Need a web developer?

After a few years of working in the corporate world I decided to take the dive and go full time into freelancing. I had no idea what was ahead but I knew I needed a change from the corporate grind. What a ride it has been.

As a life long Star Trek fan (William Shatner was the best Kirk) I didn't think twice when Project C and Paramount Studios asked for help on a photo mosaic photo booth to help promote the Star Trek movie. I never expected a little side project like my photo mosaic generator would get noticed by Hollywood.

It's not every day you get to work on an Olympic sized project. NBC needed help managing and distributing the digital material for the 2012 London Summer Olympics to their partners and internal teams. Gotham and All Kinds gave me the call and I got the chance to shine on the Olympic stage. Talk about deadline pressure ... not being ready on July 27, 2012 was not an option.

Sometimes lightning hits the same spot twice. I was fortunate to work with the awesome team @ This Is Grow on a project for Google. Not long after that project wrapped up Youtube came knocking with a project they needed help with. Working with developers from Google was a little scary at first. Was I good enough, did I know enough? Turns out I did.

I think this was more exciting for my kids. The crew @ FirstBorn needed some heavy duty Craft help with the family of Supercell sites for web and in app content management. Getting to work Clash of Clans, Boom Beach, Clash Royale and Hay Day was great but working with the team @ FirstBorn was even better. Insanely creative people with technical chops and a passion to make great stuff. One of my favourite projects to work on.

Back in 2013 I decided to build and launch a side project called PageProofer. I was frustrated with getting flooded with feedback spreadsheets and bug report emails while building websites. The idea was pretty simple, add sticky notes to websites and streamline the back and forth feedback. It took all my knowledge in frontend, backend and dev ops to pull it off. Turns out a lot of people found it useful and ten years later it is still going strong.

Honestly, I have no idea. Hopefully more problems to solve and more great people to work with. Freelancing is a crazy ride with lots of ups and down. Every day is a chance to learn and experience something new.

Looking back on everything, it's been a blessing to experience and learn so much in 15 plus years. I have worked with some amazingly talented people and pushed myself farther than I thought possible. What is the biggest takeaway? GRATITUDE!

Define a mission. Get in. Get it done. Get out. I like to set clearly defined parameters and goals for a project and then deliver ...

Who doesn't love it when the pizza man shows up at the door with a fresh, hot pizza. Being able to deliver a project on time and on budget is one of the most rewarding things I get to do. I don't have a 30 minutes or it's free policy though 😥.

I love a challenge and coming up with creative solutions. The best part of being a developer is the problem solving. Think about it, break it down, and then start solving. Some of the best projects I have worked on presented the toughest problems. 

I have worked on plenty of high pressure, high demand, tight deadline, large scale projects. The gold medal for high pressure, tight deadline projects that I have worked on goes to the 2012 Olympics media site. I'm comfortable working in an environment that presents pressure situations.

I don't take myself too seriously. This website is exhibit A. It's not your classic boring developer site.