Richard Session

My path is probably very different than most who end up in this career. I've always had a fascination with computers but really didn't know what I wanted to do with them. Once I started college I decided to major in computer science. Seemed like an easy conclusion, I like computers, major in computer science. Well too bad the decision I made was not as easy as my work. I definitely struggled compared to other students in those classes. My high school path didn't include any work on a computer besides using Microsoft Word and playing NBA Live. So in the middle of my third year I switched to Sociology since it was something that always kept my interest and related to a different side of my curiosities and interests.

But I did learn the basics of programming since the first couple of classes taught C and C++. In my second year, I had a work-study job that involved learning HTML to take over the website for a research division of the university. So I was basically paid to learn HTML. I started with HTML, then used Frontpage for a month and then went out and bought Dreamweaver 3 after hearing how many people liked it compared to Frontpage. After learning how to do more things with HTML and learning a little bit of Photoshop, my curiosity grew. Now I surfed the Internet looking at sites now based on how they were structured and functioned. There weren't any classes for web design at the university so my second home became Borders on the campus. I bought a lot of books and learned a lot from online tutorials. After that the fascination grew.

But I wanted to take my knowledge even further. I wanted to know how sites like Amazon and other sites with huge amounts of content worked. I knew they weren't crazy enough to be using static HTML pages for every single product and page. So during my last year, I came across a graduate level course called Advanced Web Design. Since I was an undergrad I had to get permission from the course instructor to take it. He granted it to me and I was introduced to Coldfusion and MS Access. There was my answer (sort of) to how these large sites worked. Luckily my earlier computer science classes helped me get up to speed quickly since many development languages have similar features (if/else, switch, etc). After that class I really became eager to learn more.

After graduation in mid 2002, I was unable to get a job anywhere. I was back at home living off my parents like I was still in high school. But with the work ethic I now had from going to the university, I decided not to feel sorry for myself. So I decided since no one was gonna give me a chance, I had to make an opportunity for myself. That's when I decided to become a freelance designer and developer. Things went really slow at first. My first couple of clients were friends from school who were starting their own businesses. I really am glad they came to me because I would have probably decided to turn to a different career because of my frustration. But my frustration just turned into a desire to become better and always learn something new. And the rest as they say is history....