I realised this lunchtime while churning through Tumblr accounts in search of interesting people that I haven’t actually let out of the bag what it is that I do. The tagline on my homepage says “software developer, web designer” - that’s kind of a broad brush.
I thought about writing out a list of programming languages I use, or platforms I know inside out - but that seems a bit anal.
Basically, I build stuff that people use on their computers - either on the interwebs for fun (whichI don’t get paid for that), or interally to gigantic organisations spread across many cities and/or countries (whichI get paid for).
I am allowed to talk about the fun stuff - which happens outside of work time, but am not allowed to talk about the paid stuff - which is invariably slathered in “Non Disclosure Agreements” anyway.
Building “stuff” means I have fingers in lots of knowledge pies - from C#, to Javascript, HTML, SQL, PHP, XML, CSS, and so on. It also means I know more than I should about Windows, Linux, OSX, and various flavours of Unix. I also have all kinds of certifications on products the general public have never heard of - like SharePoint, Kofax, K2, and FileNET.
Among my colleagues and peers, I am usually regarded as the one who can “make things look pretty”. A lot of that comes from a background in art and design, but more these days comes from continually immersing myself into the online world, and being aware of the current design trends - and how to achieve them.
So basically - that’s what I do - I build stuff, I make things easy to use, and I make stuff look pretty. People use what I build, and if I’ve done my job right, nobody knows I did it, and nobody complains about it.