 Aren't you sick of reading interviews with puffed-up executives and ex-glam dot.commers? I am. I think we need to hear about real world role models, not PR sweethearts. This is the first in what will be a randomly appearing interview series. I'll be profiling IT pros who paid their dues through real work to earn our respect. We need to see more about them, and less about cocky self-promoters.
Rob Hall is one of the grand masters of Flash. Contributing author of three books - Flash MX Magic and ,Flash Enabled,, both published by New Riders and Flash MX Bible, published by Wiley, and regular speaker on the conference circuit - Rob's day job is Chief Architect for mCom LLC, a Philadelphia-based company which creates web-enabled device interfaces and financial services software.
A Little History
Rob says he's been engrossed by technology since the 4th grade, when a friend got an Atari 800. Wanting his own, he earned the money to buy one - but not enough for the floppy disk drive too. So, for the first six months he owned the machine, he had to tinker with Atari BASIC each time he turned it on. By the time he had enough cash to buy the drive, he'd taught himself the fundamentals of programming. Obviously, his practice paid off.
By the time he was 12, he had written his own software to run a bulletin board that supported about 1,500 accounts, but it soon got to be a bit much for a kid with multiple interests. Rob says that both the cost and demands on his time became prohibitive. So he gave it up in favor of skateboarding and art throughout high school.
After graduating, he entered community college in his home state of Florida, where his interest in art, design and programming converged. He used digital methods to create multimedia art works, some of which won regional competitions. To support himself, he managed a print shop, and soon recognized the need to help the industry take advantage of emerging technologies. In the early 90's, he leveraged his knowledge of bulletin boards to create online forms to expedite workflow and customer approvals for print jobs. From there, it was only a short hop to training people about the benefits of using the Internet and, by the late 90's, consulting in web page design.
As a result of his expertise, Rob was hired by Citicorp to help extend e-Learning to their workforce. Using an earlier version of Flash, he made training movies for employees that took instruction right to the desktop. To make this work, he built on his pre-existing web skills by learning and incorporating both database construction and enterprise infrastructure design. While the job was challenging, after a while, he thought he needed a change to a smaller environment - one with the capacity for rapid response.
Making Big Changes
Having chosen a new direction, Rob left both Citicorp and Florida in 1999 to come to Pennsylvania. He had no job and didn't really know anyone other than his girlfriend, who was relocating for a career opportunity. Since he had no active network of contacts in the area, he used his virtual network - developed through active participant in online tech communities. He found a likely prospect in the Director of Electric Banking at USABancShares in Philadelphia. Rob made an offer, "I'll work for two weeks at a very reduced rate. If you like me - then hire me permanently."
The gamble paid off and Rob signed on with USAB. Exploiting his pre-existing skills, Rob helped to create an online banking solution built with Flash. This might not seem like much of an achievement, but it broke new ground. Up to that point, Macromedia™ Flash had been widely used for advertising and entertainment, but had rarely, if ever, been deployed to extend business processes to the Internet. This achievement was recognized publicly by the FlashForward 2001 Festival, where the USABancShares.com FlashBank was chosen as the Best E-Commerce Website over 1,500 other nominated sites.
By that time, Rob and his colleagues from USAB's Electronic Banking unit had spun out of the bank to create a new company - mCom LLC (www.mcom8.com. As Chief Architect, he designs and creates innovative new products for the financial services industry and wireless device applications. In partnership with Fujitsu (www.ftxs.fujitsu.com), Rob and mCom will be rolling out an innovative Flash-based ATM interface at the premier retail banking conference in November, 2002.
Some might say he's driven. There aren't many of us who put in a 10-hour day and then go home and kick back by working on different programming projects. This is probably what sets him apart as the successful guy he is. Says Rob, "I'm lucky - my work is also my hobby. I relax by digging into projects that interest me on my own time."
He's an active participant in the Flash community, regularly contributing his work and suggesting features for inclusion in successive releases of the software. In fact, that's the way he's gotten most of his speaking and writing opportunities. He regularly works with other well-known Flash developers, including some at Macromedia who are responsible for ongoing improvements to the product. He's a certified Macromedia Flash professional, and a Level IV Systems Admin as well.
Rob also has his own company, through which he does some outside projects, and a personal website - both called Feasible Impossibilities (www.impossibilities.com). The site has Flash-related news, articles and his own weblog (html version at www.impossibilities.com/blog). Why this strange name? Rob says he just likes oxymorons.
Why Flash
Rob thinks that the value of Flash is its ability to marry right- and left-brained people. To be an interface between creativity and functionality. He's a Flash proponent because of its ability to reuse/recycle/repurpose other applications - while simultaneously promoting capability and usability. Oh, and branding too. He's particularly jazzed about Flash's new ability to import and display video without the need for an external media player.
Though all technologies have a short half-life these days, Rob believes that Flash will continue to mature and eventually become a tool for creating completely stand-alone applications. He has already contributed to the use of this technology on wireless devices such as PDAs and pocket PCs himself. Take a look at the chapter he authored on the subject in the recently published Flash Enabled: Flash Design and Development for Devices.
A Little Advice
Rob's an interesting mix, an intensely serious IT pro with a dry, wicked sense of humor. He made a few unprintable suggestions when I requested some thoughts for techies looking for career advice. But he managed a few legitimate comments as well:
Think hard about what you know … then branch off it. Don't limit yourself to your current expertise. Take risks, especially professional ones. Rob says he'll only take a job if he can learn something from it. If the opportunity is just about something he already knows how to do - he'll pass on it.
Finally, he says, don't let your job define you and your whole personality. It's important to have outside interests. Though he works killer weeks, he's also strict about making sure he has fun - enjoying music and comedy on the weekends, traveling and staying connected to family and friends.
More
Let me know what you think about this interview series - what other topics you'd like to see, kinds of people you want to know more about. Feel free to propose yourself as an interview subject (but come up with some good reasons why you think you'd be interesting to JobCircle readers.) I'm also looking to hear from people who have been job searching for more than nine months to a year. This seems like an ugly trend that's spreading. Email me at jamie@jobcircle.com.
Enjoy this article? Read more of JobCircle.com's Career Coach articles.
Jamie Fabian spent more than 15 years as a human resources executive before changing careers to become a senior project manager for a growing IT consulting company. Now in management consulting for a large Pharma company, Jamie would like to be seen as a hybrid of Tom Peters, Tom Jackson, and Tom Wolfe, but spends too much time working, driving carpool and watching mindless TV to write more than this column. You can contact Jamie with questions and comments at jamie@jobcircle.com.
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