Decoding HTML

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to test out a few programs I had been meaning to play around with for a while.

The first program was Codecademy, an online platform that offers free (free!) coding classes in twelve different programming languages. Having just started working with HTML and CSS, I’ve found that I am weirdly hooked. There is something immensely satisfying about typing a random jumble of letters across the screen and seeing it manifest itself as images and stylized text in the results window. Not to mention it makes me feel like I’m in a spy movie. As part of my digital marketing class this quarter, we were assigned to move through Codecademy lessons for two hours and document where we started and ended. For obligatory proof, see below. 

Some people may be wondering why coding has been assigned in a marketing class, albeit a digital marketing class. Despite the obvious reason that it will improve communication between the marketing and tech departments, it has also become important because there is an increasing demand for something called a full-stack marketer. Just like the more well known full-stack engineers, these types of marketers are expected to essentially have a background in everything. It is no longer sufficient to simply be an expert in one particular area. Marketing graduates are expected to have a preliminary understanding of everything from coding, to SEO, to analytics. Understanding how to code can put you one step ahead of the competition and help better your chances of securing a job.

As a marketing major, I've had to reconcile myself to the fact that simply having a diploma will not be adequate if I hope to land a job in a related field right out of college. Luckily, as a fan and advocate of life-long learning, discovering that I would need to do a lot of work on my own time turned out to be exciting rather than cumbersome. Still, reading through the numerous lists of skills that marketing graduates should have by the time they’re throwing their caps into the air can be overwhelming. If you haven't yet, a good place to start would be Wade Foster's blog post on the twenty-one skills it takes to become a full-stack marketer. It would also be useful to look into the type of job you're aiming for and analyze what kinds of skills are recommended for that job area or industry. Take one skill at a time and begin consistently working your way through these lists. By the time you graduate, you'll have an impressive resumé and a greater array of tools at your disposal.

Before moving on, I did want to remark upon my experience with Codecademy for anyone interested in trying it out. As stated above, I actually got kind of hooked. To me, it almost feels like you're playing a game and, ever the competitor, that easily sucked me in. The lessons are clear and concise. They tackle things in groups, which makes it easier to remember the coding language as you progress. While moving through the modules, it may be useful to take notes in a separate window on any tags you struggle to remember. This way, you can refer back to them and continue to study after logging out of your Codecademy account. My biggest piece of advice for anyone looking to try it out is to just start. I had been meaning to try this program for nearly two years, but it took a class assignment to finally force me into trying it. So many times, people avoid starting something because they worry about not finishing. Don't worry about the end. Just begin. You'll get there eventually.

The second program I tested out this weekend was Squarespace. I’ll admit to not knowing what the difference between Squarespace and Foursquare was until approximately two days ago. For those of you who are too scared to ask anyone, Foursquare gives you suggestions on things to do and places to eat in the city you’re in. Squarespace, on the other hand, is a website hosting platform (you're welcome.) In addition to hosting websites, Squarespace also offers website-building services and acts as a blogging platform.

As part of my digital marketing class, I took thirty minutes and experimented with Squarespace, testing out some different templates and styles. Thirty minutes quickly turned into an hour as I got caught up in adding more detail and wildly over-thinking my e-commerce site's name. Long story short, my roommate had to intervene, and I still have a list of edits I want to make. What I was able to accomplish can be seen in the following screenshots.*

*I do not own any of the images that were used in the creation of this "store." These images were downloaded and utilized as a purely academic exercise.

While creating the store was a lot of fun (I love this kind of thing), I would definitely need to spend more time familiarizing myself with Squarespace. The platform itself is fairly intuitive, but the free version is somewhat restrictive. As I was creating this demo website, I found it difficult to alter the layout and design of each page and was often forced to conform to whatever was pre-established by the template. While some of these limitations were frustrating, I do believe this is a good platform for those business owners who are looking for a clean, professional-looking site design that does not require you to have any coding or design expertise (i.e. you won't need Codecademy.) Should you want to customize your site beyond the options that Squarespace provides, the platform does allow users to input custom code to further personalize their online storefront (but you’ll need Codecademy.)

Again, it’s important to just get started. Pick one skill at a time and devote a little bit of each day to learning. Before you know it, you'll have a greater understanding of all those programs you thought you'd never get around to, and you'll be well on your way to securing the job of your dreams. Cheers to learning.