Toren Desuly is an web developer from Washington, D.C. who works for Seaberry, a development and design company in Washington, D.C.. Desuly began his journey with web development in 2007 when his first job was to be in charge of web presence of the company. Along with that job, he had to gain a knowledge of web development, so he enrolled in classes at George Mason University and began to learn basic HTML and JavaScript. After completing his time at George Mason, he began to take classes around the D.C. area from companies that provided extra training. Desuly has been an developer for 10 years now and has yet to look back. Desuly states that his intentions were not to become a web developer but, because it was presented to him, he took the opportunity.
Desuly holds the position as the lead web developer at Seaberry. His main structure of development is using the WordPress system. He stated that WordPress is used in many big businesses and, in his opinion, it is the best on the market. It’s also more accessible when discussing price. All of his work is done through WordPress, but he also oversees content management with all clients sites because content is important. “There’s no reason why you should have a great site with no real content,” he said. Desuly takes pride in his work and applies the principles taught to him while in school.
When asked what his favorite project was, he told me it was the D.C. Chambers website, www.dcchambers.org. This website was conducted for D.C. Chambers, a company that reflects on the diversity of Washington, D.C. and the business and tech aspect of the city. The website was developed with PHP. PHP is a scripting language, generally inscribed inside HTML. PHP hides underlying code from the client side. When you look at the site that was developed, you see a lot of movement, and a lot of content. A lot of information is given on the site. The site personally grabs my attention because of the colors and movement presented in the site. Another one of his favorites was the D.C. National Environmental Site, https://www.neefusa.org, which was also done in PHP. He states that these to sites were fun to work with due to the different graphics, colors and content
Desuly has never used his talent to freelance. He has always worked for companies. In his opinion, he believes that the freelance time is not worth the little money it brings due to smaller clients, where as his company brings bigger clients. The resources provided by his company were also a factor of not freelancing his work. With freelancing, you only have what you can afford and what you know, but with other resources and others around you that you can lean on, he believes you can accomplish way more. His favorite languages to work with are PHP and HTML. He states that you can do so much with them and they are the basics, so you can’t go wrong with them. He first learned HTML and then began to grow from there.
When I discussed that I was studying development, he asked me how I felt about it and how I felt everything was coming along. I stated that this is my first time doing anything related to coding and, in this experience, I am currently learning something new every day. He was very excited that I was interested in development and that I wanted to continue to learn more. He continued by giving me some tips that he felt was important for me to know. He first told me to get as much training in school as possible because that is the best way to learn it, with guided help. He also told me there are never enough classes you can take. There are always new language classes that you can take, or events where other developers get together to teach each other things that they learn. He also stated that development and design are two different things, but if you can do both, that makes you more competitive than someone who just knows one. Content management and design classes are very vital and you can never perfect your craft too well. He also told me that having knowledge with the Adobe Suite also sets you apart because development and design are evolving everyday. I mentioned to him my minor is graphic design and I am very fluent with the suite. He also emphasized networking and getting to know others, and to me that is very important and something they teach us at Howard University constantly. Desuly says that he will continue to develop until he finds a new passion, but this seems to be his for the time being.