Our world is almost completely digital. Even businesses that are normally run completely in-person, have begun to transition to a mix of physical offices and digital websites. If you don’t have an online presence, your company probably won’t get far. Due to the increase of our digital world, web designers are in high demand. Many are considering creating a career based on creating and designing websites for others. You may be wondering: how long does it take to learn web design?

Receiving a Web Design degree takes 4 years to get a bachelor’s. A master’s degree takes an additional 1 to 3 years of schooling. Some people take another approach by learning on their own. This usually takes 5 to 6 months but may take longer or shorter depending on how fast you pick up the skills.

If you’re considering this career path, you’re probably wondering what your options are and which is the best for you and your needs. Continue reading to learn more about this potential future career. With a bit of education and training, you’ll be designing websites before you know it!

What Can You Expect from a Career in Web Design?

 

Hours

Web designers typically can expect to work 37 to 40 hours a week. This is a typical “9-5” job where you will work Monday through Friday. Some additional hours may be required to meet deadlines and this could include evenings and weekends if necessary. If you work in technical support or debugging, you may even get calls on your off-days if your co-workers need help. 

Salary

When you are looking into a future career, it’s a good idea to look at the average salary you will receive from the work you will be doing. Not only is it a good idea to know this before you decide on a career, but it is also smart to know what others in your field are being paid. This is great information to know if you need to negotiate a starting salary or pay raise. Going to your boss with valid facts and evidence makes your appeal for a pay raise that much more likely to happen.

In web design, you can expect a median pay of $51k a year. The average market ranges from around $36k to $75k.

Environment

Some web designers work in an office each day. This would be in a typical business office where you will be completing your work on a computer or laptop.

For others, their employers allow them to work from home. Due to the nature of the work (digital) some employers may see no need for the web designer to come into the office if they are just as capable of completing the task from home.

Due to the Global Pandemic of COVID-19, many businesses are more willing to let their employees work from home. This all depends on your employer and the kind of work they need you to do for them.

Typical Day/Responsibilities

Of course, each business and employer will require different tasks from you. Here is what a typical day of web designer looks like:

Being a web designer means you are working on multiple different things at the same time. Being able to keep on task and follow your daily task is an important part of being a web designer. Because of this, web designers normally begin their day by creating a daily checklist or plan of things to get done.

Checking your email should be on the top of your to-do list as it will inform you of new tasks from your boss, or updates on projects you are working on.

Phone conferences may also be something which you could expect from being a web designer. Working with clients means you need to be able to contact them and they need to be able to contact you as well. You may have to get used to phone calls about what to change or add to a website.

Designing is right in the job title, so this is where you will spend most of your day. You will be designing websites, making them creative but organized and easy to access. It is your job that the client is happy with the website you have created. This may require extra work to fix parts in the website that your client does not like or find satisfactory.

Who is Likely to Hire a Web Designer?

 

In this career field, there are many different possible employers. Especially when you are first coming into this business, it is important to keep your mind open to the different possibilities of future employers. You may begin working for a company or employer who you do not care for, but in this career field, you will find new opportunities if you can keep your reputation strong and positive.

Potential Employers

• IT consultancies
• Software companies
• Specialist web design companies
• Mid – Large corporate organizations
• Startups

Some private clients or customers need a web designer. Some web designers exclusively work with private clients. Finding these clients may be difficult at first, but with a good reputation, over time you can be making more than a web designer who was hired onto a company.

Grad Students vs. Online Certificate

When you are looking into becoming a web designer, it is important to think about all your options and the opportunities which come from those options. Many businesses which are looking for a lead or even a general web designer require that you have a degree, at least a bachelor’s in web design.

While there are many different private and smaller clients who will hire someone who is trained or certified, you will have more potential employers if you have graduated from college and received your degree.

What Qualities Are Employers Looking for in Web Designers?

 

Similar to any other job, employers are looking for certain qualities or personality traits for their future web designer to hold. If you excel in most of these areas and are willing to work on those which you not then web design might be a great fit for you.

When in the process of completing job interviews to find a potential job, a great way to set you apart from other contenders is by acknowledging and showing the skills you have which qualify you for this job. This will impress the interviewer and give you a better chance of getting the job.

• Creativity
• Organization
• Imagination
• Attention to detail
• Coding (HTML & CSS)
• Analytical skills
• Communication skills
• SEO knowledge
• Experience in website builders like WordPress
• Experience in using platforms like Webflow & Figma

How to Become A Qualified Web Designer

 

If you have decided you want to go into web design, there are a couple of different options you can choose from to make this dream become a reality. Looking into your options and understanding what you can do with them is important in making this decision.

School

• Cost: $9,000 – $30,000 annual tuition
  • You will pay tuition for each year you are in school.
  • You can find some schools which cost less.
• Time: To get a bachelor’s it takes 4 years, and to get a master’s that is another 1 to 3 years.
• Qualification: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Web Design

Although getting a degree takes a longer period of time and costs more, you have so many more job opportunities if you are a degree-holding web designer. Most big companies will only hire people who have a degree. Having a degree gives you an edge over those who do not hold one. You also have 4 to 7 years of experience where you have been studying with professionals on how to design the best website. You will learn tips and tricks which you cannot get from an online certification.

Here are a couple of college options that offer the classic in-person, on-campus college experience. These colleges all offer a web designer program where you can receive your degree.

Husson University

• Tuition Cost (in-state): $18,170
• Tuition Cost (out-of-state): $18,170
• Credits Required for Graduation: 122-123

SUNY Morrisville State College

• Tuition Cost (in-state): $8,670
• Tuition Cost (out-of-state): $18,720
• Students in this college: 3063

There are obviously lots of other schools that offer web design programs, so make sure you check out the ones in your area and compare the education quality, price, and convenience. 

Online Training/Certificate

• Cost: $100 – $15,000
  • Entirely depends on which company you decide to go through.
  • The more expensive ones often teach you more critical information about web design tools.
• Time: 6 to 9 months
  • Depends on the company and how fast you work through the certification training.
  • Many companies will allow you to work at your own pace, with an eventual deadline.
• Qualification: Web Design Certificate

Our digital world offers so many opportunities for so many different people who are trying to accomplish different goals. Having the opportunity to become certified online at your own pace is a blessing for so many people. This means you can create a better business or future career. While it may be difficult to find a job working with a company because you are only certified online and not a college graduate, you will still be able to start your own business with private clients.

Many web designers have found that, while there is initially a low income, starting your own business of having private clients hire you to design a website can eventually give you a salary as large and sometimes larger than some who are hired onto a company. But in order to do that, you need to develop your craft and become good enough to compete with those who do have formal schooling and training.

Here are a couple of options where you can receive your online web design certificate.

Frontend Masters

• Price: $39/month
• Time Length: 5+ hours (of video)
• Certificate: Available

Skillcrush

• Price: $549 one-time payment or $199/month for three months
• Time Length: 3 months (average time to complete)
• Certificate: Available

There are also people who simply dive into the professional field starting with their own website and websites for people they know. These people completely learn everything by practice and online with YouTube and Google.  But they get paid to design websites just the same without any type of certification.  This is certainly more difficult for some people but definitely doable and even better than traditional schooling for others.

I myself, write all these posts in order to educate and benefit you in the world of web design.  Online you’ll be able to learn things you never would learn in a curriculum at a school.  This includes common examples of bad web design that actually exist online right now not just in textbooks.  To learn more about examples of bad web design read this article here.