Company: Spyglass Inc., a Naperville-based company that provides Internet solutions to device makers.
Salary: $65,000
Time on this job: 1 year
Previous jobs: I worked for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Champaign for six years creating Web-based programs. Before that, I was a high school biology teacher.
Age: 38
Education: B.S. in biology from the University of Illinois
How I got this Job: Spyglass called me saying they liked my background in Web technology and offered me the job. It was a good opportunity for me, so I took it.
Why I took this job: It was going in the direction I wanted to go, being able to break new ground with new devices for the Web. I thought it would be an exciting challenge.
Main responsibilities: I develop HTML and convert it into an acceptable format for specific devices, such as cellular phones, videoscreen phones, TVs and cars. HTML stands for hypertext markup language, which is a scripting language used to create a page that will adapt to the World Wide Web. I work with engineers and writers to coordinate the technical details of our Web-based products, which include identifying solutions for bugs found in the coding. For example, if the design for the cell phone doesn’t support the images that it’s intended to do, then we have to figure out the problem and strip out the wrong codes from the HTML page. I also maintain a Web page on my company’s Intranet site to communicate the status of projects we’re working on.
Best thing about the job: I get to do something different every day and have fun doing it. Also, I get to write dynamic HTML pages and learn new technologies as they emerge.
Worst thing about the job: Sometimes you have two really great features, but you can only choose one for the device that is ready to roll out. It’s tough to decide between keeping a feature or holding it off until the next product release.
My ideal next job: I don’t know because I’ve only been doing this for one year. I still want to keep my hand in programming, maybe being a full-time program engineer. I just don’t know yet.
Advice to job seekers in this field: Learn as much as you can and keep up with technology. It’s nearly impossible to do, but the more you keep up your technical skills, the more marketable you will be. I have to keep up with the latest and greatest in HTML technology, evaluating it to see if it’s something we should implement into the devices. It’s definitely a fun area to be in, but a challenge to keep up with it all.
