Giving up the good for the great

If you didn’t already know, HeroPress is all about writing to your peers. When Topher asked who I will be writing to, I wasn’t sure at first. I had to think about this for a couple of days before I went back to him.

I found this question difficult because I couldn’t think of how I fitted into a certain bracket or who my peers actually were. I’m just a thirty two year old man from the UK who’s going grey way too early and likes building things with WordPress.

After some thought and thinking about my journey through life so far, the only thing that stuck out was my change of career around eleven years ago. For me this was a big decision and not one I took lightly.

Therefore, I’m writing this essay for anyone who feels stuck in their current job and can’t see a way out. I want people to realise it’s never too late to make a change in your life, you just need to want it strongly enough. I’m not claiming to have done anything extraordinary, it’s just my story and I hope it will give some people the inspiration to change their future.

How It Began

I don’t want to be that person who tells you their life story from the day they were born, but I will set the scene from when I first discovered my love for design at a fairly young age.

When I was nine years old, I got my first computer which came with Disney’s Magic Artist Studio. I would spend hours using this to “design” things like t-shirts, trainers and logos. I had no idea at the time that this was going to set me on a journey that I am still on today.

When I left school at eighteen years old, I went to university to do a foundation in graphic design. During this time I was also working part time at a tattoo studio, drawing customer’s tattoos and manning the reception desk. The excitement of it led me to abandon my journey in graphic design once I completed my foundation year. Instead of doing a BA, I started an apprenticeship in Tattooing and one year later I was tattooing paying customers.

This was an exciting time of my life. I did this for around two years and up until that point I was very happy. However, I started to feel like there was something missing in my life, like there was an itch that I couldn’t scratch. I wondered what this was for a while but couldn’t quite get to the root of it. After a few more months of feeling like this I eventually realised that my love for graphic design hadn’t gone away and this was where my true passion lied.

Shifting Gears

Soon enough, the feeling that I was not on the right career path had become too strong for me to ignore. I knew I wanted to get back into the digital world, so I started looking for jobs online. Most positions required a degree but I really didn’t want to go back to university for three years. I quickly came to the conclusion that my best option would be to do an internship or an apprenticeship to gain experience quickly.

As it had been a few years since university, I was completely out of touch with the current technology and design trends. I knew the only way I could switch careers was if I had a good portfolio and was up to speed with current design tools and best practices.

So, over the next three months, I dedicated most evenings to improving my design skills, working on my portfolio and learning HTML & CSS. I watched YouTube tutorials, read articles, read books, practised on Codecademy and built basic websites that I had designed. It was quite difficult to work my day job and upskill in my spare time, but my determination to follow my passion kept me going.

Starting Again

Once I felt like I had a good foundation of design skills and a good understanding of HTML & CSS, I applied for a junior graphic designer role. I didn’t get the job which wasn’t a huge surprise to me but it gave me valuable interview experience which helped me know what I needed to improve on for next time.

I went for my second interview soon after. It was for a web design apprenticeship at a Digital Marketing agency. To my surprise, I actually got the job!

I couldn’t believe that the hard work I had put in over the last three months had actually paid off. I was back on the path I was supposed to be on. Compared to my previous job the pay wasn’t great and it was definitely a huge life adjustment. However, I was committed to making this work, whatever it took.

I started that job back in 2012 and guess what, I am still working for the same company today! During my time working for this agency, I have had lots of job titles as I worked my way up. I am now Director of Web Services, leading a team of Graphic Designers and Web Developers who design and build WordPress websites for a wide variety of clients. The company recently threw me a ten year work anniversary party!

Over the past couple of years, my role has become predominantly remote based, I have the flexibility to choose whether I go into the office or not. This gives me a great sense of freedom because I can now work from anywhere in the world if I choose to. To be honest though, I work in my garage 99% of the time which I’ve converted into an office. However, it’s nice to know that I have the choice and I’m not tied to any location.

Remote working suits me perfectly because when I pop into the house throughout the day to make a cup of tea or have lunch, I get to spend some time with my one year old daughter. This is the most amazing benefit of working from home. Without having a job that can be done remotely, I’d miss out on these priceless moments.

Where WordPress Fits

WordPress has always been a big part of my role at the agency I work at. Even though I am now managing a team, I am still getting my hands dirty building and supporting WordPress websites on a daily basis. I think it’s important for managers to stay up to date with the tools and technology their team is using to effectively mentor and support them. I also think it’s important to take time to have fun with your team and don’t be afraid to show vulnerability.

Besides playing a big part in my career, WordPress has also allowed me to explore some of my own ideas. The ability to be able to execute them fairly easily with WordPress is one of the reasons why I love it. You can completely take control of your future with WordPress, if you’re willing to put in the work.

What is also really exciting, is the fact that WordPress shook things up in version 5.0, by introducing the Gutenberg project. This brought the block editor to WordPress and at first a lot of people were very sceptical about it. Some still are today. However, a lot of people, including myself, can see the potential it has and are embracing the changes.

Before Gutenberg, the market was saturated with plugins and themes that catered for every possible thing you could think of. It felt like there was nothing left for new developers to build. However, now with blocks, the playing fields have been levelled and everything is up for grabs again. Plugins and themes that were built before Gutenberg, can now be built again to be compatible with blocks. Suffice to say, this is an extremely exciting time to be a WordPress developer.

Building New Things

To help developers take advantage of the new demand for Gutenberg compatible products, I decided to create Gutenberg Market, the first marketplace exclusively for premium block plugins, block themes and block components. I did this because I spotted a gap in the market and also because I wanted to help others earn fairly from their hard work. Most other marketplaces take a very large percentage of the sale, usually more than the author receives, so I wanted to create a marketplace where the commission was always in favour of the authors.

I also host a YouTube channel called wpBros with my friend Phil Sola, where we provide Gutenberg Block Development tutorials. People seem to like the informal chatty style of our videos and we’ve received some great feedback so far. We don’t profess to be experts in this subject, as we are still learning ourselves. We found it difficult to find good resources at the beginning of our journey, so our main reason for starting the channel was to simply help people get started with block development. If you are thinking about building blocks but don’t know where to start, you might find our videos very helpful.

Powerful Community

I want to also mention how amazing the WordPress community is, which is another compelling reason to make the switch to WordPress. There is a thriving community of WordPress advocates on Twitter who offer their wisdom freely and help out when you’re in need. There are regular WordPress meet-ups planned all over the world and lots of other events online and offline you can get involved with. I have built some great relationships through WordPress and I am extremely grateful to be a part of such an awesome community.

So, to close, my advice to anyone who is thinking about making the switch to WordPress or another career, is just go for it! There is so much potential in the WordPress space right now and there is a high demand for developers. You will almost certainly land a job as long as you have the skills and are committed to learning. It’s also so easy to get started with all of the free resources available online. If you’re willing to invest some money into your training there are also some fantastic paid tutorials on Udemy and other course providers too.

I wish you all the best in your endeavours and please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter if you need any help transitioning to WordPress.

Finally, I want to leave you with one quote that I really like…

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” 

Jimmy Dean