hungry and stay foolish to succeed”.
For my part I would say that education does matter!
Some might think that you don’t need a degree for a 5 pages brochure or a simple 6 section website but why is that different from any other project? It’s easy to learn how to make things look nice, clean and trendy, but having a cool website won’t make sales go up! The thing is that the concept of beauty is subjective and will vary from an audience to an other!
What we learn at university is how to truly find what the client needs, because most of the time they know what they need but they don’t know that they do! Then we learn how to adapt the product for it’s audience in a way that will emotionally touch them! We also learn how to put a release strategy up so the project will be used at is maximum capacity! Those are important things shouldn’t be left aside!
Here’s some interesting numbers (about website) from the “Chaos report 2009″ by The Standish Group International:
32% of projects are successful
44% of projects get contested
24% of projects failed
Rates of success
61% of projects with budget under 750,000$
19% of projects with budget between 750,000 and 3m
2% of projects with budget over 10m…
The 5 most repeated reason of failure:
Incomplete requirements
Lack of user involvement
Lack of resources
Unrealistic expectations
Changing requirement and specifications
I think those numbers speak for themselves! It’s like saying that 1 out of 3 bridges will fall at least once! I understand that this is not the same but why shouldn’t it be! Clients invest time, trust and money in our industry so we should at least make sure that these things turn out to be an investment and not just another expense!
That’s my point! As a graphic designer, our job is to not to make things look good, but to make them more efficient and the place to learn that is at school, simply because you have the time and support to experiment and understand it!
Thanks for reading!
I think it should be a mix of both: formal and self tought. From all the comments I’ve read, I see a lot of enphasis on creativity and on business skills. But there is more to it if you want to learn how to comunicate through a visual piece. And that’s where the difference shows: in college you have a lot of pshycological and theoretical subjects that you probably wouldn’t learn if you were learning on your own.
There are a lot of “designers” that consider themselves to be so just because they know how to use PS or another software… but being a visual designer is more than just making “pretty things”.
There are some things that I cannot effectively learn through tutorials and e-articles – such as advanced object oriented programming techniques and concepts. There are many factors involved but if you go into college wanting to learn and having an idea about the things you are being formally taught, the experience and knowledge is invaluable.
You can be self-taught and successful, but that doesn’t mean that adding formal education to that won’t increase that success and expertise. In fact, I think it’s ludicrous to say otherwise.
And let’s be honest. While 44% of freelancers may be self taught, what percentage of freelancers are actually worth anything? Not all freelancers are created equal. Some are sheisters, some produce sloppy unprofessional work, some don’t actually understand what they are doing and just copy/paste code and download stock photos and templates for their layouts. I’m not drawing a corollary between bad freelancers and their education; I’m just pointing out that the single % being examined provides to be nearly worthless without supporting context.
I believe it’s possible to be self-taught AND be a professional-grade freelancer that produces expert and sophisticated material. But I would say it’s more of an exception than a rule. And that’s coming from someone that is probably 80% self-taught.
In fact, it could be said that all occupations require the majority of what they know to be self-taught or learned by expertise. But having a solid foundation of education as a starting point is in my opinion worth its metaphorical weight in gold.
I think there are many strata to this field, and I admit that I’m on a lower level. But I’m probably also an anomoly in that I took an interest when I was 50 years old, and now that I’m retired it’s more of a hobby business, since it’s not really necessary for my sustanence.
An analogy would be the automotive industry. Someone like Alessandro is a designer/engineer and works for the big companies. I’m the local hot rodder. I bolt together the CSS grid systems, jQuery pluggins, and parts from the Envato network, and produce quite nice looking and functional, four or five page websites for the local Moma and Pop businesses in my rural area. Businesses that can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars for a site from a design firm, that would probably use a grid system, and jQuery pluggins, just like me.
I think it really depends on where you are in your life and also how well connected you are. If you’re a very passionate self-learner and have done many projects to help gain experience and learned a lot along the way, you may have gotten a more valuable education than at a traditional institution. Then again, the experience of a college education, and the opportunities it can open up for you via networking and referrals can also be very valuable.
I personally have a degree, and got referred to my first client by a professor who liked my work. But if you were already connected or able to get the ball rolling, and you have the passion to get the work done and maybe learn along the way, I’m not so sure you need a college education.
Well, I started out going to college for web development, but the school and the degree were both jokes. I learned a lot of out-dated VB 6 and some ASP, and was forced to sit in an HTML class at 8 am for a whole semester, watching the professor teach some horrendous code. I ended up having a 50% attendance rating, took a B, and taught people sitting next to me some CSS. I couldn’t even take a class in Photoshop at that idiot school – non-graphic arts majors couldn’t sign up!
I liked college after I dropped out and went back for a liberal arts degree, which in turn honed my writing skills (I also freelance write). College is great, if you can afford it, but I laugh when job ads ask for a degree in web development. No one I’ve met who knows of a college with a web dev degree thinks it’s worth the money or time. And computer science… any degree requiring calculus is pretty much out of my league. It’s too bad.
Knowledge matters. Sometimes that comes from formal sources, sometimes not. Most completely self-taught people I’ve met trend to be very good in some areas, but tend to not be as well rounded as they think they are.
Remember this is just a generalization based upon those I’ve worked with, better or worse.
I think formal education is not necessary, but some kind of eduction is definitely needed, whether it’s through books, podcasts or mentors. I currently do iPhone applications and I do have a degree in computer science. However, if you ask me which course was the most useful, I would say the weeder computer science class in my freshman year. That’s three months into my college education. The rest of it helped, but hm, they were not nearly as useful. That said, I already had a platform die on me before, and the iPhone didn’t exist when I was in college. You just got to keep learning to keep up because your formal education will get outdated really soon, especially if you work in technology.
For basic education, of course it’s important, but in my country, things in freelance cannot be teach at school or campus… And many things we can learn by our selves… Don’t have to wait for teachers to teach us…
Fascinating article! As with most things in life, educational attainment for freelancers probably depends on your field and target market. I’m a freelance grant writer and nonprofit consultant in the Midwest. My degree helps me secure clients for the reasons George posted. And in my region, it’s important I secure a Masters within the next couple of years. Fortunately there are dedicated graduate programs in nonprofit work. (Other freelance fields aren’t so lucky, I’m sure.) When I’ve worked with nonprofits outside of my region, it’s not even a topic of conversation.
But those educational fields do look nice in a CV, don’t they?
Nice article.
I don’t believe you need a degree or some kind of education to become a successful freelancer. How ever, it does contribute to the success.
I’ve been a freelancer since 2 years and its been going well. I do logo designs, stationary, web templates, and 3D visualizations and I’ve learned it all through books and online references. On the other hand, I’ve earned a BS degree in Management information systems which is totally industrial oriented.
When i think about it, that education has contributed alot in how fast my success went uphill. We took courses in accounting, marketing, and e-commerce and the knowledge acquired from them was a great help! It helped me advance faster and work in a much more professional style, not to mention the ability to manage and familiarity with websites, interfaces and analysis methods.
I’m also willing to take it much further by going into an MFA in Graphics. But that’s just a personal choice; I don’t believe i have to go for it in order to advance my freelancing career.
Can’t stress it enough. Two thing vital for a successful freelance business is education and experience working in that field. Those two things are what made my business successful. I can see a man in my field and know immediately from a distance if he have both. Or just one. Or none.
I actually did go to school for web development but to be honest everything I know and call myself an expert in has all been self taught. The formal education was useless to me, especially since the “instructors” were simply reading from a text book and tests were open book.
Learning from doing is the way to go. In this field a piece of paper proves nothing, experience tells the true story.
Learning the history and theory of a creative craft is just as important as learning the tools. An objective and unbiased critiquing of your work by classmates and instructors is also an important learning experience.
Having a degree proves that you’ve studied important subject matter, passed the following examinations with your ability and that you’ve gained experience and skills through years of practice and instruction. So yes a piece of paper does prove something.
I once was a ballerina and when I retired I went to college to get a degree so I could get hired somewhere with a decent salary (according to my parents). Well, I chose Journalism because I wanted to write and had dreams of being a reporter…which I became…but couldn’t survive on the pitiful salary at the age of 45.
But…the skills I learned in college (I did go there to learn and I took full advantage of teachers and resources) and from working part-time at the school newspaper and in the Graduate dept of business were invaluable and allowed me to transition eventually into a marketing job which required a degree to even apply.
I would say the rest of my education in the field has been on the job and through my own self-taught arrangement. I love to read software and marketing books but none of that would have made true sense to me without having gone to college first to get the foundation and then spending time in a corporate marketing department.
I don’t regret one minute or one dollar I spent to get my education! If I had gone to college when I graduated high school, it would have meant nothing to me. I am sure I would have been a drop out back then!! LOL! I think you have to parley all your education/experiences to work for you. For instance, every job I’ve held in life I now reincorporate within my services in my freelance business. Why waste experience?!!
But the final upshot? Yes, the degree was important to groom my outlook on life and preparing me to transition from an artistic profession (not normal) into a business (normal) life and mind set. It also got me into the door of a corporate office. From there, I was on my own to develop.
These days a college degree doesn’t really mean that you’re smart. It won’t automatically make you intelligent. Anybody that can pay the bill and do the bare minimum can get a college degree. It’s just more high school if you’re willing to do it.
I know people that are college graduates but are by no means smart. These are people I wouldn’t even let sort my mail. On the other hand, I know people that never went to college and are some of the brightest people I know and doing quite well.
My degree is in film, but I’ve been a freelance designer and programmer for a couple years now after trying the corporate scene and finding it wasn’t for me. On the other, my brother has a graphic design degree from a very highly regarded art school and is currently selling medical supplies.
Having a degree doesn’t mean a whole lot anymore. Experience, character, and talent will do more for you than a piece of paper saying you read some books.
This article fits in with a larger trend, and that is the diversification of teaching and learning resources. It’s no longer necessary to log bricks and mortar classroom time in order to learn salable skills. In fact, such time can be a hindrance.
If you’re interested in learning more about this trend, here are some links to get you started:
EduBubble – Deconstructing the college industrial complex
http://edububble.com/dpp/
DIY U – Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education
http://diyubook.com/
I guess the real question is did your school teach you how to learn? I’m hearing a lot of “no” out there! Whichever way you choose to go, learn the basics, then work on the fancy stuff.
I totally agree with @Greg on this one!
Yesterday I had a small talk with one of my teachers at university about that topic and she did bring a good point! Back in the early days, the weren’t any medical school or teaching place for the doctors, they had to look at different drawing or picture, study them and then put it at test! These day, you can’t think of being treated by a so called “healer” because having a diploma and a proven knowledge are a mandatory in this field!
Surely school and education are not for everyone because most of the time, it lack flexibility and creativity in their teaching system. Some people are just better at learning by themselves then waiting to be teach! But if it wasn’t from school, we wouldn’t be were we are today in fields like medicine, science and technology! Even internet (Arpanet) comes from some research at university.
My point is anybody can change a car tire or fix a flat one (no offense here) and that is good cause we need those kind of services to keep us rolling but that’s not those professionals that will invent the next breaking system that can regenerate your car’s electric engine with the friction that is produced.
I think schools and education are important in every fields because that is were the ideas are brought to the next level but the system isn’t just made for everyone.
Great thread by the way! A lots of interesting view there!
I am an employed rookie web developer who self taught everything I know, being put in the lucky situation of exploring web languages to fulfil the tasks presented have allowed me to learn on the job, so to speak. I am looking at a future of web development and potentially design as a viable option and one of the more exciting routes would be freelance work.
Personally I had a UK college education and was a ‘dropout’ university undergraduate. With no education in web or programming languages, I have proven above and beyond that I am capable of learning new skills and nurturing these skills into commercially saleable assets. I pondered the need for educational achievements with regard to freelance work just the other day, when your biggest selling point is your portfolio, does your educational background really matter?
Sure education is the foundation of our resumes, but is that all it should be, the groundwork, how deep does that groundwork have to be? What we should be judging from employees is the 15 stories above the foundations, the experience, the skill sets, the ambition to renovate that 15 stories into a 200 story sky-scraper!
Shouldn’t we encourage employers to act like clients, judge the individual on their experience, achievements and skills instead of their education certificates. When we reach an age where the access of information is a mouse click, or a finger tip away in smartphone cases, do educational accomplishments serve as a viable indicator of our knowledge or experience.
Personally I am in a time when tertiary education is not holding up as a value for money option to prove my worth as an individual with skills that others have a need for or as proof of my ambition, ability or determination to become a success in life. When UK universities start to charge £6000+ a year tuition, we will be left with a generation mulling the same opinion I expressed above. After all, debt of £20,000+ for a certificate and a pat on the back, does it really prove I’m capable of fulfilling a client’s request?
First time poster here but I feel like I fit right into this debate.
I got my Associates Degree in Multi Media Webdesign from a Tech School in Rhode Island (NEIT), and I am now taking my Bachelors in Connecticut at CCSU for Computer Science.
Currently I am unemployed trying to make it as a freelance web designer. I have 4 websites under my belt and just got my portfolio online (still underconstruction only got the homepage up and contact form) at roywebdesign.net.
I see some posts saying getting your degree isn’t helpful, I am hoping you guys are wrong. My main issue right now with designing websites is that my clients want some pretty advanced features such as:
E-Commerce
Contact Forms
Vehicle Locators
ect.
I have lost many clients due to my inability to perform these features. This is one of the main reasons I decided to go back to school, once I complete the Bachlors in Computer Science I should be able to virtually program anything with enough education and practice.
So in my opinion Education is extremely helpful when doing freelance design, if you have a degree in Computer Science under your belt you should be able to do ANYTHING for your clients, which will lead to more money, more clients and of course, a successful business.
Thats my two cents,
I think that depends on the person and on the college you’re attending.
If you’re a kind of person that doesn’t need a supervisor to work or learn. if you are dedicated to the goal and know why you’re doing it. You can be just as good if not better self taught than those that are going to college.
On the other hand, if you’re someone that needs constant poking from supervisors or professors, than you’re definitely better of going to college.
As far as the college goes. It can screw up the choices above. Not all colleges are great, not all have good professors that know what they’re teaching. And they definitely don’t all have good programs.
The college i attended some 10 years ago, was teaching me stuff that was already some 5-10 years behind, and we’re talking about programming which changes yearly! I’ve seen students, getting out of that college with a degree, barely knowing how to type! I’m exaggerating of course, but you know what i mean.
So in my case i think i was definitely better off, gaining my work experience and learn most of it by myself, than spending 5 extra years just for the paper at the end. Although i probably won’t be able to work as an employee in some government positions, as those all require a degree.
So i think there is no right or wrong answer. It depends on the college (field of work) and on the type of person you are.
I’m just about to graduate from Imperial College London with an engineering degree. I have to say, if I hadn’t done this course I may have never started getting into photography and web design, but being a full time student has allowed me to explore a whole host of other interests and hobbies. I come from a highly pressured academic background, so there wouldn’t have really been a question of me not going to uni, however if I had not, I don’t know if I would be where I am now, heading out into the world of freelancing!
Not having any formal education of web standards or how to take photos, I think that it is really more about how driven the individual is to learn about coding or HTML5 or design in general etc, rather than the amount of info that they have crammed into their heads to date.
I have seen some people who have come out of uni with a degree in web design or photography for example, and they don’t know excrement(excuse my implied French) about design and their portfolios are rubbish. Of course, there are some who do come out knowing a lot and being successful; these, in my opinion are the ones who are sufficiently driven to excel in what they went to uni to do.
It still doesn’t mean they had to go to uni to do it though.
Obviously, as Michael Roy mentioned above, if one had done a CS degree they would have very specific programming skills and this would lead to a wider skill-set as a freelancer. Good for those people, they show sufficient drive to take transferable skills and implement them in a whole new environment. They would still need to learn about other things like design, business, finances etc, so the learning experience for most freelancers evens out in a way.
Anywho, my degree has taught me numerous skills which I use as a freelancer such as team dialogue for collaboration projects, professional manner in approaching work, and a regime of sorts to enforce discipline to work hard, even if I don’t want to.
Take home story is, if you’re passionate enough about whatever area you’re freelancing in, you’ll be able to learn enough to make a career out of it, whether you have had formal education in the matter or not.
I’m a writer with a BA in English. What that gets me is that I get to compete with hundreds of people for those jobs that require a BA (and pay better) rather than thousands of people for those jobs that don’t. I make over 100K a year, I wonder how many freelance writers without a degree of any sort can say that.
” I make over 100K a year, I wonder how many freelance writers without a degree of any sort can say that.”
Allena, you might be on to something, but this argument is weak.
With simple substitution, we end up with an equally compelling statement:
“I make over 100K a year, I wonder how many freelance writers with a BA in English can say that?”
I mean, have you seen the number of English majors at Starbucks and Barnes & Noble?
People who know how to use the programs to make something that looks good without reasons or understanding are graphic artists – the ones who have had education and can give reasons why they have designed a piece of communication a certain way is a graphic designer.
I think it needs to be noted that just because someone knows how to use Photoshop, Illustrator or Indesign doesn’t automatically make them a designer. I can use Word, but it doesn’t make me a copywriter.
My college course was an awesome time of learning to be creative.
Working for a small agency really helped add to those creative skills and develop more stricter design skills.
Working for myself enabled me to rapidly learn all the business skills that are needed to freelance. If you can’t sell yourself, it doesn’t matter too much how great your creative skills are.
I think that education can give some nice starting point, but with the practice you need to improve your skills.
When you are self-taught, it is harder to get started, since you need to learn all the basics by yourself, but once you learn that, it’s all about practice too.
I was a graphic artist at a packaging company that made bottles for more than 12 years. I did not have a degree in graphic arts, and although I wasn’t required to come up with many designs, as I was more handling production for large hair and personal care companies, as well as presentations to those companies, I do wish I had a degree.
When I say that, it is not because I think that it would have made me better at that particular job, but more flexible to leave the job and move onto better things. I wouldn’t have had to endure the 2 times when someone obviously less talented than myself, whose work almost seemed to be to willfully sabotage the company’s image, was used instead – once even paying someone $10K, who didn’t even know how to properly organize files and whose edits were clearly for the purpose of showing that he did “something” to be paid at all.
In addition, though I clearly understand what it takes to be a creative in the market nowadays and although I love the fact that I feel that being a creative on a computer platform likely exercises both sides of my brain, I find that being a creative to most potential clients and bosses simply means that you’re the super-talented guru that knows everything from building systems, to programming, to illustration, or anything else that they have absolutely no idea how to do. How many jobs have I seen that require what can only be customized by creating their very own, programmed test-tube baby that pay $20K/year? I’ve seen some that say they will pay $1/hour (and guarantee payment). Why not save me the trouble of accounting and call in pro-bono work?
What I’m saying here is that one must feel a real kick in the pants if they come across some of these lunatics who are looking for a “rock star”, who’s paid thousands of dollars for a college degree. I think it’s excellent to have and gives one an upper leg and an appreciation for their own work. There are jobs out there that pay well. But there are those that are not worth booting your system up for, let alone getting a degree.
Most of us who have been in web design/development for 15+ years are necessarily self-taught. Back then, who would have taught the class? It was all so new for everyone. 15 years later, I still don’t see this being properly taught in most universities in the US. I encounter young college grads frequently with design and communication degrees who don’t seem to have been taught the skills involved in creating an online portfolio site. That needs to change. The most obvious people to teach it are the self-taught people doing it. But conversely, most of us are busy working and don’t have time or energy to teach. I do choose a few young people each year to mentor and hope that makes at least a small difference.
Do I think an education has helped me? I agree with some of the commenters here that if you’re going to take classes, take business courses. I’d add to that an interesting twist. I had one year of college. My major was psychology and I cannot begin to list the ways in which that has been helpful to me in dealing with clients and other contractors. Something to think about, no?
I think this is an interesting question because I’m in the middle of my own decision regarding formal education. I worked at an office job for nearly 10 years and by the end of my “sentence” I hated the idea of going to that job Meanwhile, I had been attending college part-time in pursuit of my Bachelors in Graphic Design and daydreaming about the day I wouldn’t have to work at that crappy job anymore. I had about 2 years of education under my belt when my company decided to layoff many of it’s employees. Me included! A blessing in disguise really. So almost by accident I began freelancing and now, just over 6 months later I have clients I work with on a regular basis and quite a bit of experience under my belt. Now, the idea of going back to a 9-5 is melting away faster then an ice cream cone in July!
While working at that dreaded job I talked about, I loved school. I was learning new things and it was going to get me away from a job I hated. But now,
schools seems like something that is taking away precious time from of another client I could take on.
I am still attending courses and often feel as though I recognize a lot of “fluff” or filler work placed in the program for the sake of keeping students busy. Sure there are still things to learn, but I have to dig for those little kernels of knowledge between all the filler that’s been placed in there.
So there lies my debate. Do I continue towards my degree in case I ever want to get a full time job? Meanwhile incurring a great amount of debt and taking away from additional work I could take on? There is this little part of me that feels the need to hold that almighty degree for the sake of finishing what I started.
Then there is a part of me that says… the formal route has never felt quite right to me. I could be using this extra time to expand my knowledge in other areas of design, such as web design. Or doing something I enjoy but do not currently have time for, such as traditional painting. Is it time to cut my losses and realize the world is changing? With the internet there so many great artistic communities as well as resources for teaching yourself things that I wonder if the degree is losing it’s weight and value.
A freelancer needs to know how to write for specific publications. Whether that be AP style, Chicago style, or no style formatting at all. I have a master’s in journalism, but the most helpful thing my MA did was help me make connections in the industry and practice practice practice. If you aren’t a good writer in the first place, you aren’t going to be a good freelancer.
”Formal education will make you a living; self education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn, business philospher
At least in my mind it doesn’t make any difference whether someone is “self-taught” or “formally educated” in terms of being successful as a freelancer and gaining necessary skills to be one. The fact of the matter is that you have to “teach yourself” even when you are in a “formal education” setting. I have a college degree and I remember the vast majority of my “class work” for all my classes are done alone in the form of homework and self study. You don’t really learn much by simply attending classes. You will study a lot on your own if you want to learn anything in any settings. Everyone knows that, so why isn’t the answer still clear now?
Sure, you would have to graduate from a medical school and get certified if you want to work as a doctor. Same for lawyer, etc. but that’s more about a credential requirement of some specialized occupations. Even in that kind of scenario you still study a lot on your own in the framework of formal education, or you would likely drop out. It’s just a different framework of doing the same thing.
Besides, I remember college professors would often tell us stuff like “we have very limited time and we can only cover such and such in just one semester of class, so if you want to know more I suggest reading this and that.” I’ve always thought to myself, “Then what’s the point of coming to your class?” I went through the process anyway, did all the work anyway and graduated but I’ve always felt like “formal education” is way overrated and overpriced because of it. In the end, I appreciated the experiences of being a student but I absolutely disliked the sheer ineffectiveness of traditional institutionalized formal education.
As for learning how to deal with clients: I don’t understand how some people think you will learn all that in college/formal education. You deal with real world clients and real world deadlines in real world work situation regardless of whether you are employed or freelancing, and it is completely different from completing homework assignments on time and dealing with teachers. Otherwise no new college graduates would be struggling to learn all that.