Hey, there!
👋
I'm Jake Dohm
I'm a Web Developer who is passionate about helping other developers build the best experiences possible for their users.
Relevant Experience
Company Experience
How it prepared me to work on Tailwind UI
Steadfast Design Firm
2016-2018
I worked at Steadfast for 2.5 years, going from an apprentice to
their main (sole) developer. I learned the fundamentals of web
dev from a designer/developer hybrid (my direct manager), who
taught me proper HTML/CSS and instilled in me a healthy
attention to detail.
What I learned
- How to build websites with great UX and performance
- Backend technologies: Craft CMS and PHP
- Frontend: Clean HTML, CSS, and jQuery
- Vue.js, which I taught myself after work. I ended up getting to save a big project built in jQuery by rewriting it in Vue
My Favorite Achievements
- Modernized dev process from "FTP the stuff and pray" to using Source Control, Gulp, Webpack, and CI/CD Pipelines
- Started implementing Tailwind (though it was met with resistance 😂)
HOW IT PREPARED ME TO WORK ON TAILWIND UI
- Working directly with designers brought out my attention to detail and taught me how to build pixel-perfect designs
- I learned design principles and developed my "design eye"
- I learned how to work in and support communities because I was heavily integrated in the Craft CMS community
- Going from knowing next-to-nothing, to figuring out enough to know we needed to update our development processes really made me fall in love with modern web develoment. The passion to make web development better and easier for everyone is still one of my main motivators
Good Work
2018-2020 (current)
At Good Work, I worked with on a team of 5 developers which was
a refreshing change from being the only developer. I learned a
lot about collaborating on projects, how to foster healthy
discussions when we disagree. I also discovered many of the
pain-points developers have when building websites and
applications with Tailwind and Vue.
What I learned
- How to effectively collaborate with other developers on shared projects
- Accessibility: why it's important, and how to implement it
- How to set in place systems that work across teams to make developer's lives easier
My Favorite Achievements
- Starting a weekly call with our developers to discuss best practices, share knowledge, and work through issues and differences
- Blogged consistently, and started recording video tutorials on Vue, Tailwind, and Craft CMS (Good Work Blog)
HOW IT PREPARED ME TO WORK ON TAILWIND UI
- Working with Vue more heavily inspired me to learn how to design simple, flexible component APIs
- I learned how to work with others closely, pair on projects, and work through issues when both parties have strong opinions
- Ran into the exact issues that a CSS-in-JS solution for Tailwind would solve (see here)
Non-Day-Job Experiences
While holding the past couple jobs, I've also jumped headfirst
into many extracurricular activites.
Projects
- Wrote vue-accessible-tabs the first flexible, accessible, unstyled Vue library for tabs
- Co-organized TriangleJS, the largest web meetup in the Raleigh area
- Spoke at 10+ conferences around the world about Vue, Tailwind, and Craft CMS
- Wrote 15+ articles garnering 30,000+ views
- Hosted 6+ episodes of the Modern Web podcast, including the episode with Adam Wathan and Sarah Dayan on Utility-First CSS
HOW IT PREPARED ME TO WORK ON TAILWIND UI
- Through writing vue-accessible-tabs, I learned how to create accessible, aria-compliant UI components that were flexible enough to be used anywhere
- From speaking at local meetup, to presenting to an 1100+ person crowd in Amsterdam, I've learned a lot about how to teach people, and how to relate to other developers
Recommendations
“Jake Dohm is super switched on, and one of the kindest / most
positive folks I haver met in our industry. I think he would be a
terrific fit for that Tailwind hire, particularly with the
"teaching stuff" part. He is exceptionally good with community
engagement, great at explaining concepts in the form of tweets,
blog posts or screencasts. Go get'em!”
Simon Vrachliotis
“Jake has a passion for using the latest technologies to bring
useful, beautiful projects to life. Skilled in Vue and an advocate
of Utility-First CSS, he pays great attention to detail and when a
project is 80% complete and "good enough" to ship, he has the
motivation to take it that last 20%, making it polished and
reliable. Jake has extensive knowledge of modern web tools and
techniques. He's reliable, honest, an asset to the dev community
and an awesome person to be around.”
Colton Neifert
Bonus Content:
Lessons learned
building this website
-
I really need to create some quality Layout Components for Vue so
that I can stop writing
flex flex-col md:flex-row space-y-4 md:space-y-0 md:space-x-4all over the place. -
Tailwind IntelliSense doesn't work with Nuxt + Tailwind out of the
box, you have to rename
tailwind.config.jstotailwind.js.