I have been spending quite some time on introspection lately, perhaps because of the books that I have been reading. I’ve been thinking a lot about what does it mean to build a professional persona, and especially online. Would people ever actually come across my websites or read what I’ve posted (on my reseach homepage, my computing blog and here)? Or am I just writing to myself? (It would be quite unfortunate in the latter, considering how much time people spend on social media such as Facebook and Instagram, when little deep and provoking thoughts can be gained from these websites).
I recall I first self-taught HTML when I decided I want a website in my undergraduate studies. It wasn’t the most sophisticated website, but it gave me the taste of how to make a professional website – and it marked the beginning of my professional persona online.
Before going to graduate school, a close family friend, who owns a resturant in Sillion Valley, asked if I could help them build a website. I wasn’t sure if I am qualify for that “job”, but I gave it a try. In a week, I came up with a website that shows some basic information about the restaurant, a map showing its location, and links to the menus, etc. It was also then when I learned about CSS and PHP. The latter was used to make an online catering form, of which they have retired its usage and decided it was more straightforward to only accept orders through phone calls.
In any case, my friend was very happy with the website. I remember I felt that I had achieved something big and I was quite gratified! Around the same time, they also wanted to revise their business model and revise their menu. For some obvious reasons, companies in SF Bay Area that design food menus are quite expensive for the service! I volunteered to do the “job” and learned some basics of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to get the job done! Simiarly, around this time, they wanted to make changes to their Point of Sale (POS) system, so I taught myself some SQL and VNC remote control. All these services were done for free :-)
Looking back, I was quite happy that I took on these “jobs” since they gave me a chance to learn skills I wouldn’t have necssarily acquired in traditional astronomy research, and allowed me to work on real-life problems/data, where the results are immediately tested and the outputs are constantly being utilized.
You may wonder why I took on those jobs in the first place (since I wasn’t getting paid for any of my “service”). It was for two reasons: their food is so authentic that it gave me a sense of home (Hong Kong) and the family has always treated me like I am their daughter.