In the beginning…I used to be a bill collector. Not the kind that came around your house with a bat, the kind that would call you with feigned interest to collect your past due payment. In between calls I would be dissecting sites code with the inspector while changing styles out with CSS. Later I used these abilities to cheat on “work” tests that were coded poorly showing the answers within the HTML or inline javascript. Learning to code was fun.
I’m a graduate of the Art Institute International of Minnesota. I learned a bit of design, developing sites and even learn how to build a Flash site, remember Flash. Anyway, my path lead me to small education company called Total Higher Education or T.H.E. located in St. Paul, MN. At T.H.E. I developed learning modules out of Flash and standard HTML using ASP.net.
Eventually I would make my way to Clockwork located in Minneapolis (MPLS). If you haven’t seen this location yet, you should check it out here. Working at Clockwork was my first real introduction of “agency” life. There were (and still are) the most brilliant individuals that worked there. I was very fortunately to be able to work there for nearly seven years. At Clockwork, I was able to learn more PHP and develop my JavaScript skills more. Building promotion sites for U.S. Bank, Coca-Cola and Duracell to name a few. Then I was introduced to building an “accessible” website using the Drupal CMS (content management system). Developing the site and testing with VoiceOver was initially difficult, but with web development you are always learning (growing). This lead me to learn semantic code building and the importance of using “native code” – whenever possible.