Interview Questions

1. Why have you applied for this job?

They should show that they have applied for the job because they have an interest in what they do and can bring something to the company.

2. What skills do you currently have?

Showing skills in more than coding is important as it proves that there is more to you than just writing code. You should talk about you personal skills and mention the soft skills you have acquired.

3. What is your opinion of web standards?

The need to know about and apply web standards is very important. There are now more people using the internet than ever and the need to make the website viewable to as many people as possible should be something you should be thinking about all the time.

4. Which coding languages do you feel will become popular in the future and do you spend time learning about new languages?

Showing that you have an interest in the industry and its future shows you know the importance of how fast the web is changing and will be able to keep up with future trends.

5. What is your best working style, group or individual?

The ability to work in a group is important as there will be many times when you have to work and contribute in a group. It is also good to be able to work well by yourself as it shows you can get on with thing using your own initiative and don’t need to be guided.

6. Where do you see yourself in five years time?

Talking about your future shows you have thought about where you want to be and have set yourself goals. It also shows your commitment to a company and true ambitions, whether you see yourself progressing through the company.

Self Managed Learning Plan – Marking

Learning Outcome One

Investigate the use of PHP 5.3.0 and MySQL 5 in the Interactive Media Industry.

In my research I looked at background of PHP and the number of websites using it. I then looked at the number of current jobs requiring PHP and MySQL and found high statistics on them, showing how much the need for both skills has increased recently. Also I found out that many jobs asking for PHP skills would prefer the knowledge of MySQL to accomplice it. I then presented my findings in a journal post at http://gregcarricksmlp.blogspot.com. When researching the languages I looked more into how popular they are in the industry and not into their uses in the industry. This has still covered the requirements of learning objective one as it has shown how popular the use of PHP and MySQL are in the industry.

Learning Outcome Two

Create skills in PHP 5.3.0 and MySQL 5 ready to be used in a simple website.

I kept an illustrated learning diary and showed my progression in the knowledge of both PHP and MySQL, from basic code to the more advanced code needed for the end product. After I learned the basic PHP and MySQL skills, I mainly concentrated on the code required for the website and didn’t expand into other areas of the codes. This would have been more useful to me in the future but could have made too much work for me to do. I didn’t record all the evidence of my development in the skills, as fully as I should have. This has still covered the requirements of learning outcome two as I have kept a illustrated learning diary and used both paper based and online resources to develop skills in both languages, ready to use on a simple website.

Learning Outcome Three

Plan and create a simple website using PHP 5.3.0 and MySQL 5.

I created a simple website at http://www.gregcarrick.co.uk/a8 and kept it to the plan I created in the creative brief and my sketchbook. There was one change to the original plan, which made the website use two pages instead of one, but the website still kept the simple design required. The website is web standards compliant using XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1. I didn’t plan the website as fully as I could have and an accurate plan could have prevented the slight change I had to make. These still have covered the requirements of learning objective three as I developed a simple website using PHP and MySQL, taking into account web standards.

Learning Outcome Four

Evaluate the simple website and the use of the self managed learning plan.

I kept a journal at http://gregcarricksmlp.blogspot.com and wrote a weekly post evaluating how I was progressing on the self managed learning plan and any problems I was having. At the end of the assignment I then wrote a summative evaluation of the whole task and uploaded it onto my journal. My weekly journal posts mainly exceeded the 300 word limit I set myself but I kept to the limit on the final week and my evaluation. These still have covered the requirements of learning objective four as I kept and weekly evaluative journal entry and concluded with a summative evaluation of both the SMLP and the simple website.

M1: Relevant theories and techniques have been applied

I investigated into the use of PHP and MySQL in the industry.

M2: The appropriate structure and approach has been used

I used both a sketchbook and an online journal to monitor the progress of the assignment.

M3: Complex problems with more than one variable have been explored

I did not meet the requirements of this criteria.

Final Grade - Pass

For the assignment I have given myself a Pass as I feel I have met all the required criteria to achieve this level. I have not met all the criteria for a Merit level and I am quite disappointed with myself that I didn’t put enough work into the assignment to get a Merit.

Junior Web Design role

Junior Web Design role

My client is an award winning creative digital agency with a growing reputation for quality and success and works with a wide-ranging client base. They require a Web designer to join their expanding team!

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with a wide portfolio of client relationships and will be responsible for designing websites from start to finish. In-house support and guidance will be provided.

The ideal person will have a genuine passion for the web, HTML and CSS skills, and a strong portfolio showing creativity and innovation. You will be motivated, have multi-tasking skills, be pro-active, and will possess great communication skills. You will also enjoy working within a team.

They are looking for talented individuals who want a challenging and exciting career in the digital marketing industry.

Link to advert

I initially chose this job as it is aimed at someone in a junior position and requires skills that I feel I have started to gain and will hopefully acquire by the end of the course. The advert states that “in-house support and guidance will be provided”, which is a really big bonus for me as it would enable me to move steadily into employment and not be thrown into the deep end without getting any guidance.

The coding skills required for the job are HTML and CSS, which I feel I have already required to a reasonable standard, I am no were near at an advanced level but over time I feel I can progress to a high level. Though this advert does not state the level of HTML and CSS, I would be expecting they would require quite high skill levels.

The other skills required are more soft skills and I feel fairly confident that I can fulfil the requirements of these skills. I gained these skills are mainly through college with multitasking assignments and on previous courses were I have done team work. I will also be able to test and improve on these skills with most of them been required in the up and coming team assignment.

The main part of this advert I feel I cannot fulfil at this moment is the part needing “a strong portfolio showing creativity and innovation”. I feel my portfolio is not at a stage where I can use it to show off my full potential and gain a job through it. As my portfolio is still a work in progress I think this would be the main area letting me down. Hopefully during the rest of the course I will be able to create work I am proud of, that can be used to improve and expand my portfolio.

Although the job only requires HTML and CSS skills, I feel that the current skills I am developing in PHP and MySQL can be used to my advantage, to show I have knowledge in other areas and can bring something with me.

At this moment in time I would not feel confident to apply for this job, although I feel I have most of the skills required. This is mainly due to me not feeling ready to progress into employment at this moment, since there are still things I feel I need to learn and improve on first. The rest of the course will help me prepare for employment as I will gain firsthand experience of working in a team and the environment that goes with it. I will also find out what it is like, working at a faster pace than I am used to, which is one of the things I don’t feel ready for at this moment.

Word Count: 470

Back at Last

After taking a year out and finding out what it’s like working full time in a job I really don’t like, I can honestly say I’m glad to be back. I’ve spent the last year regretting leaving the course but to my defence it was partly because of my financial situations that lead to me leaving.

I was very much looking forwards to rejoining the course and picking up from where I’d left off but there was a large part of me that was/is quite nervous. This is due to two things; firstly I was joining a class that I only knew one person from (who actually wasn’t there on my first day). I’m not the most confident person and I would like to thank everyone for making me feel welcomed and part of the group. The second reason is that I’ve spent the last year not using anything I’d learnt in the first year and now I have to refresh myself with the first year while trying to work on the second year projects. This is why I’m still slightly nervous because I know I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

I feel that my first day on the second year went better than expected since I felt confident with what I had to do and know I’ll be able to get it complete by the next lesson. The only real worry for me was the pace I worked at, I feel that I worked quite slow today and although I expected a bumpy return, I felt I could have got more work done.

Looking back at my ‘End of the First Year Evaluation’ I still feel like I’m in the same position and the goals I set myself are still goals I’m going to work towards but now with the added PHP and MySQL goal.

SMLP Resource List

Here is my list of resources I will use whilst learning PHP and MySQL:

1. PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide

Many reviews I read about this book said it was easily accessible by beginners and gave them a very good understanding of PHP and MySQL. This should be very useful to get me started with the languages.

2. PHP In Easy Steps

This book comes with many examples of PHP and shows the main features of the language. Many reviews say it was easy to follow and a definite for PHP beginners.

3. http://php.net/

This is the home of PHP and will come in useful with the PHP Manual section, which has a language reference and getting started section.

4. http://w3schools.com/

I have used this website before and found it very useful as it splits the tutorials down into easy to follow sections and has many examples of using the different syntax. This site also has plenty to help me along with MySQL.

5. http://tizag.com/

There seems to be plenty of information about PHP on this site, with sections that guide you gradually through learning the basics. There is also a more advanced PHP section and a tutorial on MySQL I will be able to use.

6. http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/php/php.html

This website looks very useful with many different sections on PHP and plenty of examples to try myself.

7. http://www.webmonkey.com

Another useful website which looks to gradually bring you into writing PHP from the basics with examples.

8. http://phpfreaks.com/

There are many tutorials on this website to have a go at once I get the basics of PHP out of the way. Using these should help improve and extend my PHP skills.

Self Managed Learning Plan

For the Self Managed Learning Plan (SMLP) I will be learning PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor). PHP will allow me to create more dynamic websites, since the language can be used for many things, from making the website more appealing with photo galleries and feedback forms, or creating more advanced features such as shopping baskets and forums.

After searching through a number of jobsites I found that the vast majority of available employers required you to know how to code PHP. Learning PHP now will give me a higher chance of gaining employment after this course.

After some research I have found that a large amount of people who learnt PHP said it was easy to pick up. So it makes me more confident that I too will be able to pick up PHP without too many problems.

It also has many similarities to other programming languages, such as C, Java and Perl. So after learning PHP I will have an opportunity to expand my knowledge into these other languages. This will increases my employment prospects if I venture into other languages.

There are many tutorial websites available online along with a number of dedicated books that I will be able to use to learn PHP.

I will also learn MySQL (Structured Query Language) alongside PHP as the two languages work together and will enable the use of databases alongside the website.

I feel learning PHP for my SMLP is the correct choice because:

• It will enable me to create more dynamic websites.
• There are many employment prospects for people with PHP skills.
• It is easy to learn.
• It has similarities with other programming languages.
• There are many tutorial resources available.

End Of First Year Evaluation

I can’t believe that all the first year assignments have been handed in and there’s only one week left of the first year, which is actually where we find out about the first, second year assignment.

Looking back at my first ever post, the formative statement, I feel like I have come a very long way, and I have to say I’ve realised that before starting the course, I didn’t really know much about the industry at all. The vast variety of subjects we have covered and the depth we have gone into, in the first year has made me realise how large the industry is.

The first assignment A1 – SketchBlog, is an on going assignment and was one, that in my case got forgotten some of the time. The Online Journal part of this assignment was not forgotten as it was a task we had to do every week and when we required feedback. But with the sketchbook I just seemed to forget it was an assessable part and sometimes forget to work on it.

Both keeping a sketchbook and updating an Online Learning Journal were new to me and I did find the Journal hard to start off with. Mostly because I have not always been an open person and found it hard to write down my thoughts and feelings about events. I have grown to like the Journal and find it a very useful thing to have, to update everyone on what I’m going through and also to find out if I’m at the same stage and have the same feelings as others.

It was only half was through the year when I realised how helpful and important the sketchbook was. I started to take it every where and always have it open and next to me when I’m working, now I wish I’d realised that earlier.

The second assignment A2 – That’s the Plan, is when I first realised how little I knew and how much there was to know. The amount we need to know and do on this course really did hit me quite hard, as the work load on my previous course was no were as near as large as on this one. On top of the larger work load, there was the way the course is run and the formal submission of the work, which was unheard of on my last course.

I learnt a lot about how much more there is to the internet than what meets the eye. The whole web accessibility was an unheard of subject to me and something I had never really thought about. I found the web accessibility subject quite hard to take in at first, as there is just so much to it. It took me awhile to get to grips with the subject and now it’s one of the first things I think about when I access or create a website.

Even though we didn’t build the website and use the technologies required to build one, I still feel I learnt a lot about them and it helped me in the second assignment. Another experience was setting the out work in an academic format and making effort with the view of the final submission. This was something I’d never done before and I was pleased with my work when I saw it in the academic format.

I spent a lot of time researching the Great Briton, J.R.R Tolkien, just to find out the needed information on him. This brought out one of my weaknesses ‘researching’; I spent too much time researching and not enough time doing the work. This is something I feel I have improved on, I can now get the information I need in a quicker time and seem to find more relative pages for what I’m looking for.

The next two assignments were enough with the easy work and into the standard of work and speed required for the course. Having two assignments on the go and less time than the previous one to do them in, really helped me to improve on my time planning skills, which didn’t go very well on the A2 assignment. During these assignments was when I really started to feel confident with my time planning ability and really understand at what speed I could work at.

The A3 – Back to Basic assignment was another web plan like A2, but it had to be improved and in a lot more detail. I didn’t feel very confident going into this assignment as there was more to do and less time to do it in. I didn’t think I would be able to handle the larger work load, but to my surprise I managed quite well.

I feel I’ve got a broader knowledge of computer terms while doing this assignment and really improved on my researching skills, due to researching 40 computer terms and finding out more about the technologies used to create the website.

I feel I preformed a lot better on this assignment over A2, I think that’s down to knowing more of what is expected of me and been used too how the course is run and the work is handed in. I felt pleased with the extra detail I went into on the screen designs and site structure diagrams. Since I needed them to be precise as we had to make this website and used the measurements and I’m glad to say they were at a good size and worked out.

The A4 – Image Rights assignment faced me with some new challenges, ones that I really enjoyed. Getting the experience of timed tasks was something new to me and I have to say to start off with I didn’t like it but in the end I really enjoyed them. Using Photoshop was a great experience and I really started to get into the attention to detail with the image restoration.

Learning the PARC principles was a real eye opener and I started to look at everything differently and as soon as I saw something I would think about it using PARC. But I need to improve on my ability to use the PARC principle myself.

The A5 – Builder was a really enjoyable unit, getting down and creating the website was so much fun. I did quite a lot of hand coding and learnt a lot about XHTML and CSS; I know I’ve only touched the surface of both codes, but I’m really looking forwards to learning more. I also found out more about Dreamweaver, as I had used it before but not for anything extensive.

The A6 – Revert to Type was probably the subject I found most interesting and still do find very appealing. It was something I’d never really thought about before and didn’t know there would be some much about it. It’s also a subject I’m not very strong with, and is something I’m going to try and improve on during the summer. My main weakness is my knowledge of different typefaces and using typefaces in different circumstances. The subject is something I’m interested in so I should enjoy working on it during summer.

The final assignment A7 – Wailing Whales was by far the hardest assignment for me. I really enjoyed the designing and creating parts of it, but found it hard to come up with a suitable design for both the Logo and Digipak. This was when I realised how uncreative I am and although I got quite a few designs for them, they seemed to be similar and not to a standard I was happy with.

When I’m sitting with a blank piece of paper in front of me I can never seem to start to design anything, my mind goes blank and I can’t do anything. This wasn’t too bad with A7; but I just couldn’t seem to open my mind and most of the designs were similar.

I was happy with the final look of the Emit logo but not too impressed with the Digipak as it did not represent the music in the way it was to me. I did improve my Photoshop skills creating it and learnt some new software in the form of FreeHand and Illustrator.

I feel I have progressed a lot since the start of the course and my knowledge of the industry has increased dramatically. I have really enjoyed the first year at college and I know I have a long way to go to become employable, but I know this is the right course for me and probably the best one to get me in the industry. I feel I’ve got to improve to get to the second year standard, but I’m going do revise the things I’ve learnt from the first year and try to improve on my weaknesses.

Goals for next year

• Improve on my creative ability, try to open my mind more when sketching
• Be able to hand code CSS efficiently
• Be more confident with use of typefaces
• Use PARC efficiently in my work

Word Count: 1,509