Now I’m not looking to step on anyone’s toes if they studied at the following for years and I won’t bother you with my work history…….but

….After a few conversations with my wife the agreement seems to be that it’s more about enjoying what you do than the money, although the cash doesn’t go a miss.

I’m lucky to have a talent for art and design and (mother in laws words) soak up information like a sponge. The dream career has always been web and graphic design, and now I have a hunger to pursue these fields. Unfortunately I’m in no position to give up work and go back to college, however my current job is full time over 3 days and I have 4 days where i’m sitting doing nothing.

Basically I’m looking for some sage advice on where to go with this, i’m currently rattling through the Adobe Classroom books and I’m under no delusion that I have a long way to go, but any advice would be fantastic

Evening Classes worked for getting my Degree, and that was while working 8 – 5 five days a week.

If your 3 days are flexable at all you may even be able to study full time around your job or at worst pick up some extra classes to speed up then part time course.

My son did his civil eng degree on a day release course travelling from Carlisle to Bolton whilst working a 5 day week, getting married, moving house and having 2 kids over a 5yr period 😆
If you want it there are ways. Open Uni ?

The dream career has always been web and graphic design, and now I have a hunger to pursue these fields.

Do you actually need a degree for that, though? Get a decent portfolio going, maybe do some free stuff for charities or local small businesses, then start going for the paying jobs…

For webdesign books will be great for teaching you software, coding and concepts. On the other hand it is such a fast changing area that I’d suggest following some good RSS feeds to keep on top of new trends/techniques.

Do you want to design websites or build them? Or do you want to be a print designer?

You don’t need degrees and they won’t teach you how to use software anyway so just start putting a portfolio together and learn the programmes you will need (things like InDesign, Photoshop, Fireworks, Dreamweaver etc dependant on what field you want to be in).

Then when you feel confident enough in your creative abilities find a local agency who would take you on (perhaps part time) to help teach you the technical side of things (ie, teach you the difference between CMYK and RGB, explain why Pantone colours can’t be used on websites etc).

Without wanting to sound patronising though, often self-taught people aren’t quite so good as they think they are but there is usually a customer base for people of all skill levels.

Do you want to design websites or build them? Or do you want to be a print designer?

Design, that’s where i get most enjoyment from

Contact all the marketing and design agencies in your area and see if you can get in their freelance pool, and start working. But just emailing or calling them isn’t enough, meet them, buy them lunch etc…

Get your own site up and running, promote it, just get going now. Learn on the job, wing it, just have smart ideas.

Design, that’s where i get most enjoyment from

Then start proving you can design – set yourself a brief or get onto Twitter and see if you can find anyone handing out sample briefs. You will need to be able to prove you can craft a logo, come up with a conceptual idea, understand letter spacing and kerning, be able to design a simple advert and a brochure, that sort of stuff. Prove you appreciate colour and negative space and can make something simple like a poster look professionally created.

Or go onto Design Outpost and pit your skills against others (and get paid if you win the brief)
http://www.designoutpost.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=12

No-one will put you on their freelance list without good examples of work and conversely, no-one will put you on their freelance list just because you have a degree – get doing some work and PROVE you can do it.

Have you got any examples of work you have done so I can gauge your skill levels?

Sometimes there are opportunities in charity that people find very rewarding.
http://www.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_oxfam.asp?s=oxZwCHeRpGSxUuGpm&jobid=36672,8956147287&key=20703621&c=236932344159&pagestamp=setfdcobblrmtesuqi

Is your email genuine, Boba?

If so I’ll drop you a line.

New career? Bounty hunter, surely. I reckon you’d be good at it.

Best thing to do Is put a portfolio together and then knock on a few doors
and make sure you do your home work on the companies too, which will
help you in the interview.