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:D
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_/ \_Why you may ask? Well.... I've got myself my first serious development job! Y
Not only will I be paid to write PHP on a full-time basis but the position is [s]very[/s] seriously good. I mean serious. Are you smiling? STOP IT! I'm trying to be serious here god-dammit >_<!
OK, check this, I've been doing freelance work on and off for about a year with this a video production company. They employ about 16 people and their major clients include BP (for a couple of years) and Castrol (more than ten years). I've had the pleasure, previously, of slapping nice BP logos on sites I've done for them. Chris and Nick chair the company in partnership and they do a really good job. The atmosphere is relaxed but motivated, they told me about how they ensure things are managed to people don't have to work "stressy hours", they are always concerned with improving practises within the business and they are honest and ethical.
Previously when anything web related that they needed to be done somebody around this office would handle it. A lot of them have the standard 90s HTML knowledge. Nobody knows a [s]word[/s] token of PHP so nothing could be automated. Although I was around as a freelancer I tended to be a little be a little bit, ok, a lottle bit, inaccessible. What with failing to write OsisForms and basically spending six months of my life learning OO and TDD.
Anyway the corporate video production world is changing. No longer do companies have 1000s of DVDs produced and distributed within the company. Oh noooo! Now they want smart websites that do the distribution, cheaper, faster and more reliably. Not only this but people are starting to offer complete media front-ends that integrate corporate knowledge in a very powerful way with video, photos, articles, blogs, linked resources and community generated content. My company (ooh I can say that now
Soo... that's my job! I am the only, lead, developer responsible for taking the company in a new direction. I get the best of both employment and self-employment. I can choose to use agile development without an ill-informed manager breathing down my necking telling me I'm wasting time writing unit tests and I'm in a workplace with cool people!
For a position like that you might think I'm going to be earning BIG bucks but its actually quite moderate. Don't get me wrong is pretty damn good for a 21 year old but I'm going to be on a 6 month contract after which, as long as I have been successful, I'll be able to call the shots.
All this, I'm sorry to say, will probably have implications on my level of contribution here at DevNet. True to form every time I pop in with a problem of my own I'll help some others where I can but I probably won't be as prolific.