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Griffin — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:58:00 +0000

Why I do whatever it is that I do

Griffin — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:44:40 +0000

This is a very simple question, and easily the hardest question in a job interview. “Why do you want to work in web development?” There are lots of reasons, but the major one is simply that I like doing it. I always get a disapproving “tisk tisk” look when I say that (except my last interviewer, who was quite nice). It’s almost as if people think that it’s impossible to LOVE this kind of work. “What, are you kidding? Greg over in PHP won’t stop complaining about his job, but you love it?!? Give me a break!”

I like creating things from scratch, fixing broken things, making things that are fun or pass the time or that can be eaten. This is true of all things, including web design and development (minus the eating part). I make my own bread, pizza, pretty much all baked goods I cook very well, do beadwork, make candy, maintain computers — why shouldn’t I do something useful with my talents in web development?

Why should I bother making a game to help me study for the SAT? Why Not!

Someone came up with this chart that can show anyone their ideal job:

I think that sums it up pretty well. I’m good at it, I like doing it, and now I’m trying to get paid for it. Once that happens, I can start loving my job.

**My father-in-law makes soap, bread, wine, juice and lots of other things. We’re not hippies, but we could probably set up a commune in a couple of days haha!

Why my resume isn’t on this site anymore

I’ve gotten a couple of inquiries as to why my resume and contact information aren’t posted anymore. Simply put: I’m not looking for a job at this time. I had an interview last week, and I’m not looking for more interviews at this time. I sincerely hope that they select me for this position, because I think it’s an awesome opportunity and I’d love to do it. But if I’m not hired by them, I’m packing up my toys and going home.

My resume can get me an interview in 24 hours, but in terms of an actual job — fuhgettaboutit! I *still* get emails for SQL, ASP, VB.Net and Actionscripting jobs. Unfortunately I don’t have any experience with those languages. One company brought me in during their second round of interviews. Too bad they didn’t read my resume ’til I got there!

It can be very frustrating to work with technical recruiters as well. Recruiters work in a high-pressure sales environment, and that can sometimes affect how they treat candidates and their resumes. I’ve had several people call me wanting phone interviews NOW and then become verbally abusive when I don’t have the time for a 90-minute interview that I didn’t know I would be having. And there’s always the people who want to know if they can set you up for an interview right this second. These are actually pretty funny because most people don’t call me back or email me the job description, and generally cop a major attitude when I ask if I can call them back in five minutes. Anyone who will turn into a major jerk because of a 5-minute wait is not someone I want to work with.

Working retail is more entertaining and less hassle than dealing with recruiters 12 hours a day. I would much rather get yelled at in person — by a customer — than get yelled at via telephone. Getting yelled at in person has a satisfying finality to it: “Well now that you’ve go that off your chest, would you like gift receipts for your purchase today?” Just a sense of “okay, now we can get down to business.” I love it; I’m a sick sick man.

The Giggles

TeeHee!

I’m getting myself Guitar Hero for Xmas *insert hot lixx here* Air guitar will never quite be the same again.

I’m currently working on a site called Bacon Logic. It’s awesome. It will have funny t-shirts and the Bacon Eating Flowchart. Awesome. I hear that I’ll be getting free awesome t-shirts for helping out.

lolcats: I Has Them

Consider this a parting gift.

Any questions, please comment.

Resume Status

Griffin — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:48:42 +0000

I’ve updated my resume, and removed it from this site.

I’m taking a few days away from my job search, so please do not call me at all until Monday. Thanks.

College and Beyond

Griffin — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:55:52 +0000

One of my sites is College and Beyond, which launches sometime today. If you’d like to see the work that is currently going on, you can go here. CAB is interesting because I’ve been doing a massive re-development of the site theme (~10 interconnected PHP pages). I realized on Tuesday night that it wasn’t going to work out and set out to create a new theme as soon as possible. The current theme is actually based on a pre-existing theme with a lot of graphic, PHP and CSS modifications. Since this is primarily a personal project, I’m more concerned with having a site that can withstand a lot of traffic without raising my hosting bill than having a graphic-intensive site that looks good in my portfolio.

For CAB, I’m also working on a contextual ad system for WordPress to display ads that are associated with a particular category when posts from that category are viewed by users. It’s really rather awesome and (I believe) has not been done before. Current code is available for viewing during the hiring process. *wink*

Cadavearth: This client site is finally live, with ongoing development from time to time. You can also see a description of the work that I did on that site as a whole. The launch for LDN and Njal’s Holiday has been pushed back to December, so they are both on the back burner at this point.

For some reason I’ve received two requests for pages made with tables this week, so I’ve made available a contact form I made over the summer. With that, I created all graphics and all code except for the JavaScript (as it integrated with an online service).

Cheers!

Griffin Boyce