So at work I do a lot of research. People ask me to build products that are pretty much already built. Like a photo gallery, video upload, and blog. These are great work tools, and for a personal site, they really make sense.
I have a hosting account, that account has a blog and photo gallery. It also has the option to add video upload and Bulletin Board. All these things I can get online for free. I could use WordPress for my blog, host my images and photos on Flickr or Picasa, upload videos to YouTube or blip.tv.
So what am I doing with a hosting account? Well, I am concerned with who owns the content once I upload it. If I post my videos to YouTube, and the servers crash (very unlikely) where does it go. Who can I blame? Of course I keep backups of everything, but anything can happen.
So should I move everything to these free services? I already started moving my images to Picasa, I will move my blog to WordPress later this week, and I don’t have any videos – so no worries about that.
It’s been a while since I wrote about my work life. I started working as a website project manager at Agent Image in March of 2006. They started me in the Semi-Custom Department because of my design background. I later moved to the full custom team and was allowed to flex my design and programing skills. My most recent move was into a division manager position with Agent Image’s parent company, The Design People. I am now a Product Development Manager.
As part of my new position I have the opportunity to research, develop, design and deploy new products for all divisions of The Design People. I work with all the different Division Managers and I have a Product Development Team in Manila.
But there are so many great things about working at a small company. I get to wear a lot of hats. My opportunity to move around the company is great and my input is well received. But the most important aspect of working for TDP, the one thing that keeps me coming in daily and staying late are the people.
I enjoy the people I work with. They are smart, well spoken, have amazing ideas, know how to delegate, know how to ask for help, strong willed, outspoken, show no fear, and know how to party. There are very few politics, we are all very like minded and this allows us to get stuff done.
Having said all that, TDP still has problems. The company is still young and is owned by people, not a corporation. Owners make decisions. Some decisions are less popular than others, but their focus is always the company and the people who work at the company. We are going through some growing pains. I’ve only been there a year and a half, but I have been apart of several policy changes and have watched people come and people go.
I love my job. I love the freedom. I love the people. Yes I could leave and make twice as much, but for now I will stay and see where this ship is sailing.
You can see photos from my many TDP related parties and days at work at the new and improved Michael Montez photo galleries.
Going to Palm Springs this weekend. We are renting a house for the weekend and it promises to be a very relaxing time. Check out the Palm Springs “Modern Glamor” house for rent.
I have been looking forward to this – work has been stressful and this should be a good distraction.
I will be posting photos after the weekend – check out the photo gallery at michaelmontez.com for updates.
