Tell us a little about yourself and your experience.
I moved here from Portland, Oregon.
What drove you to choose your career path?
That’s where I learned that I really liked working on a computer.
The satisfaction of making something and seeing it right front of you was really gratifying to me.
Afterwards, I was looking to learn more.
I went to the Art institute of Portland Oregon, and got my degree in web design and multimedia.
Everyone at that school was creative.
How did you go about getting your job?
What kind of education and experience did you need?
I came across an interactive design agency who was looking to hire a developer.
I stood out because I was awake!
I worked at an interactive agency at Portland for five and half years as a web developer.
I developed a lot of websites, email campaigns, e-commerce sites, everything.
I came to San Francisco to visit a friend, and fell in love with the city.
In terms of education, I’m a front-end web developer.
I took all kinds of classesfrom coding to design and figured out where my niche was.
Really though, for a front-end developer, you don’t need a degree.
Your work kind of shows how much you know.
A lot of people these days are self-taught, and there’s tons of online resources now.
One important skill is that I’m a normal person that can have a conversation.
What kinds of things do you do beyond what most people see?
What do you actually spend the majority of your time doing?
A lot of the times here at Jobvite, more than developing, I’m consulting.
Lots of our customers look to us for guidance and the ideas to develop their own career pages.
I need them to tell me what they want so that what we deliver meets their expectations.
A big, big part of my time is spent prepping.
What misconceptions do people often have about your job?
A lot of people think that I design.
I have to explain them that we don’t design, we develop.
We take what you’re looking for, and we develop it for you.
What are your average work hours?
Right now, we’re a little short-staffed, so it’s been tough.
Typically it’s about 8-9 hour days, 40-50 hour weeks.
So it comes in waves.
What personal tips and shortcuts have made your job easier?
Being organized has helped me keep things from falling through the cracks.
I get a ton of emails, so it’s important to keep my email inbox very structured.
I’m a big to-do list writer.
I’m also a multitasker, so I tend to do 10 things at once.
That works for me, but it might now work for everyone.
What do you do differently from your coworkers or peers in the same profession?
What do they do instead?
I’m the lead developer, so I manage the team.
I’m more customer facing, and do a lot more consulting than some of the other developers.
What’s the worst part of the job and how do you deal with it?
How do I deal with it?
A lot of patience and high-tolerance.
Really, after work, I go to the gym.
That’s my outlet.
What’s the most enjoyable part of the job?
I love making people happy and fixing things for them.
When customers come back and they say nice things, that’s really gratifying.
I also really enjoy being the expert on a product.
Everyone comes to me for questions on career sites, and I like being the resource.
Do you have any advice for people who need to enlist your services?
Customers want a custom career site, but they have no idea what about it they want.
Come to us with some idea of what you want.
It would cut down on the amount of time tremendously.
Just give us as much information as possible.
What kind of money can one expect to make at your job?
Being in the Bay Area, it’s pretty high.
A starting salary is $70,000 to $80,000.
It really depends on your experience as well.
How do you move up in your field?
Experience is a big one.
What do your customers under/over value?
They don’t know how much money and work it takes to build a career site.
If they were to go to an agency, they would be paying three times more.
They have high expectations relative to the deal they’re getting.
We have to scale based on the time allotted for your career site.
What advice would you give to those aspiring to join your profession?
Someone’s going to remember you.
Someone in the classroom is going to get a really good job, and they’ll remember you.
And work on your social skills.
If you’re a person who can talk to peopleanddevelop, then you’re way more in demand.
If you’d like to share your career, email us at[email protected].
