4 ms·

Back in 1999 I started a Geocites site just for fun, which led me to making various sites to either promote or sell things I found interesting (namely Fresnel l

by ljf 2y ago

Back in 1999 I started a Geocites site just for fun, which led me to making various sites to either promote or sell things I found interesting (namely Fresnel lenses). From this I started and ran a few forums - just to see what would happen, but some that got fairly big for the time. This totally got me my first job - I hadn't mentioned it at all on my CV, but I was able to talk at length about it once I realised it was relevant to the role. Going forward I blogged and tried various things on social media, again just for fun - but I was regularly able to either apply learnings to my roles, or more likely just have interesting other examples to refer to in interviews. It meant I understood FTP, buying (and selling) domain names, DNS, basic coding and most importantly had a good handle of what could go wrong (e.g. people abusing image hosts and url shorteners that I played with). Note I am non-technical - I was a moderator>researcher>producer>product owner>Chief Product Manager during this time - but the little amounts I learnt about web technologies in my own time, helped me to better talk with my technical colleagues and to my non-technical ones.

technothrasher 2y ago
If we're going back to the 90's, I didn't get a job from my personal website but I did have a local newspaper article written about me in 1997 because I had a personal "home page". I waxed on and on about the web being an empowering force that allowed everybody to publish their thoughts and ideas to the masses, rather than having major media sources control the dialog. It was a nice, optimistic vision, even if it hasn't exactly turned out that way. The article made me a local celebrity for about a week, as everybody wanted to stop me in the street and know all about it.
- ljf 2y ago
  As someone who just vaguely knew that I wanted to work 'in the media' when I got a job, getting my own webpage felt all those things and more. I'd dreamt of a radio show or being a reporter, and here I was putting my content out for everyone (no-one) to see. And when I realised it could be a shop too... I must have sold a couple of thousand fresnel lenses before I got bored of that site - but I learnt so much.

by ljf 2y ago

technothrasher 2y ago

If we're going back to the 90's, I didn't get a job from my personal website but I did have a local newspaper article written about me in 1997 because I had a personal "home page". I waxed on and on about the web being an empowering force that allowed everybody to publish their thoughts and ideas to the masses, rather than having major media sources control the dialog. It was a nice, optimistic vision, even if it hasn't exactly turned out that way. The article made me a local celebrity for about a week, as everybody wanted to stop me in the street and know all about it.

ljf 2y ago
As someone who just vaguely knew that I wanted to work 'in the media' when I got a job, getting my own webpage felt all those things and more. I'd dreamt of a radio show or being a reporter, and here I was putting my content out for everyone (no-one) to see. And when I realised it could be a shop too... I must have sold a couple of thousand fresnel lenses before I got bored of that site - but I learnt so much.