In this article you will learn everything about my career, how I came to Joomla and why this CMS is so special for me.
In 2000 I was a web designer in an online community. In the broadest sense this community was comparable to Facebook and I worked with a wonderful team.
After the market in this area changed, not least because of the data protection regulations and the general change in the digital world, my path led me first to the marketing department of the publishing house to which the community belonged.
Since I was still young, but had not yet taken a break between school and training, I decided to start as a flight attendant at Air Berlin and worked there for 1.5 years as a flight attendant.
I had a good time and was able to enjoy Palma and Rome for a few hours at least once in a while. When I decided to work in the media business again, AirBerlin expanded and became international. So I just missed the interesting part.
It was 2006 when I was sitting at my desk in an advertising agency again. My former boss introduced me to a commercial CMS (Content Management System), which was used by the agency for all web projects. The acquisition costs per customer corresponded to the price of a small car and the maintenance costs for the customer were just as high.
To be honest, I had to research what CMS meant and what you could do with it. I found out that there are several CMS, which are freely available on an Open Source basis. I then downloaded and tested the three best-known candidates.
It's a good thing that I didn't throw in the towel after the first two tests, because I couldn't cope with the structure, the logic and the missing on-board functions of the other systems. Shortly after installing Joomla!, I created my first content, linked it in the menu and immediately understood the basics of the system.
"Joomla manages to bring structure and logic into the workflow."
Shortly afterwards, we started to use Joomla in the advertising agency. But not everything was easy and so I searched and found help in the numerous Joomla! forums and was allowed to ask typical beginner questions. I decided to help someone else for every question I was allowed to ask. So I already understood the basic idea of Open Source at that time.
After my marketing studies, which I had completed part-time, I went into business for myself in 2009. A Joomla! colleague found me on the Internet and invited me to join the Joomla! User Group, and so I became more and more part of the Joomla! community.
When I was finally persuaded in 2013 to go to my first Joomla! event because it was in my hometown of Nuremberg, the flame that blazed for Joomla! became a fire. After my first JandBeyond conference in Prague, I applied for the position as Lead Designer for Joomla! and was selected for it.
"Everyone starts small."
Through Joomla! I met many great people, including the other author of the book Joomla! 3 Professional Web DevelopmentDavid Jardin. I made some valuable friendships. I have grown and learned a lot from others. Joomla! is an international family. When I speak at conferences, I don't talk to strangers, I talk to my friends and family. They are all different and yet we have a lot in common - we earn our money on a similar basis and the Open Source idea corresponds to our philosophy of life. It's great to do this type of voluntary work, to be involved in important discussions and to be part of the great responsibility to help others earn their daily bread. Joomla! is not just my work for me, it is a great opportunity to create something special. I am grateful that my work is based on Joomla!, a system that is more than a few lines of code.
