Category Miscellany HowIGotStartedWithNotes
Bookmark :              

I have seen a popular meme recurring throughout the Lotus community blogosphere - "How did you start in Lotus Notes?" - so I thought I'd chime in with my story as well.

Background
I became an unofficial "emancipated minor" when I was 16, about to turn 17. I was on my own, finishing up high school and working two jobs (and taking speed to be able to do it all). After high school I continued to work two jobs, party, and generally goof off. I couldn't afford college, and I had no direction in my life. Eventually my friends all sat me down, like an intervention, and told me, ,"You are going nowhere at a frantic pace - you need to do something with your life." I have very good friends, and I heeded their advice - the only way I could see to get out of my rut was to join the military.

I decided to join the US Air Force, for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to go in the "least militaristic" branch. Second, I wanted to be guaranteed the job I chose - the only branch that would guarantee your job at the time was the Air Force. Third, I wanted to have a job that translated to civilian work - no "infantry" for me. The Air Force fit all of these requirements, plus they had a couple of other things going for them: 1) they had an accredited college as a part of the service - "Community College of the Air Force" - so I could get an education while serving; 2) this was the only branch that sent the officers off to do the fighting, while the enlisted stayed 200 miles behind the lines in a support capacity. That made sense to me, so I signed up.

I'm skipping over my tenure in the Air Force - for this story all you need to know is that I got out 4 years later (1987) with a couple of Associates Degrees, and I was now married. I was an Avionics Communication/Navigation Systems Specialist in the Air Force, which means I worked on radios and navigation systems on fighter jets (F-4Es, to be exact). I decided that I didn't want to do that for a living, and got a job as a store manager for Eckerd Drugs, in Valdosta GA.

I then decided that I wanted to go back to school and get my Bachelor's degree. I wanted to be a teacher, so my wife and I moved to Athens, GA and I enrolled at the University of Georgia. I took a different job, running a computer software store called Waldensoftware. I fell in love with computers, and I had my own - an Amiga, which I thought was awesome. I started as a Secondary English Education major, then switched to Secondary Math Education because I found it would be easier to get a job as a math teacher than an English teacher.

I was nearing graduation and I found that I wasn't going to make much money at all - Georgia had not caught up to the rest of the nation in paying their teachers appropriately, and I would actually take a pay cut from my Waldensoftware job. I couldn't afford to do this, as I was married and already had one kid. While looking through the paper one day I found a huge ad for Lotus Development - they were hiring people to be tech support specialists.

Stepping on the path: Getting hired at Lotus Development (1992)
I went to Lotus' offices in Atlanta at the designated time in the ad, and found there were about 130 applicants there for the position. The first step in the application process was to take a test. This test contained all kinds of technical questions - about Windows 3.1, MS DOS, word processing in general, etc. The last question on the test was an essay question. The premise was that a customer had faxed in a question/problem, and I had to write up a response to the question/problem. This was actually a brilliant question, if you think about it - it tested not only your knowledge, but also your communication and customer service skills. We all took the test and then left.

I was contacted and told that I scored high enough on the test to proceed, and I was to report to Lotus the next day for the next round of the application process. I showed up at the appointed time, and found that about 24 people had made it past the test phase. This next phase was called the "Two Minute Oral Resume". All of the tech support supervisors were in the room with all of the applicants. We were called on one by one to stand up and talk for two minutes about ourselves - they timed us and cut us off EXACTLY at two minutes. After you spoke for two minutes they would ask you one question - it could be about your resume, a technical question, or something that you said. I was intimidated as others gave their oral presentations - there were CS people, people with their Masters degrees, etc. - all appeared more qualified than me, so I was pretty intimidated. I stood up and gave my oral resume, stopping exactly at two minutes. I then lucked out and was asked a question about Amiga computers, which I knew really well. So far, so good - but I was sure I wouldn't get called back because of the credentials of so many others in the room.

However, I did get called back. The next phase was intimidating. I entered a conference room, and all of the tech support supervisors were in there. I sat at the head of the table, and for 1.5 hours these people did nothing but pepper me with questions. The questions ranged from simple DOS questions to things like, "What's the difference between font point and pitch?", to questions about my resume. It was daunting, exhausting, and intimidating. At the end of that round I was asked to wait, and then I was brought before the head of tech support, Michael Wentz. He asked me some questions for awhile, and then he offered me the job.

It turns out that out of the 130 or so people, only two of us were hired. I was hired immediately, and they hired one more guy about a month later. This explains why that tech support staff has spawned so many bright and known individuals in our community today - people like Beverly DeWitt, Payton McManus, and so on.

The Lotus WPD Years (1992 - 1995)
I LOVED working for Lotus Development, Word Processing Divison (WPD). It was like a family there, and Lotus took very good care of its employees. I learned a ton there as well, and I was surrounded by amazingly bright people. It was awesome.

During my time there I found that Lotus would not offer tech support staff any training whatsoever on Notes; they believed that if you learned Notes, you would leave for greener pastures. Well, a friend of mine (Mark Eagle) and I decided to teach ourselves about Notes. We got a copy of the training for App Dev and Admin, and we set up our own Notes 3.x server at Mark's house. We studied and taught ourselves how to develop in Notes and how to Administer a server.

I also wanted to get off of the phones, so I looked for opportunities to do so. I wanted to show my bosses that I could develop Notes apps for them - and thereby get off the phones to do so. I looked for a paper-based process that I could automate with Notes, and found one. We had to document any "Aux time", or time off the phone (in aux mode). We were required to fill out a slip of paper for any aux time, and explain what we were doing - research for a customer problem, etc. I wrote a Notes app that mimiced this workflow process, thereby making the slips of paper obsolete. I showed it to my bosses in a supervisor meeting, and this was the start of my Notes development career.

I then became the internal Notes developer for WPD. I worked on a variety of internal apps - resource reservations (before Notes had it), other tech support apps, etc. It was great - I learned a lot, and it kept me off the phones for an extended amount of time. I even worked with Peyton to develop a database that shipped with Ami Pro 3.1 - it was called the "Document Sharing Application", and was a rudimentary document management application. It was designed to show off a new feature in Ami Pro and Notes called NotesFX.

I worked for Lotus WPD for about 3 years, and left in 1995, right before IBM bought Lotus.

Consultant and Entrepreneur (1995 - 2008)
I went to work for a large, multi-state consultancy called The Future Now. I was the fifth Notes developer hired by the Atlanta office, and eventually we grew the staff to around 75 Notes developers. This was the heyday of Notes development. I was the senior architect for The Future Now, and it was a great gig.

The Future Now became XLConnect, and then was bought by Xerox and became XeroxConnect. By this time I had moved on, and had joined a pre-IPO startup called Synergistics. My old manager from The Future Now and I left together and we opened the Atlanta branch of Synergistics - he was the office manager, I was the tech lead.

Working for Synergistics was fun as well - we built a great staff in Atlanta, and I had the pleasure of working closely with Henry Newberry (Newbs). Together we created some amazingly innovative applications, and it was probably the most fun I have ever had in development. I also brought along some friends from the The Future Now, and eventually I met (and helped hire) John Head at Synergistics. It was a great time.

Well, Synergistics changed over time. The people who were running it decided to try to go IPO, and they chased the VC dollars all over the board - they were whores for that VC money. Henry and I (and others) were miserable, so we all left around the same time.

I then had my own businesses - for a brief time I was with a friend of mine and we founded Edward Lowe & Associates (Edward and Lowe were our middle names). After that I founded my own company, Sapphire Oak Technologies. Along the way I had become quite known for my writing and speaking abilities, so my own business went really well. I even stayed afloat during the "dot bomb" fallout and the aftermath.

I eventually went back to work for Lotus/IBM, for a change of pace and to learn more about evolving technologies. I was able to work closely with another of my close friends, Bob Balaban, during my time back there. Eventually I knew I needed to leave, because the entrepreneurial bug was calling me. I left in January 2008 to join Teamstudio, and start a new phase in my career.

From Geek to Executive (Geek)
I accepted the Vice President of Products role at Teamstudio to expand my horizons and grow in my career. Up to this point I had always been a technologist - a developer, admin, architect, etc. But after 15 or so years it was time for me to grow again - and I decided I wanted to be an executive. The timing was right with Teamstudio - I have the background they need in this role, and they have the opportunity I need to grow my career. So far it has been great in my new role, and I am looking forward to writing this new chapter in my career.

So, that's my story. The other stories are fascinating, and I hope you may find my story interesting as well.

Rock