From Messenger to Webmaster: Bernard’s Journey
Bernard joined our team as a messenger and cleaner in 2019, but today he’s our webmaster. Incredible! How was such a remarkable transition made in such a short time?
Indeed, Bernard was already familiar with graphic design in Photoshop. He had learnt from a friend a few years prior. We recognised his potential and advised him to focus on refining his Photoshop skills.
Initially, Bernard lacked focus and direction. He had wanted to learn many things at once, typical of newbies. It takes tact to steer someone like that in the right direction without making them lose their passion. After he had made some progress, I introduced him to Harvard’s CS50 programme to give him computer science foundations. He went on to get a beginner’s guide to web design technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
We proceeded to UI Design with Figma. Bernard learnt the principles and began designing web and mobile interfaces, though his first few attempts were not so great. At times, it took “tough love” to bring out his best, but he never gave up, and there was significant improvement in his skills.
The next step was to teach him to use Elementor Web Builder in WordPress. Our team manages a number of WordPress websites all developed with Elementor therefore it was only logical to train him in that direction. With time and discipline, he got good at using the Elementor tool. He designed some new web pages and replicated existing websites using Elementor.
To expand his skillset further, we asked him to take on Webflow. Bernard has developed to the point where he handles our websites with little supervision, and we officially promoted him to webmaster.
But Bernard’s learning journey does not stop here. Our next step is to further strengthen his front-end development skills, particularly in JavaScript. We will also continue to explore and leverage low-code/no-code tools such as Webflow to enhance his capabilities. Our ultimate goal is to help Bernard become the skilled developer he is destined to be.
So what do we learn from Bernard’s story? With guidance comes improvement and with improvement comes promotion.
