Ever since September 1995 I’ve had a passion for the Internet and for developing Web sites. I knew the moment I wrote my first Web page that this was the career for me and every day since I’ve tried to challenge myself. Never did I know that I would be at this point in my career because of the Internet, and the jobs that is has created. I love what I do, and I hope that passion shows in my work.
Highlights
August 2003
Completed my 4th e-commerce Web site. The client was Brock’s RV, a family-owned business that had an exising e-commerce site but wanted more flexibility. The site is built on ColdFusion MX with a SQL Server 2000 database behind it. It is integrated with VeriSign’s PayFlow Pro for payment processing.
October 2002
Completed my 3rd e-commerce Web site. The client was The Russian Store, a family-owned business that made the jump into e-commerce. The site is built on ColdFusion MX with a SQL Server 2000 database behind it. It is integrated with VeriSign’s PayFlow Pro for payment processing and FedEx for shipment processing.
June 2002
I was laid off from Connectria after almost 3 1/2 years of service. I knew this day was coming. I hadn’t really had anything to do for months and that was the reason they gave when they told me. They just didn’t have anything for me to do. But something good came out of it. I took my clients with me and started my own business. I’m think I’m proud of how well I’m doing on my own.
February 2002
Implemented the FedEx Ground shipping API for 4allmemory.com. Since the Express API was already in place, adding ground service was fairly easy. All we had to do was to get certified, and that took less than a week.
December 2001
I got certified by Macromedia by passing the ColdFusion 5.0 Developer Exam. I got a pretty good score and just barely missed “Advanced” status by 3 measly questions. I do plan on getting ColdFusion MX certified sometime in the coming months.
October 2001
Implemented the FedEx Express shipping API for 4allmemory.com. This was somewhat challenging in that I had to work with a Java developer and integrate his code with mine. Luckily, I got to work with one of the finest in my company, John Marshall. We worked together on the project for about 2-3 weeks.
August 2001
Completed my 2nd e-commerce Web site. The client was Way Technology, a local company who has been in business since 2000. The site is built on ColdFusion MX with a SQL Server 2000 database behind it. It is integrated with VeriSign’s PayFlow Pro for payment processing and FedEx, USPS and UPS for shipment processing.
June 2001
Completed my 1st e-commerce Web site. The client was America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, a national chain of more than 100 optical stores. The site is built on ColdFusion 5.0 with a SQL Server 2000 database behind it. It is integrated with VeriSign’s PayFlow Pro for payment processing.
January 2000
Finished my first piece of Internet software for a local packing and logistics company. Written in ColdFusion, I was able to take an Access database application and convert it for the Internet in less than 2 weeks. I had about 3 months experience with ColdFusion at the time, so it was very challenging.
November 1999
Built my first ColdFusion template. I had read so much about ColdFusion but had not never worked with. So I decided one day that I needed to learn something other than regular old HTML. I saw that ColdFusion was a new technology that was easy to work with and development time was a lot faster. I downloaded a trial version of the software and started to play around with it. I’d say within 1 week, I already had started to work on the company intranet and a couple weeks later, finished with it. Currently, it has an employee database, a client database, a POP email client, plus a mass mailing feature that allows for anyone and broadcast an email to everyone in the company. There’s nothing I can’t do with ColdFusion. I get more and more confident with each new day.
February 1999
Got my most recent Web developer job at Connectria. After a 14 month stint at Shandwick Interactive, I was ready to move on. So I contacted several headhunters in the area. I worked with more than 8 of them for about 6 months. It was ridiculous. No one could find the right job that fit my skills. I then decided to decide my own fate and picked up a copy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I saw a couple of jobs that I was interested and made some phone calls. I first met Rich Waidmann, at Friday’s for lunch back in February 1999. I could see that he would be a very good person to work for, and seemed very excited about the company’s direction. A day later, I called him back and worked out salary requirements. I was then working for Connectria.
December 1998
My team and I won three Web site awards from WebAward.org. They were:
- DogChow.com – Winner of 1998 Best of Industry Award
- CatChow.com – Winner of 1998 Standard of Excellence
- PuppyPlace.com – Winner of 1998 Outstanding Web Site
November 1997
Moved back to St. Louis to work at Shandwick Interactive. And thank God! I wasn’t going to make any kind of a salary down in Springfield. Shandwick actually picked up the bill for the U-Haul. That was a nice gesture. I also went from 6$ an hour to more than double that, plus benefits, including health coverage and an optional 401K. I felt that I had finally made something of myself. It felt really good.
March 1997
Finished my first Web site. Even though it doesn’t exist anymore, I was proud of that little site. It was for a lawyer down in Springfield, MO named Hutcheson. The URL was www.hutchesonlaw.com.
January 1997
Got my first Internet job at a local ISP answering tech support questions. Man was that some good experience. I learned how to communicate more effectively right from the get go. After a couple months doing that, it got old. I really wanted to function as the Web designer, who all sat in the other room. When the president couldn’t stand any more questions from me about when he was going to give me a chance, he let me have one. Bingo, I was a Web designer.
August 1996
I built my first Web page. I even still have the first book that I ever bought about HTML. It was called HTML By Example and is still on sale at Amazon.com today. It’s actually quite a good book for learning HTML. I followed the examples the way they were in the book and whamo, I knew HTML. How good you get occurs over time, but after this book, I was on my way.
September 1995
I got my first Internet account through CompuServe. Way back then no one knew what the Internet was. Some people had an idea, but as for myself, I just saw it as a way to get information. And it was amazing to find that there was something out there for everyone.
August 1995
I got my first computer. It was a Packard Bell that my college roommate and I went in on together. I think we paid around $3,500 for it. It had everything though. 75MHz Intel Pentium processor, 16MB RAM, 1.2GB hard drive, 15′ monitor, color printer, etc. It had the works back then. I gave it to my brother a few years ago.