Meet the Team - Syl Turner
Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 12:00pm --
Kirsten: Hi! You’re listening to Meet the Team and I’m Kirsten Eidsmoe. I’m here with Syl Turner who is one of our Software Developers.
Syl: Hey Kirsten, it’s nice to be on the show.
Kirsten: So to get us started, why don’t you tell us where you grew up and how you ended up in the field of content management?
Syl: Well, I moved to Atlanta when I was about ten. So, I’ve lived here for quite a while now. And I guess my start in content management goes all the way back to when I was much younger and I was playing with my Apple2 – playing around with video games and whatnot. Then I moved on until I got to websites, and websites were a lot of fun to build. But, whenever you started getting more content, it was hard to manage it all. So, you needed some content management. I started writing my own little content management here and there for certain websites I was doing. And then eventually I got into doing some serious content management here at Hannon Hill with their award-winning Cascade Server.
Kirsten: Well, we’re glad you ended up here. What made you apply for the job? What attracted you to Hannon Hill?
Syl: I saw the ad on Craig’s List and it sounded very interesting; it sounded right up my alley. It’s a company that has a strong web development background and I’ve been doing web development for a few years now; it’s been something I really wanted to expand on. And Hannon Hill seemed like it was right up my alley.
Kirsten: So, I understand that you worked for a few companies in web development in addition to freelance work. What’s the biggest difference that you’ve found between working here and other places that you may have been?
Syl: A lot of the other places were pretty small companies and they didn’t really plan anything ahead of time. So, a lot of our projects would end up being somewhat messy. One of the things that I really like about here is that things are planned; things go through a process in order to get the job done. That’s one of the biggest differences I see here from a lot of the other places where I’ve worked. Here, things are organized, things are planned out ahead of time so that we don’t just rush right into a project. We plan it all ahead of time. And that’s one of the things I’ve noticed, even when I do stuff by myself – freelance work – I would end up not planning it very well and then I have a bit of a mess on my hands.
Kirsten: So, as a web developer, do you see any trends on the horizon? Anything that’s particularly exciting that you’re looking forward to?
Syl: Well, the Web 2.0 boom is very exciting. And, I know you guys have already seen MySpace – the most popular website in the country, at the moment. And if you look at the pages – everybody’s MySpace profile – they’ve got music, movies, animated pictures, all kinds of stuff – backgrounds with static images so you can’t read the text. I think that is the future of web design – make it look as crappy as possible and people will love it.
Kirsten: I’ve been on MySpace and I know exactly what you’re talking about. Switching gears – how do you feel about pizza?
Syl: I love pizza. It is probably my favorite food and you know why?
Kirsten: Why?
Syl: I’ll tell you why.
Kirsten: Oh good.
Syl: I would say that pizza is my favorite food because I could eat that for every meal, every day for the rest of my life and probably be okay with it.
Kirsten: I don’t know what to say to that. Do you have any other hobbies, other than pizza eating?
Syl: Well, that’s about it. No, I’m just kidding. I’ve actually started getting into brewing my own beer, which is actually quite an interesting and exciting hobby for the beer connoisseur that I am. And, it’s economically sound. It costs less to brew your own beer than to buy beer that is equally as good.Kirsten: Is it really good?
Syl: Yeah, it’s all right. I mean it’s good, but it’s not great – not yet, I’m still working on it.
Kirsten: Well, be sure to keep us posted. One last question – if you didn’t work in software, what would you be doing?
Syl: Is money an issue?
Kirsten: It doesn’t have to be.
Syl: Well, if money’s not an issue, I would probably play video games all day. But, if money’s an issue, then I would probably play video games all day.
Kirsten: Well Syl, thank you for your time and thank you for sharing yourself with us.
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- Commentary