Unintentionally Blank

Unintentionally this blog has become a chronicle of not only my thoughts and feelings on web standards but also of my journey through my career in the same field. In September 2006 I got my first job, a temporary role in the civil service that got me out of the house, but onto a hellish commute. I moved to London shortly after and then in July last year I moved into web development, starting work with VYRE.

Once again things have changed. A couple of months ago I spotted an exciting job opportunity in an advert in the sidebar of a blog. Had I not seen it, not read it, I would still be working with VYRE. However, fate had some hand in things and after reading more deeply into the offering I decided this was to be my next step. I applied and, after the interview process and my notice period, I started on Monday.

What Now?

I continue as a front end developer, but now, instead of working with VYRE’s Unify CMS framework, I will be developing with the open source Ruby on Rails. I will be working for Mint Digital who do all sorts of interesting stuff trying to bridge the gap between new media and old.

So over the last three days I’ve been learning a whole lot of stuff really quickly, installing Ruby and Rails, getting to grips with Subversion for the first time as well as familiarising myself with the OS X terminal. All along while trying to pick up as much Ruby knowledge as possible, mainly from Why’s bizarre, sorry, poignant guide to Ruby.

It’s an exciting time as I embark on this new venture. Things may slow down here for a while as I am reading a lot and taking a lot in at the moment, but they will pick up again (you may even see a couple of extra categories pop up, Ruby and Rails perhaps, we’ll see). I was also redesigning, but that might have to wait too (only because an even better design just popped into my head this evening).

It’s been an interesting journey on this blog so far and I still think things are just beginning. Let’s see what happens next.

I have left my job!

It might seem sudden, but it is the right thing to do for me. Why? Because I have another job!

For the last 9 months, I have been working for the Land Registry. Nearly 10 months ago, I was surprised and delighted to have got my first job, regardless of what it was actually doing. It was money, experience and it got me out of the house. I commuted for the first month, but couldn’t stand it. I moved into London and have been reasonably happy since.

Continue reading “The End Of One Good Thing And The Start Of Something Really Special” »

I did not complete the 36 questions posed by A List Apart in the first Web Design survey. While I considered it and even started it once, I didn’t finish it. I wanted to, but I wouldn’t have felt right if I had.

Why not? Because I am not a designer, developer, project manager, writer, editor, information architect or usability specialist… yet. In fact, there was absolutely no mention of support desk worker for an implementation of SAP HR or HR analyst, as I like to call myself, though I can’t say I’m surprised!

Web development is currently a hobby for me, a past-time I really enjoy. Creating my own sites or code is great as is helping other people too. Blogging sits on top of that as a way of interacting, getting my code, my thoughts, my opinions out there for anyone to read and it drives me on. Nothing drives me as much as the thought of working and being a true part of this profession though and the positive feedback and growing traffic I am receiving here serves to boost me everyday.

I am in the market for a new job now, if you have any tips on getting into web development professionally, I would love to hear from you. I’ve had a couple of interviews so far and things are going reasonably well, but every little helps.

Who knows (and I’m keeping my fingers crossed), this time next year maybe I will be taking the survey. In the meantime, I eagerly await the results to see what sort of an industry I am trying to get into.

I don’t have the best job in the world, I’m not currently employed in something I wish to do for very much longer, but every day I spend there gives me more experience, makes me understand business a little better and makes me worth just that little bit more to my next employer. The other day I took a big step up.

Most of my day is spent solving problems. We have a new human resources system with a load of problems (mostly user error, but I’m not going into that right now) and my job, along with the rest of the team is to fix these problems, improve the system and eventually realise a project that has been ongoing for a number of years now. Basically, I am part of a help desk, so I now know about things like Service Level Agreements and occasionally hear about change management. Most of it goes over my head and I continue to work away at the problems suffered by individuals or groups using the system. Until this week that is.

Continue reading “Responsibility And A Step Up The Working Ladder” »

There is something soul destroying about the daily routine of a commuter; waking up at 6:15am every morning, getting on a train at 7:16, arriving in London at 8:30, squeezing onto an underground train and clocking in at work by just after 9. Nearly 3 hours to get from bed to desk, but the worst is yet to come. Leaving work at 5, squeezing back onto the tube, catching the 17:58 train (which you have to board 20 minutes before it’s departure time, just in order to get a seat) and arriving home around 20 past 7. 4 hours of travel a day, for 7 hours of work. I always believed that commuting would be hell and wasn’t the way I was going to spend my free time during my working life. I was right, but at least I know the truth from my own experience now.

Continue reading “Commuting - Not A Way Of Life” »