I have wanted to get into web development for the last year (went to CIW school), but have had a hard time finding a job. I've studied Chinese and am considering going to Taiwan to get fluent, in the hope that this will help matters. The word for web dev is pretty discouraging around here, as in many places after recent events. Am I wrong in thinking that I'll be able to get a job after I get certified? Is internationalization really as important as I've read? Do I need to learn Unicode? What software do I need to know to do this?

my personnal advice is that the only way to become a real good web developper is .... to develop real web sites ! code code code and code - do as many sites as you can, for friends, for small companies you know, for yourself ... this will give you something real to show to potential employeers - kind of a portfolio. What's more, while making web sites, you might meet people - contact that might hire you later on. And, final touch, is that you'll learn better and deeper about all web-languages, and also see which ones are important to learn, which ones are arising, which ones are getting obsoletes ...
Whereas a certificate shows that you learnt something, but not that you know how to use it - and i've seen more good web developper without any certification than with certification. And it's about only one technology, but while working you'll realize that often you need many technologies together.
Then again, this is my personnal advice, and also, i'm not from the states - and i guess the market is totally different here in europe than in the states or in taiwan ...

Thanks. That sounds like pretty solid advice, to me. Actually, within the last week, I've talked to a couple of small-business owners ( a video store and a small recording studio), that I can start with. Incidentally, Europe is a consideration for me, at some point, too. I've studied Spanish, German, and Italian, too. I guess I need to get going on developing these two sites. I don't have much in the way of tools, but, I'll just do what I can with code and probably find some free JavaScript on the web, just to get them going. Get a CSS going and go. Thanks for the good insight.

read those ones : Thread656-78077 - Thread656-78448 - Thread253-91223 - they'll give you another point of vue