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The Life of a Web Developer

The best part about going to school was that after I finally got a job, I realize that very little of what I learned actually was useful.  There was the basic fundamentals that were useful, but most of what I was going to do would have to be learned on the job.  This is normal for most jobs, but the amount of what I've learned since I started almost 4 years ago would probably blow younger me's mind.

The first thing was something that they never taught me in school, working within a CMS.  This isn't the hardest thing to learn the basics of, but when one of my first big projects at my new job was to rebuild an entire CMS to upgrade the version and combine three sites under the same CMS instance, you have to learn things quickly. 

Thankfully, it was in a language I had worked with before, so I at least had an understanding of the coding style.  Thankfully most of it wasn't that hard as it was just rebuilding what already existed.  However, putting three sites in to one instance, while technically possible with what we use, was a fun learning experience.

It had it's ups and its downs.  Even with all the testing I did I still missed something and after launching it I had to revert it.  I didn't react as quick as I should have, but again a learning experience.  I did find the problem, which was a random unexplainable issue, and the next time I launched it everything was fine.  On the plus side he recommended product count for having multiple sites in one instance is a tenth of what we actually have.  Take that!

The next big challenge was working on a new site built on a language I'd never really used before.  This is my everyday life now.  When that site launched, it was terrifying how little I knew.  Fast forward to today and I laugh at what I used to not know. 

And in the end that's the life of a web developer.  Doing things that you've never done before.  It's kind of fun, kind of terrifying and always satisfying (when everything works).  If you don't want to learn new things, especially on your own, then it would probably be a nightmare of a career.  But you would know that ahead of time.

And looking back at an older post when I was still in school I mentioned becoming a web designer.  How naive I was.  That looks impossible to me know.  Creative I am not, unless it has to with trying to figure out how to make something work.  Just don't expect me to make it pretty, and we're good.

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