When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I am a “Web Developer”. It’s more accurate than “Web Designer” and much less narcissistic than “Webmaster.” Even still, people have a hard time grasping what I do every day at my job. I’m sure if you asked 3 very important people in my life — my girlfriend, mother, and best friend — what I did at work every day, you’d get 3 different answers. So for their sake (and yours), I’ve decided to let you in on a little bit of the web developer culture: my background, the backgrounds of other developers I’ve known, and what we all do every day at work every day.
First a little bit about my web development background. I hopped on the Internet (read: AOL) in 1996. I was hooked; using the ‘net became a daily occurrence for me. Yet the thought of actually creating content for the web didn’t happen until about 1998 when my Mom tasked me with designing the website for her non-profit organization. Determined, I taught myself FrontPage and created what I still consider the ugliest site ever, ever.