How this Data thing got started

I have always considered myself an artist. I paint, I sculpt, I design, I create. As much as I love all these things, somehow, I end up working with data. I have no idea how that happened... 20 plus years ago I started working as a production artist for an RV parts distributor.

When the company decided we needed a website, I was the only one on the team that could write HTML. I transitioned to web designer and built their first website. From there, I built the first web store. With a little reading, a lot of googling and trying to remember the foretran I learned in elementary school. I found a way to pull raw data out of QuarkXPress and populate a sql database. Likewise, I found that with a bit of manipulation, data could be drawn back in formatted form into Quark Documents.

Recognizing the power of data, my company decided to send me to Kennesaw State University for the SQL MCDBA program (Microsoft Certified Database Administrator).

With my newfound skills, I was able to help populate a 40,000-part database with images, text, and related information. Moreover, this data was used to populate both print and web catalogs and pricing could be updated almost immediately.

Jumping forward 20 years, I met the owners of a small RV Parts store at one of my art shows. A friend of mine was packing boxes in their warehouse. I said, "I need a job, and I know RV parts." A week later, I was interviewing and was offered a job working in the warehouse a few days a week packing parts. I did have a few questions, like "why are we in this unair-conditioned room, packing parts that sell on the internet, while we have a retail store that gets just a few customers a day?" There were seriously many days that no customers came in at all. In the meantime, no employee was actively maintaining listings on Amazon and eBay. As sales dwindled on both platforms, the owners were looking for more ways to bring in income.

By Christmas, I was moved to the front office to work on Walmart.com. Unfortunately, walmart.com is finicky. Although they had an account built, they had never successfully gotten a part listed. While the uploader interface looked quite unassuming, it just plain didn't work. Frankly, I love a good puzzle. With some deeper investigation, I found that while the part-by-part interface is very tedious and slow, the spreadsheet uploads are very quick. With some trial and error, a Walmart.com journey was begun.

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