If you don’t know, get a book!
I’m watching last week’s The Big Web Show. Andy McMillan talks about Build and conferences in general. I really enjoy attending conferences and I’m looking forward to attending many more, hopefully with a couple of people I work really closely with.
Andy raises a great point that I just had to reiterate. If you’re lacking in any knowledge about topics covered at a conference… perhaps it’s not the place for you to learn.
He makes the contrast that it’s probably better to view conferences as a place to be inspired and fired up for better things when you get back. I would actually argue that it could fire you up to learn, but that’s some expensive motivation to just encourage you to do something you should already be doing.
So for Andy, as he put it, it’s better for him to get a book and practice and learn from that first.
I just wanted to reiterate this to a few students and graduates I’ve been in contact with recently:
If you want to get into the web industry, you need to know your stuff. There are very few opportunities open to people who don’t know what they’re doing.
So grab some books on the topics you’re interested (HTML, CSS, Javascript, a programming language), spend a few late nights practising and come back knowing the basics. Once you’ve got that you’ll be much easier to work with.
Remember that knowledge can always be built on. And consider the possibility of part-time unpaid work in exchange for hands-on experience and mentoring.
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