I didn't even own a computer in 1998. I was 16 years old and I learned HTML at my friends house on his Gateway PC in the afternoons after school. You know... making websites on Geocities that contained things like our favorite video games. Framesets, anchor links, gifs. A brand new world to me. I instantly knew this is what I wanted to do.
I graduated High School this year and shortly after, I met a guy who took me on to do a summer's worth of work for a service called teetimes.com. I was creating and updating static web pages and I met a lot of key individuals that I would later work with down the line.
Fast track a couple of years later and the same guy gets me hired FT where he works. This place is called Reynolds Web Solutions and makes websites for auto dealers and OEMs. I'm the youngest of the group and learn a lot about business, life, responsibility, and of course...web practices.
RWS was undergoing major change and I felt like it was a good time to move on. 8 months later, they shuttered our office. I went to work with some old friends from earlier years at a place called Channel Blade which made websites for dealers and OEMs in the recreational industry (Boats / RVs / PowerSports).
A large company called ARI purchases Channel Blade and I stay on - as the lone web guy for about a year, working my tail off and making my name known.
People are starting to recognize my abilities and value and I get promoted to Manager of Creative Services. I'm now leading a team of 5 and we are responsible for all front end web work across multiple, proprietary CMS platforms. I would go on to receive many peer-driven awards and even earn the President's Award in 2011.
While at Channel Blade, I met and worked with the guys who created Gravity Forms. While I liked what I was doing at ARI, I wanted to work with my friends. So they took me on as a Support Specialist for Gravity Forms, a WordPress forms plugin.
After the birth of our daughter in late 2015, I realized I needed a change in my work life. I reached out to the CEO of ARI at the time and asked if I could come back and they welcomed me with open arms as a Front End Engineer/Senior Product Designer. My tasks would include all of the front end design and code for our eCatalog products.
After my mother passed in 2019, I started taking on more responsibilities with my elderly father and decided to try to find some supplemental income. I was fortunate enough to land at LearnDash, a WordPress plugin - as a Support Lead.
Provided technical support for this WordPress plugin.