What did you do before you became a (web) designer?
A DJ on the radio asked the traffic-jam-reader-guy what his job was before he started working for the radio. He answered he used to be in IT, which is quite a career-move if you ask me..
I thought it would be interesting to know what you guys were doing before you turned to (web) design. Me? Oh, I used to be a salesman in an electronics store. I got to play with the new iPods, cell phones, digital camera’s, laptops etc. It was a fun job, but I didn’t see a real career in it for myself. So I decided to started freelancing my web design services.
What about you? Leave a comment with your previous job.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I delivered bagels lol that sounds so funny to me now but I was 18 so it was ok
November 19th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I was a Youth Pastor.
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November 19th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I’ve always held jobs in the design field, but my first job was in the Creative Services / Advertising agency of a newspaper doing print design. I did that as an intern during a few summers during college.
Once graduating from college I held a job at a design company (for 9+ years til I just quit to freelance full time a few month ago) – this was a mix of both print and web design, but it leaned more towards web – especially at the end.
Selene M. Bowlby’s last blog post: 60+ Essential Feeds for Freelance Web Designers
November 19th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I owned and operated a children’s clothing boutique.
November 19th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
musician, i still split my time between playing music and web design development.
i also worked for an advertisement company, a bar, bunch of indie labels, tour managing and booking, journalism, record store nerd and shitty chinese restaurant washing dishes and watching the waitresses get drunk on a ghetto cardboard saki
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November 19th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I was a videographer and video-editor.
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November 19th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I am a student. I also referee youth soccer. I still do all that on top of designing.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
i was a wabbit, but not as crazy.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I started working as a designer while in college in 1978 – as the advertising designer for the daily college newspaper. Still, it wasn’t quite enough to make a living – so, for about four years, other occupations supporting my design career included being a sorority houseboy, working in a couple picture frame shops, selling men’s clothes, modeling, and working in an art gallery.
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November 20th, 2008 at 2:53 am
I was a radio and television reporter for several years, but the design and illustration bug has been with me for my entire life and I made the switch a few years ago.
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November 20th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
My work is freelance book design and layout now. My job is court clerk.
In 1978 I got my first adult day job as an in-house proofreader/copyeditor/indexer at a tiny tax law publisher. I later went back to school to finish my degree in English, working nights at something new, a typesetter of science and math books and journals–the new thing was that they set type by computer, producing rolls of type that had to be pasted onto pages.
I began to freelance for this computer typesetter when they went into a bankruptcy reorg, leaving them for a full-time civil service day job as a court clerk in 1983, where I stil am during the day. When I married in 1991 I had already become smitten with personal computers–the Apple IIe was my first; but by 1991 I had my first Macintosh. I knew that if I was going to stay updated with newer Macs, I’d have to turn my play with them into something more substantial. So I wound up setting type and designing books, thru a lot of determination, hard work, and some lucky breaks.
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November 20th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I started working as a designer during college so this was my only job. The interesting part is that I went for college for an engineering diploma in electronics and telecommunications.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Hmm.. which one?!
Let’s see, there was deejay… go-go dancer, oh and then came the administrative assistant, which turned into concert promoter somehow?! After that, and come to think of it, during, I was a professional student/barista that slung coffee on the side only to drop out of school to become an “anthropologist” half way across the world and um, finally designer 
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November 21st, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I didn’t have an official job until I was 20. Sad, in a way, but true!
I played volleyball all through high school and college. In college, the team rule was that we weren’t allowed to work besides coaching club in the off-season a couple hours a week. So, I picked up as many design books and tutorial DVDs as I could, studied them between practices, classes and traveling for games, freelanced secretly a few months out of the year and am just now getting into my 2nd year of working as an independent designer now that I’m done with school!! Guess things held me back from creative work. Ironic because most people go to school to figure out what they want to do, but I knew the entire time and had to put it off for a sport that I loved to play.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I was an R&D Mechanical Engineer. The great thing is that many basic principles and skills are very transferrable between seemingly unrelated disciplines.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I really thought I was going to be a plant biologist. That was what I studied during my brief stint as a student at ASU. I volunteered at the arboretum outside of town and worked at the plant nursery in an effort to continue my plant studies, lol. Once I was tired of making $7/hr, I took a job as a writer for a couple online magazines and there was introduced to some cracks of UltraDev, Flash and Fireworks 3. At this point I began my journey working for numerous failed “Internet startups” and somewhere along the line went from little helper bee to web designer
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November 22nd, 2008 at 1:28 am
No, it’s not a waiter /electrician/street busker thing with me. I’ve been an art apprentice and an intern earlier. (Oh yes, I did teach computer basics before that. )
November 30th, 2008 at 1:07 am
I worked for a moving company. 9 hours a day of building crates and heavy lifting.
November 30th, 2008 at 1:08 am
i was student n started web design while i was studying n started doing freelance, never been out of track after that
November 30th, 2008 at 2:19 am
A poker room supervisor. Actually, I’m still doing it. Two full-times, web design Mon to Fri, poker nights and weekends.
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November 30th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Used to be a plant mechanic
(plant mechanics fix dozers and dump trucks and the like …not plants)
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November 30th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I was a video producer/editor.
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December 5th, 2008 at 7:51 am
I went to college to be a teacher. I worked in sales for a few years, then got into web design/development.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I’ve worked at restaurants and done a stint at a chemical plant as a pipe fitter, worked security and maintenance at a retirement home and as a graphic designer at a T-shirt company. I’m currently a full time fireman while working at Gatorworks as the Lead UX Developer.
Jason Evers’s last blog post: Design Process: Pre-Production is King
February 3rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I was a floral designer. Always needed a creative outlet!
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