What's Your Professional Story?
The first internet bubble was in full swing as I graduated with a degree in Graphic Design from "Le 75" in Brussels in 1999. I solicited every web related company/agency I could find on Altavista and the yellow pages. This landed me a job as a webdesigner for the (now defunct) mistersuper.com online store. It was a cool job, we had a copy of Macromedia Flash 3, and I quickly learned the ropes through US flash forums. Before long Flash 4 was released and I found myself spending less time designing, fixated on actionscript and it's seemingly endless animation possibilities.
I was approached by Sony Europe in 2000, where I joined SonyNetServices, their internal web agency based in Saltzburg with a branch at the Brussels offices. Within a year of joining I was a full time frontend developer. At this I was busy with comparison apps, product showcases, games, banners, a nasty XSLT based content management system, WAP and iMode mobile phone content etc.
Sony restructured in 2004, firing 16,0000 personnel globally. Sony Net Services Brussels was shut down, but I stayed on for a year working on an internal project, something along the lines of "elf yourself" or an early snapchat. This project was eventually axed, and I decided it was time to leave mega corp.
With SonyNetServices out of the picture, a local agency called Nascom had found a foot in the door at Sony. I met the team, liked what I saw and joined. This was a great company, 15 guys all hands on, a startup mentality, everyone motivated and producing high quality results. Flash dominated the web and Nascom was one of the players in Belgium. We produced viral games, experience sites, online video was starting to kick in, good times.
...to be continued