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Observation from outside the box. When did that all happen?
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 4:57 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Here I am, almost 11pm, working on *my own time* unpaid purely out of choice. I just sat back in my chair for a minute and while I was admiring my work and it just occurred to me...
"How the hell did I get where I am today?"
I don't mean that in a "I shouldn't be here" sense. It's just that basically, a couple of years ago I decided to make a website for a bit of fun.... suddenly I found myself learning PHP out of neccessity, which I absolutely loved. No qualifications... purely self taught... educated in Chemistry, not Computing. Yet here I am working full-time on a HUGE project.
And it never dawned on me.... I've arrived here because of something that was purely, and still is, a hobby... nothing more. I guess it all just happened that fast that it's never really sunk in until now
I'm going to hazard a guess that there's plenty of people out there in the same boat as me. I'm curious... who else has travelled a similar path to me?
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:02 pm
by John Cartwright
I started making website for clans I belonged too.. which was the reason I joined this board a couple years ago. I would have never imagined seeing myself in this position a couple years back.. intriguing...
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:56 pm
by imstupid
I started out as an oil painter/guitar/cello player. Got a BFA in Graphic Design and became an art director of a few magazines. Much like d11wtq, started learning web design because I was bored. Now, I spent all day today working on a trouble ticket system for employees of a company that pulls in 150M USD/year... of which I am the only web guy. Wow, that's almost sad in a way when I think about it... I stink at web design.
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:10 pm
by josh
Been making websites in HTML all my life, decided a few years ago it was time to spice it up, plus I was sick of using hit counters with ads on them etc... learned to make my own web sites in PHP, did projects for friends and family after they saw my work, then it pretty much took off from there.
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 8:40 pm
by Charles256
you know. I know exactly what ya mean my friend.. I started out wanting to make an onlnie game. That has been my goal the entire time, to make the game to end all games. Just because I think that highly of myself

So, I've been workingon that for the longest time, been learning everything I need, and I'm finally working on my goal, five years later. Man....The things I've learned..the career I've picked.....odd...
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:20 pm
by neophyte
I started out wanting to be an illustrator for life. Hated computers, hated them!
Sit in front of one 90% of my day.
HA!

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:05 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
I was at University helping create a few charity websites, and managing several unix servers. Got tired of the static pages, looked around on the internet and discovered PHP3. Been hopping around ever since...

Outside private work most of my public work is primarily a hobby in open source game development with PHP.
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:08 am
by JayBird
When i was 15, my best friend at the time created a website...and not wanting to be outdone, i tried to do one too (it was rubbish)
I'd always thought i was going to be a designer and followed that route through school and college becuase back then, there were no course that suited the "web design/dev" career.
When looking for graphic design courses before going to university i came accross a course called BA(hons) Multimedia and Virtual Reality Design...which sound pretty cool, so i went for that.
Completed my first year and decided i hate University, but i went back and started my second year. I cam home one weekend and my dad put the local paper in front of me and said "why dont you apply for that job". It was for a graphic/web designer. I applied without even thinking about it to get him off my back....needless to say i got the job.
That was 5 years ago...i am now the Senior Web Developer and number 4 in the company.
My job is pretty cool becuase i the company i work for is a Design & Advertising Agency...so i still get to do various design projects if i want a change.
Hmnmmm.....now ive typed all that...think i was kind of lucky....or just plain brilliant

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 5:21 am
by shiznatix
sold my soul to the devil for the position i am in. guess i should have asked for more huh?
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 5:51 am
by Skittlewidth
shiznatix wrote:sold my soul to the devil for the position i am in. guess i should have asked for more huh?
Been feeling that way myself lately. Happy with the work I'm doing but feel completely undervalued.

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:05 am
by nickman013
I had a half life server, I made websites for that. Didnt even know what PHP was. So I didnt look into it.
Then I had to build a website for my friends dad, and he had huge contact forms, for like auto insurance, health, pages!
So I was looking how to get them to send to email. I searched for hours and hours, and then I found this website.
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:07 am
by Grim...
I used to be a software tester, but the company had no bug-tracking software, so I got a PHP book and wrote some.
Three years later I'm writing PHP metatools in a new company.
Wicked

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:12 am
by m3mn0n
It's always pleasant to look at things from an outside perspective in a sort of autobiographical way and see how you've come along.

Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:40 am
by Moocat
I ate a bite of Gum Gum fruit and turned into a internet obsessed coder. Boy did I get I screwed.
(you watch too much anime if you get the reference :p)
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:34 pm
by Deemo
i am in the same position as you d11
I started programming in PHP because I wanted to code for an online RPG in my spare time. The RPG never really got off the ground, but i learned PHP, and now I work at a small business writing web applications for them to sell to clients. All because I was bored and decided to go to Barnes and Nobles to buy some books on PHP...