Adam8

Lunch time at TheLevel.

When the dot-com industry crashed and 9-11 happened, I quit my last job and started freelancing. I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I was very scared.

Back in 2011, I did a few websites for some dance and theatre artists, and that grew in to a great niche for me. At the time, every Arts Group in Vancouver needed a custom website, and they had been granted money to pay for it! Somehow I was able to pay rent at the end of each month - even before I had a credit card!  Somehow the phone kept ringing, and I always had rewarding work for great clients.

Working from home is awesome. It's great to wake up when you're rested, and sit down without interruption and throw yourself at the task at hand. Flexibility to work when you're at your best is an asset, whether it's at 7am or 11pm.

I really love what I do. When I get stuck I somehow always manage to push through. (Thanks Google!). But I know that sometimes problems that block me all day might take someone who'd had that experience much less time. What don't I know? How can I improve? What products could I ship if I worked with a team? And could I even work all day without a nap? 

Sometimes the time is right to throw yourself in an uncomfortable, challenging situation. When you're on the beach enjoying the sun, it's not always easy to jump in the cold ocean, but you won't regret it when you're laying in bed at night.

Arlen explaining something to me. I'm baffled. Photo by Mike Martin

So... I got a job at TheLevel. Here is a website development company which specializes in large scale, multilingual websites for very, very big clients. This is a different experience from creating sites for small businesses and artists.

I thought it would be interesting to learn why "enterprise" products suck. IT for big companies has a lot of money and seems very ready to be improved (ahem, disrupted). If only I could bring to this industry some of the good things I've learned working with artists. At least I could learn why it's so difficult to create high quality work for this industry.

So here I am, working 8 to 4 everyday, learning some unsexy technologies and working with a team of programmers who are way smarter than me! TheLevel has their own CMS that is based on XML/XSLT. This has been a challenge, and I'm learning a lot. It's hard to use, but eventually we get it to work, and it's a great feeling. But hard work doesn't make it worth it, especially for the client. The next year will be interesting, as we explore new tools, and find new projects. 

I'm not sure what will happen in the future. Right now I'm happy to be working with such a great team, learning new skills, and stretching myself in new territories. This summer I'm learning C++. 

I miss the freedom that I had working on my own, directly with my own clients -  but I definitely don't regret yanking myself out of a safe, comfortable situation and expanding my skills and career.