True but then where do you place the freelancers whom work solo (even though they do work with clients).
Well, if you individually judge them on those three things… they would have work experience, since they do deal with people. Their skill can vary. As for the engineering aspect, I suppose they are similar to the hobbyist. They can either be really good or really bad at it, since they do usually work alone.
Though really at the end of the day, all that matters is that your portfolio / resume looks good. People are still going to apply for a job within reach, regardless of how good they are. The OP isn’t really looking for a way to judge people – s/he’s just looking for a way to know how much more there is to learn. Obviously if you want to get the job, you don’t just selectively choose one thing to be good in. You’re going to find work experience. You’re going to work out problems.
I find the most interesting part of the job to be the challenges and limits that arise. That keeps everything fresh despite obvious similarities between projects. I far from dislike my current position. Meeting others expectations in terms of quality and quantity is something that every professional can be judged on regardless of the industry. To me that is much more accurate measurement of skill then whether or not they are following the latest new ideas. The latest ideas are important, but the less superficial and concrete measurement is how well someone has performed and meet the requirements of past assignments in terms of budget, quality and leadership. Something which is very difficult to judge if a person lacks experience interacting with a team,boss or client directly or indirectly.
Professionals are problem solvers. Therefore, my interpretation of intermediate and advanced is real world application of principles to solve others problems. Also, dealing with balancing productivity and quality to deliver the best possible outcome given the objective and restraints. Its by no means a bad thing, its just business. In every industry these are things one needs to learn and understand to make it in an industry.
Income is important and in many ways I feel income is the best motivator around. If you need to pay rent or a mortgage that is huge motivator. Ambition is superficial yet the roof over your head is not. Thus, I believe the separation between intermediate and advanced to be coming terms that its a job and not your whole life. When you can truly leave work at work is when you have hit the advanced and mature level. When you can say its just a job and deliver the best possible product per a given circumstance. Those are the type of people I want to work alongside the ones who can get it done and make money. Not the one who is to overly concerned with superficial principles resulting in more time and cost designated for a specific job. Ambition can dangerous curse. Perfection is an allusion. Trying to achieve perfection is about as productive as reaching the end of a rainbow. People at that advanced level know when to say its good enough rather then attempting to reach the end of the rainbow.
interesting topic
oddz, what might work for you doesn’t work for everyone else, while money might be a huge motivator for you it doesn’t mean that everyone feels the same way. You don’t need to be actively making money to be able to produce something of a very high quality and there are plenty of people who build websites for themselves or others freely who do as good a job as anyone who would be paid for it. The fact is that while money can be a motivator for some and can give you a budgetry challenge it has absolutely nothing whatsoever todo with skill level. Based on what you have said about skill you could take it to state that any individual who creates their own website for a startup instantly has no credibility as a professional because they weren’t being paid or the client was themselves… which is nonsense. Just because someone works for free does not mean they aren’t restricted in some way, they could have time restrictions, a lack of resources, possibly working as part of a large team on a collaborative project which has no source of income, those circumstances involve what you have mentioned yet the financial structure isn’t relevent.
i think this the most appropriate though there more illustrations.these distinctions are mainly based on the quility and proficiency of work
I find that work experience helps, when I got into the industry on a professional basis, i not only had to code but I have to cover my other aspects such as running the server, setting up profiles, administration, A records, MX records, Internet Marketing, stats and much more.
basically how everything integrates. I learned more in 1 year than 3 years of doing websites as a freelance. While I am not a guru and still need help from time to time, i find that being a web designer helps when your knowledge is very broad, not just in one area but in many.
more knowledge is power, never ristrict yourself to just a coder.