New skills
As marketplaces change we all need to learn new things. A few weeks ago I was turned down for a piece of work because I didn't have experience creating HTML emails. To ensure that doesn't happen again I've spent the night poring over Notepad++ going back and fore between various code building websites. My goal: to write my first HTML email.
I'm afraid coding does not come naturally to me. When I first started using computers, nearly twenty years ago now, I messed around with HTML and building websites. I made some basic pages and linked them together, added images and generally went as far as I could with the tools available… and while it was an achievement, it never really grabbed me. I didn't have the passion for it that I have for writing – I didn't have the flair either.
And so the years passed. Technology advanced and my old skills faded. Then, early last year, I decided to take the plunge away from using a pre-built website. Instead, I decided, I would build my own. The process was a slow one. After nearly two decades without practice I'd forgotten everything I once knew about HTML and worse – when I first learned, there was no such thing as Flash or Java or CSS. It simply did not exist – so I ended up relearning what I needed as I went.
This site is actually the third iteration of my own design. The first was simplistic; something on par with the sites I produced in the 90s, the second began to build in advanced features and involved tables and floating boxes. It quickly grew too unweildy and ugly so that was scrapped without anyone else seeing it. It was this design that took the longest to produce. On and off I worked on it from May until September, asking advice from more learned friends along the way. Eventually I came to the stage where, although not perfect, the design worked well enough – and so it was debuted. From then it's had little patches here, small fixes there, the biggest of which was the redesign of the blog section last month.
Which brings me back to HTML emails. I've spent the night learning how they work and what they do. I've built one and, although a little rough around the edges, it works. I have developed a new skill. Now, there is a great deal I still have to learn, and there is even more that I can do to improve myself… but it's a start. It's rare to get a second chance but this is one of those moments. Next time I'm offered a job that involves HTML emails, well, all I can say is I'll put my knowledge and my new skills to use!
