Blog

Last week went by really fast! For class work, I really only worked on the blogs and looked ahead a little to see what will all be due next in November. Otherwise, it has just been internship work for me. I was able to get all the necessary forms signed and approved, and was able to get a working site up and ready to go! The client really liked it, and I do too! I am not 100% done with it, but it is nearly there, just some more details need to be added that I am hoping to finish up this week.

Here is a link to the site, as well as some images of it, to show what I have been working on: https://1974oshkosh.com/

This project has been really fun, and I learned a lot more about working with GoDaddy and their website builder, which I didn’t even know they had. I had no idea how to work on someone else’s GoDaddy account or how to add my files to another account before this project. I had to teach myself a lot and do a lot of research on things I was not expecting to have to run into with a project, but I am really glad I gained this experience and feel like I have become a better web designer/developer through this. If I make any major changes by next week, I will be sure to give updates!

Week 3 has been a rollercoaster for me! For classwork, I had to create a LinkedIn profile and turn it in for feedback from the class. I was given some great feedback that I felt improved the look of my profile. I also greatly improved my employment seeking website to include all of the information on it that I wanted, besides the internship work and program outcomes sections. I’ll place a link to it here in case anyone wantes to check it out.

https://www.emilybrooksart.com/WaMI/EmploymentSeekingWebsite/index.html

For internship work, I honestly am blurring my days and weeks a little. I can’t remember if I applied for internships last week or if I applied after my last blog. I applied to many different places, though, and have only gotten rejections back unfortunately. It makes me nervous about the other places I applied to but didn’t hear back from. I reached out to different places that I was interested in working with as well, but haven’t heard back from any of those places, either. My last options are to work on projects for family and friends, of which I don’t want to bother, but if they have work for me, I will gladly take them up on it!

I was able to secure an unpaid internship that Tammy offered to the class! I contacted Jeff, the client, and am currently working on a 50 year high-school reunion website. It has been interesting working with a client and figuring out what to make the site look like based on what has been asked for and already created. I have learned a lot during the process of working on this site, like how to add my site files or directly change the look of the site from delegate access on someone else’s account. I have also worked more extensively with formatting and organizing a site into the way I envisioned it, as well as responsiveness on a site. I am overall pretty proud with what I have accomplished making the site so far, and I hope to have it completed by next blog to share the finished product and overall review of working on it!

I don’t know what else to say about week 2 other than I am exhausted! We had to work on creating resumes and cover letters, and getting them both reviewed by both peers and the student employment services. I had to change quite a bit around but am super happy with the feedback I received. I also got a start on my student employment seeking website and found some viable work samples I want to show off on my portfolio. I definitely plan on changing the look of my website up, but I just wanted to get it created and planned as a head start.

Besides classwork, though, I have been trying to make way on finding an internship. I have looked online, using job board resources provided in class and the usual common ways like Indeed, Handshake, and LinkedIn. It hasn’t provided me with too many results, unfortunately, with there not being a lot of web design internships in the area or that are remote. A lot of internships I have found are for summer of next year, which is obviously not the right time frame. I also have found quite a few internships that aren’t paid, which will be a last resort for me since the majority to all of the hours need to be paid. I have resulted in looking for even graphic design internships that might offer web design aspects like coding, just to expand my search. I have even found jobs in the field that I might reach out to, to just to see if I can intern instead of applying for an actual job.

I have other methods of finding internships, though. I remember being told that a lot of finding internships involves networking. I have talked to family and friends to see if there are any projects they would need, or their friends would need, or to see if there are internships available at where they work to see if I could get my foot in the door there. I thankfully have some family members that work in tech, or in web design themselves, that I can have help me out. On top of that, I have thought about reaching out to jobs that I have some invested interested in working at that don’t currently have internships or job postings in the field available. My thoughts have been that the worst that could come of it is that I get ignored or told no, which is basically what I am expecting anyway, so it can’t hurt. I am pretty nervous that nothing will come of my searching, but I am trying to stay positive!

If I had to choose one word to describe this week, I would pick overwhelming! Working on resumes, cover letters, a Handshake profile, having to fill out release forms, and now working on blogs every week, there was a lot to do. And that isn’t even the internship part! I didn’t realize there was so much to work on before the internship part of the class. I had to even start this class a little early because I left the state to go on a family vacation, so I guess this is really how I felt across the first two weeks for me. There was a lot to get done before leaving, and it feels like even more to catch up on now that I am back!

I have been trying to get caught up on classes and even work ahead in some this week, not only to give myself more time in my schedule for internships, but just to give me the opportunity to look because it has slipped my mind a little with all of the things I have had to catch up on in this class and my four others! Overall, this first week (or maybe two if you count the week before school started) has been filled to the brim with work for me to do and I have been swamped with playing catch-up. I am hoping that even though I don’t have an internship lined up now, that I will be able to soon, but I am a little nervous about being able to secure one or having enough time to get the hours required. I have to remind myself that I have time to still find one and should be able to, if I manage my time correctly, handle everything on my plate. Wish me luck!