10 years in IT – what it was like in 2000

10 years ago today, I started work at iFarm Internet Solutions, a small company in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow that specialised in software that evolved into what we know today as Content Management Systems.

Back in the day, I was 21, had just left Uni and managed somehow to talk my way into a job there. It was a real eye opener to me, coming from Uni and the part time work at Maplin’s, but I learned fast and found my feet in no time. The staff were friendly and I get the feeling I had it pretty easy, especially since I was still living at home. I drove a red Micra, M-reg and spent evenings and most weekends in the pub.

In those days I was working in Allaire ColdFusion 3 (Adobe hadn’t bought them over at this point), programming in ColdFusion Studio and my works PC was running Windows 98. Servers were all NT 4.0 (SP4!). At some point we upgraded some of the office PCs to Windows ME which was clearly a mistake. As we realised that licensing for ColdFusion 4.0 was going to be expensive, we moved onto ASP, and that’s where my career in programming really began…….

A few jobs and 10 years later and everything has moved on considerably, I still get exposed to ASP and ColdFusion occasionally but not really enough to call it a skillset anymore and web scripting has all but died out to be replaced by proper domain driven design with all the different languages separated into files unlike the classic ColdFusion scenario of having 5 languages in the one file.

All things considered, I feel I’ve kept on top of the technologies and I’m looking forward to what the next ten years of web development holds.

One thing I’ve learned above all others though – being a human being is the most important skill you can have. If you’re approachable, friendly and can see a way through any situation you’ll get a lot further than the hardcore techie next to you.