In the beginning there was HTML. And it was good.
I started computer programming in the early 1980's, at Joliet Junior College, Joliet, Illinois. My first programming courses were completed with computer punch cards! I learned FORTRAN and C. Later, at Cogswell Polytechnical College in Santa Clara, California, I learned about 8086 Assembly and continued with FORTRAN and C, then learned about C++.
As the internet was starting to flourish, in the 1990's I started programming with HTML, JavaScript, CSS on the front side and with Perl and PHP and the back end. I remember working with Mosaic and Netscape Navigator Browser 1.0!
As my career progressed, I started programming in CFML (Cold Fusion Markup Language). And then came Java and Oracle. And now .. who knows!
I have been programming for over 25 years, with some years more actively programming than others. Then in 2015 I retired from my full time job, and moved to Thailand. Retirement does not mean I've stopped learning. Nor does it mean I have stopped work altogether.
About a year ago, I decided to embark on a technology refresh, and started taking courses from Udemy, Codecademy, Freecodecamp. My emphasis is JavaScript, PHP, and Python, including the supporting developer tools, platforms, frameworks and infrastructure that have been developed around these languages.
I have more free time now, so I'm not constrained by project deadlines. I can refresh my computer language knowledge and tune my programming skills at my own leisurely pace, leveraging internet educational and learning resources that didn't exist, even 5 years ago.
I have struggled with finding answers why companies need 'me' and how I can make myself more attractive and competitive with the overwhelming resume submissions from qualified candidates that companies must evaluate. The answers boiled down to going back to my roots to refresh my core programming skills.
Most webmasters have the technical skills but how many webmasters can say:
Through their career they have worked as a support engineer, installation manager in a foreign country, web developer, security consultant in the USA, Asia, and Europe
In 1996 they built their first web site to work with the Mosaic browser (remember that browser?) to work on an internal network of web servers (we now call an intranet)
They had to troubleshoot and fix the ODBC plugin to connect a Netscape (remember Netscape?) web server to a Sybase relational database which allowed publishing internal company support documentation
In 1998 they led a design team that built CRM system with a web browser interface containing graphical horizontal navigation elements
Between 1999 - 2005, working for a Silicon Valley startup, they built a web based Customer Support, Knowledge Base, and CRM system because that's what the company needed and could afford
Between 2005 - 2015, worked as an Identity and Access Management Consultant for one of the largest worldwide Corporations
Starting another great challenge!
Comentários