It's ok to produce crap
In a wonderful world web developers would be able to create websites exactly how they wanted. They could use semantic markup, define their own css naming conventions and even have graceful unobtrusive javascript using our latest javascript libraries. But most of the time we have to produce crap.
Many projects that I have worked on have had very tight time constraints, I've had to deal with thousands of lines of messy code and have spent days on end producing hack fixes to get a project done within the deadline. In these circumstances we have to let go of all we know and just get the job done.
Using the !important keyword, using target="_blank", dealing with tags such as font and small, having a bunch of global variables, creating a large number of mysql statements instead of a single well constructed one, these are all situations which we can avoid whilst building our own projects. So if we have to produce crap all time, how do we produce good work? What you should do is create your own website or work on a website where you can refine your skills, produce your best work and you will be a better web developer for it.
Working for companies with strict deadlines will also make you a better web developer. You will create new hack ways of fixing things, you will cut corners and push yourself to finish efficiently. It may not be polished work, but that's just how things are. Move on and keep working on the projects that matter like your very own website.
