Meet Our People: Melissa
How did you enter this career?
Building websites actually started as a hobby and grew into a passion for me. Most people put their computer away after work, I would be on mine building websites for fun. Having Charlotte and Andrew nearby at work helped motivate me to want to do and learn more.
I’ve always been fascinated by technology and photography. In high school I was the yearbook photographer (developing film, etc.).
Years later when the iPhone came out, I jumped in with both feet helping my friends and colleagues. When the iPad came out a few years later, I co-founded the campus i-Team!
My regular trips to Vegas, established a line up of friends and family asking for tips, and I decided a website was the way to go. My personal travel-tips website activities expanded into building sites for a friend’s restaurant.
When the opportunity for career development in Web Services opened up, I jumped on it. I am currently filling in for Andrew who is away for 3 months in Germany.
Where else have you worked?
I have also worked in real estate for a few years and then for the Rogers Radio Group, queuing the commercials, and even doing some voice-over work. I got to work with some great DJS like Doc & Woody and Randal in the morning. My full-time Carleton position is actually in ITS as a Business Support Specialist.
What are some of the technologies you have used along the way? What are you passionate about?
I love learning about WordPress, Gravity Forms, and MacOS. I also love travel, photography, building websites, and helping people with tech.
I am a firm believer in the saying “Choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
What are the best things about your job?
I am very fortunate as my acting position and my full-time position here at Carleton allow me to work with two strong teams, Web Services and Client Services. The former is great for learning new technologies; the latter is great meeting faculty and staff across campus.
Do you have some exciting projects you are working on right now?
I love working with Gravity Forms and supporting Carleton E-commerce. And the whole team is pitching in on the roll out of our new CuTheme— a modern, simple and intuitive web templated based on WordPress Gutenberg. I will be helping with the documentation and training. So excited for this new change!
What music are you listening to at the moment?
Aerosmith, Ed Sheeran, Meghan Trainor, Lady Gaga, Virginia to Vegas, Bruno Mars, Lewis Capaldi are just some of the top artists that come to mind. There are just too many to name them all!
What are you reading at the moment?
Wish I had more time, but plugging through “Intro to javascript”
What do you do outside of work to amuse yourself?
Travel and photography — I just bought a new iPhone stabilizer I’m keen to try out for video.
Wine-tasting — currently working through the California reds.
And of course building websites: I just finished one for a small business in Ottawa and I am now working on a major reboot of my Travel Tips for Vegas site.
What exciting plans do you have coming up in the next year?
Meeting my new granddaughter in April! Going to Vegas to see Aerosmith in May and looking forward to the opening of my pool for the upcoming summer season.