ΦCobwebs On The Résumé: A Web Designer’s Dilema
In a recent effort to acquire an out of town gig, I found the cobwebs on my resumé as thick as the lines on my face. So thick, in fact, that a facelift would have erased any traces of who I am, leaving a botoxed, lifeless expression CV of my true persona..
As a self-employed man who is nearly 60 years old, I have come to accept the fact that I live in a world where many CEOs of today’s fortune 500 companies, were born around the time of Orwell’s 1984, such as Mark Zuckerberg, whose Facebook employees’ average age is 25 years old, 
and Groupon’s CEO, 29 year old 
Andrew Mason whose employees’ average age is also 25 years old.
The fact that these companies are operated by the young is not lamentable. On the contrary, it should be applauded and seen as a trend within our society that points to a mind set where risks are taken, and opportunities are present to our youth not available during those early years of our boomer generation.
But where does that leave old geezers like me who wish to remain where the action is?
Well, unless you already have a solid company with a positive cash flow going on, you are left to continue in the freelance world or bagging groceries at Win Dixie, or Publix if you’re lucky.. Then again, if you were the CEO of a well known corporation, opportunities as a consultant may be available provided that the council you offer isn’t too dated.
What if you are none of the above? In other words, you are the kind of person who has worked for himself most of your adult life? Oh, that’s tricky one to put on your resumé. The assumption is that if you have worked for yourself during the most productive years of your life, then it indicates that perhaps you are a Lone Ranger, unable to keep a job, or follow orders, you are not a team player.. The fact is that this is the farthest from the truth.
You can’t possibly work for yourself and be successful, as I have, and not be punctual, professional, considerate, a team player, ethical, with good work habits and all those qualities a perspective employer seeks in an applicant. Period.
Website Design Pioneers
When I started my first site back in 1996, it was difficult to find schools that were training students to become web designers or developers. The few that were around were offering programs taught by instructors who were primarily self-taught, or learned from the few available tutorials on the web.. I started with notepad, a little book called html Goodies, and Netscape browser. In those days sites were build using tables and all kinds of hacks and blank images were used to accommodate the browsers of the day, namely IE and Netscape. CSS was just starting to emerge and Javascript was starting to become popular, albeit used with caution and Flash was starting to shine. Also, cookies were making their appearance.
Today, universities are offering master degrees in computer science, web design, PHP, Perl, SQL, you name it, they got it. Employers are requiring this type of training. Take a look at some job offers on Craigslist and my point is confirmed.
The opportunities for web designers/developers who learned the “as you go” way, is in freelancing and your face is the portfolio and to some degree, your blog.
So, I’ll keep on doing what I do best, which is to provide high quality service regardless of which hat I’m wearing..
