Finding my place: five years at an architect's office

After a false start, I found my place: five years at an architect's office in Deventer.

This time it clicked. As a construction draftsman I spent five years gaining experience — with real pleasure, and that "with pleasure" is no side note.

In those years I did a lot of 3D drawing work: turning the architect's design into working drawings and details, in consultation with the structural engineer. That's how I learned how buildings fit together structurally — from idea to something that could actually be built. Spatial thinking became second nature.

And this is where the programming began too. I set up a network and print server and configured things so that working with floppy disks was a thing of the past. Then I wrote my first real program: an application that looks up every archived project in a database and takes you straight to the right folder. You could also create new projects with it — automatically assigning a sequential number and the matching folder structure. For the first time, I solved a real workplace problem with my own software. Exactly what I'd do, years later, on a far larger scale.

That foundation — working neatly, thinking spatially and structurally, and building things that make the work easier — I still carry with me.

Next: from the drawing board to graphic design and building websites.