I’ve just finished a work-experience week at Studio Cotton focusing on website design and oh boy, it was one amazing experience; thanks to the fabulous team here, I’ve learnt so much about it as a job, and just how many sections it branches off into.
Before anything else, I’m Sam, a guy who was sentenced to work experience for a week by my school (like many, many others). I say “sentenced” because initially, I thought work experience was an absolute curse; having to write 60+ work experience emails, each taking 20 minutes to carefully craft was genuinely really disheartening after not getting accepted… until I suddenly was; thank you Studio Cotton!
In this blog, you’ll hear more about it below, along with the more important topics: all the wonders of all the aspects and the all important question: should you pursue website design as a career?
So what’s website design like? (in Studio Cotton at least)
Studio Cotton is a great place. Great location; great people; as of this moment, slightly-less-great interior; hence when I saw that not only would I get to do website design for work-experience (the exact thing I was hoping for), but also get to do it with a nice-looking team in Bristol, I was absolutely thrilled.
I can say now, both website design as a subject and the team went waaay above my expectations, and thanks to that said team, I got a really good idea of just how busy everyone was.
As said in the intro, it’s quite dependent on what part of website design you’re doing, but regardless, I can give some common aspects that go on in a daily routine (biscuit-munching is included).
Regardless of which job you go for, I can guarantee you’ll already find excitement; whether it’s Alex’s focus on technical things – I’m still fascinated, Lyzi’s magic with conjuring blogs (I ever-hope this lives up to her standard), Jodie’s amazing control over all things admin and organisation, and of course, Aime’s superbness with websites and… well, everything.
However, on top of that, due to the amount of meetings and variation in tasks I’ve seen at Studio Cotton: you cannot get bored. All of them won’t just stick to doing the same thing over, and over again, with second-opinions, idea-creating and commands to get coffee being frequently interchanged with their regular jobs (which are still great to be honest), leading to quite a busy yet unpredictable routine that’ll be sure to keep you on tiptoe.
Now I hear the critics already, “you’ve only spent 1 week there, which they definitely spiced up just for you”, and my response is already there: even if there weren’t the frequent changes, you’ve still got that mix of friendly, co-operative clients and the more bossy ones, which will always keep you on your toes (nicely though).
If you want to have an exciting job (even more so at Studio Cotton), website design is definitely for you.
I’m all ears – how do I get this snazzy-sounding job?
Ok – you’re on board! Now the journey to get there… As a student, I’ve had my fair share of future-life-crises, and of course the plans of how to get all of those jobs are always present in my mind (I’m talking to you, childhood dreams).
Website design was one of the things I hadn’t thought about too much in all honesty, but now, after having 4 days solely thinking about it, a pretty simplified plan (for a student) has gradually formed, which I shall tell you now.
Firstly, although academic subjects are good, from what I’ve gathered, unless you go down the more technical route of website design, it comes down to how good you are with people, with being creative, and using good software like WordPress.
Of course, all of these can come with getting an apprenticeship – along with that sweet, sweet money – but can also be found by pursuing marketing, human relations and anything creative (cuz its all good talking-the-talk, but if you don’t actually have any ideas, you can’t walk-the-walk).
From there, obviously apply for cool jobs at cool offices (like Studio Cotton) and wa-pow! you’re a website designer.
Tell me why! (ain’t nothin’ but a…)
If you’re a young student like me, I could almost bet my laptop that the first thought of why boiled down to one thing: money.
I’ll tell you all about that, but let me emphasise something first, surrounded by people who do this job every working day (and I’m sure you could get this from any adult too), I’ve gathered a sense of purpose is equally, if not more, valuable.
In case you couldn’t tell, Studio Cotton charges at a quite-frankly cheap rate for the amount of effort and detail they put into every single project – reflected in everything they’ve done – I kid you not, try and find a single bad website made by them.
They don’t just do that because they’re insanely coo- no, wait, they do just do that because they are insanely cool. Also they get the bonus of all those lovely thank yous and relationships (because it’s all about the friends we made along the way).
Based on the averages of most website design jobs in England, you should expect to earn around £30,000+ per year on top of that job satisfaction – now how’s that for motivation.
Is the writer being paid to say all this?
I wish, but this information is all genuine and honest (though the chicken n’ bacon waffles they bought for me could be a subtle bribe).
If I didn’t already have a clear path of what I want to do (shoutout to you again, childhood dream), I would definitely go for website design as a job, and try even harder to get one with Studio Cotton!
If you’re ever applying for a job there, ULTRA-TIP: have amazing vibes, a great, honest CV, and the glory will follow – all of this information just from a single work experience week (love the 4 day work schedule btw), so just imagine what valuable information you could get if you worked there.
One more thing from me, stop procrastinating, do a long hard think, and start doing.
