MarcAmos.com

In the first quarter of 2004 I was employed as a truck driver for Moynihan Lumber in Beverly, Massachusetts. My job was to deliver new doors, windows, and lumber to contractors and homeowners in the process of remodeling or building a home in the Eastern Massachusetts area.

I would arrive at the warehouse at 7 a.m., fill up a 24′ box truck with the first round of orders, and be out on the road making deliveries by 9 a.m. Shortly after lunch I would come back to the warehouse with an empty truck and fill it up with a second round of orders. By about 5 p.m., that second round of orders would be delivered and I would go home.

Lets go back in time some more, all the way back to 1999.

I was twenty years old, working as a home audio salesman at Circuit City in Danvers, MA, not having any idea what I wanted to do with my career. I did know, as most people do in that situation, that retail work was only to keep my bills paid until I figured out what I really wanted to do. Two years later, in 2001, I left Circuit City after a disagreement with the manager about the fact that I wasn’t selling enough extended warranties to satisfy some previously unmentioned quota.

A bit too quickly, I become a car salesman at a Mitsubishi dealership in Danvers, MA. It was there, amongst the bullshit and cutthroat competition of selling cars, that a coworker told me he wanted to leave the auto sales industry and take some college courses to eventually get into web design and development. Like me, he was there to earn some money to pay his bills and knew he wasn’t long for the line of work we were in. This was 2001, not very long after the ‘dot com bubble’ had burst and I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t immediately think to myself, “Good luck dude.”

There must have been a spark of interest created in me, though, because a few days later I found myself asking him questions like, “Where are you going to learn? How much does the course cost?” He told me of a certificate course that was being offered at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell campus that he intended to sign up for in the coming weeks. If I remember correctly, it was a six-class course, each class cost about $550.00, and it was held only once a week from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Knowing that I was the world’s worst salesman and retail just wasn’t a good fit for me, I told him that I was going to sign up as well and asked if he would mind if I tagged along. I wasn’t entirely convinced I wanted to get into the web design and development industry, or that I would ever be any good at it, and I didn’t even know if I could afford the classes, but it just felt like something new and exciting to try. Nearly anything would have been better than selling cars.

A few weeks later I was sitting in a classroom learning how to create website mockups using Photoshop (I think it was version 5.5 at the time). Soon after, we were taught how to use ImageReady and FrontPage to turn our mockups into code that could be interpreted by a web browser. We were shown how to use the WYSIWYG functions in FrontPage and were given a very brief introduction to the code that was being written by it. Almost right away, and much too soon in my opinion, we were whisked away from FrontPage and introduced to Flash with all of its confusing functions, timelines, animations, etc.

I found myself thinking, There’s definitely more to that FrontPage thing and the code it produces…

When I was home I spent quite a bit of time playing with both Photoshop and FrontPage, learning more about what was possible, searching for inspiration in other websites, looking at the source code of the few inspiring sites I was able to find, and attempting to mimic the designs and code I believed to be great.

I was really enjoying web design and development so I quickly found some free hosting and started making my very first personal website.

Because my boss at the auto dealership called me “an asshole” to my face after not selling a particular car to particular people, I strolled out of the car dealership four months after starting there and began the hunt for another job. I was still taking the course and continued to spend quite a bit of time at home learning all that I could, and there were bills to pay. I was so very far from being good enough at web design and development to get a job in the industry, so I looked for another retail job.

Over the next couple of years (2002–2004) I was an assistant manager at a Sprint mobile phone store, a high-end audio/video salesman at Tweeter, and a truck driver for Moynihan Lumber. All the while I was spending my free time immersed in web design and front-end markup. I had long since learned that FrontPage was merely a stepping-stone and not the right web development tool for me if my intention was to get any better. I made numerous revisions to my own personal website and constantly asked for reviews in industry related web forums. The feedback was often harsh and critical but I thrived on the constructive criticism that really helped me to improve. It was that criticism and my strong desire to gain employment in the industry that I credit with the greatest advancement in my skill, knowledge, and development methods.

The courses I took at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell were a launching pad into the real world of learning proper web design and development. In hindsight, I can confidently say that I learned only a fraction of what I now know when I took those courses, but I owe it to them for getting me started on the path I’m still walking nearly seven years later. If it wasn’t for the very basic lessons I learned at the University, I’d probably still be in a retail job somewhere.

It was also in this time frame, specifically in 2003, that I met the woman who I would later ask to spend the rest of her life with me, Sharon. Sharon was, and still is, so very supportive of my involvement in the web industry. Way back then, and even now, she knows that there are times when I need to geek-out on the computer for a large portion of the night. She’s been the best geek’s girlfriend/wife ever and I only wish I met her sooner than 2003.

In the latter half of 2003 I started getting requests from friends and family asking if I would make them a web site for their small business. A few years had passed since I began learning about web design and development and I was somewhat decent at making a basic brochure site, so I happily agreed to help.

I would often work for free or charge a measly $15.00–$25.00 per hour, depending on my relationship with the person, but rarely did I make any money worth singing about. I was happy to be helping my friends and family and I was extremely happy to be creating websites that would eventually be in my portfolio. Around this time, I knew without an iota of doubt that this was what I wanted to do for a living. Time had passed, I enjoyed designing and developing web sites, I was getting decent at it, I was driving a truck for Moynihan Lumber and I was tired of it, so I finally created a portfolio to showcase the work I had done.

I had spent the past year (2003–2004) creating small websites for family, friends, and even a few folks with whom I had no previous relationship who had heard about me through word of mouth. Finally, in the first quarter of 2004, I decided that I was done driving a truck and it was time to make an attempt at gaining employment in the web industry. Four years had passed since I first started learning about web design and development and I felt I was good enough to gain amateur-level employment. I only needed an employer who would look at my portfolio and not the job history in my résumé.

I began my search. I looked through the local newspaper, Monster.com, Careerpath.com, craigslist.org, and any other job search resources I could find. It didn’t take very long to find a few potential opportunities from craigslist.org, but the rest of the resources I used were a complete waste of time.

I ended up getting my very first web design and development job at a company named Better Budget Financial Services in Beverly, MA. I was hired to be their in-house designer/developer for the handful of websites they owned. I redesigned a couple of their websites, wrote all of the new code by hand, and got my first taste of browser discrepancies with IE6 and Firefox being the main contenders. I was happily employed there for ten months until, rather abruptly, the company was shut down by the FTC (It’s an amazing story).

Going from blissful to unemployed in a few hours one afternoon was a bit of a shock as you might imagine. I was under the impression that my short time spent at Better Budget Financial Services wasn’t enough to guarantee me a job somewhere else based solely on my history, so I felt screwed and really nervous. I was positive that I could find another odd job and the bills would continue to be paid, but I didn’t want to resort to retail work again. I looked for a new web design/development job for only about a week before I decided, quite blindly and daringly, that I would attempt to start my own business and employ myself as a bona-fide freelancer.

Oh damn.

It was early January, 2005, and I filled out some paperwork with the city of Peabody, where I lived at the time, opened a business checking account with my bank, rented a post office box, filed more paperwork to register a trademark, and started my own one-man freelancing business called Boston Web Studio.

It was a bold decision filled with question marks and thoughts such as I must be crazy, and Yes, I am crazy, but Sharon supported my idea and I didn’t have much to lose… well, just my apartment, my car and my bike.

I became a hunter, looking for work and telling everyone I knew that I was available to make websites for them and anyone they knew. I designed the best looking business site I could muster up at the time, I ordered business cards, I had a local shop make magnetic signs for my car, I had stickers made… the works. If it was an affordable way to market myself, I did it. I went back to old faithful, craigslist.org, and posted weekly messages advertising my services and as a result, I received a couple inquiries from prospective clients. One in particular turned into a real project.

Luckily for me it was a huge project, a redesign of a 600+ page bridal website. The client was wonderful and very receptive to my ideas. She left the design mostly up to me and was always available when I needed her. Truly, I couldn’t have asked for a better project to start with. It was a real success and the project kept me employed and the bills paid for about six months. I was a freelancer, I was my own boss, and I was really happy. Only a year and a half earlier, I was a truck driver.

Shortly before that project came to an end I started to look for more work and I quickly learned that my beginner’s luck had run out. I spent about a month advertising my services in craigslist.org again; telling family and friends of my availability; I went around to local area businesses soliciting my services, I posted in web sites meant to help freelancers find work… nothing came of any of it. In addition to all of this, I was remembering that I had no health insurance. While I’ve always been a healthy guy, my family and my own conscience were telling me it was foolish to continue going on without it.

Shit, I needed to find another full-time job again.

Fortunately, I quickly landed a job right in my own town and was given the role of Manager for the company’s small web design and development department. It was said that the experience I gained running my own business, even if for only six or seven months, was something they saw as a big asset and believed I’d be good management material. I didn’t agree, but I needed the job and this one was in the right industry and not far from my home. Admittedly, while I didn’t think I would make a good manager, I did welcome the chance to try being one. I considered it a crash-course in management and hoped to learn something valuable from it. I’m a big believer of learning from hands-on experience and this was a great opportunity to do just that.

During my employment with the company, I continued to freelance in the evenings and on the weekends as projects crossed my radar. I had no intentions of shutting down Boston Web Studio and still wanted to build it up to a point where I could go back to self-employment some day, but this time more comfortably and with less risk. I wasn’t actively seeking new freelance work anymore, since I was employed, but I was occasionally asked if I would take on small projects and I was fortunate enough to be picky with what I accepted.

It was in this time period, specifically in February of 2006, that I asked Sharon to marry me. I was employed in an industry that I loved, the money was sufficient, I was able to save up for a beautiful engagement ring, and Sharon and I had been dating for almost three years. Our relationship was great and our own lives were going well, so I had no doubt in my mind that it was time.

On February 14th, she said, “Yes.”

At my full-time job, I had a great time being a manager and was lucky to have four really fun, receptive, and eager coworkers to geek-out with. We all learned quite a bit about design and development from each other and I certainly learned a good amount of management skills. Due to disagreements with my superior and the way projects were handled above my position on the company totem pole, I left about eight months after I was hired.

This brings us to March of 2006. I was engaged to Sharon, I was still freelancing in the evenings and on the weekends with Boston Web Studio, and I came to another fork in my career road. Do I look for another full time job at an agency or do I make a second attempt at freelancing full-time? Since I hadn’t spent much time and energy growing Boston Web Studio, at least to a point where it could comfortably support me, I decided that I’d play it safe and look for a regular full-time agency job again.

On March 29th, 2006, I accepted a front-end developer position at a different Salem-based agency that made a mixture of brochure and web application sites for a handful of well-known clients. As of this writing, I am still employed there today.

With this company I’ve been able to experience, and learn from, a much larger range of tasks, project types, and cooperative experience with coworkers of a higher caliber than I was previously used to. I’ve also been fortunate enough to be sent to a couple of incredible conferences that further fueled my passion for standards, user-experience design, markup, CSS, and more. It has been the time spent working with this company that I have grown the most; both in professional-level knowledge and skill, and in my appreciation for this beautiful craft that is user-experience design, markup, and style.

Lately I’ve wondered if I will ever take the leap and become a full-time freelancer again. I do believe I have a good amount of experience, history, and the right type of foundation laid with Boston Web Studio in order to do it. I also feel that now, more than ever before, I have the right people in my network to find a fair amount of work to keep me going. My wonderful marriage to Sharon is nearly capable of supporting such a change in my career since we don’t have any children, yet, we aren’t tied down with a mortgage, yet, and her income is slowly becoming one that eases the risk and burden we’ll face in the inevitable down times that face all freelancers. Preparing for, and dealing with, the feast or famine challenges that I would encounter is the only thing keeping me from making that transition today.

Only time will tell.