I was lucky enough not only to be invited to FOWD through my recent placement at Carsonified (both of which were awesome, of course), but also to be able to hunt down both Keir and Dan for some interview questions.
On Industry:
Firstly, what’s the best way to market/get known as a newcomer to the industry?
Keir:
- Go to local networking events outside of the web world, i.e. local business groups and become known as the local “go to” web guy/expert
- Go to web meetups and networking events, the more you go to the more people will know you
- Write regularly on your own site and other sites
- Discover your niche, be it CSS3, working with clients, HTML5, WordPress and shout about it. It’s amazing how quickly people will associate that niche with you (Think Andy Clarke, Jeremy Keith etc)
- Comment on other people’s blogs and in forums
- Tweet interesting links
- Put on your own free local web meetup
- Write to people you admire and ask to meet them, it’s amazing how often it works and what you can learn
Dan: Participation in the community — people can tell the difference between selfish and selfless behavior, so contributing information and examples of high quality and value without expecting anything in return is the best way to get your name recognized for good things. The same goes for Twitter, etc.