About Dirk Monson

Web Designer/Developer/Tech Guy

Resume (Updated August 7, 2011)

I was born in Grand Forks, ND and spent my childhood in various cities across the northern plains until finally ending up in Minot, where I graduated from high school. You could say I was interested in technology from a young age. You could also say that I was interested in anything that plugged into a wall.

Nothing was safe from me. I took everything apart just to see how it worked. Rarely did things get put back together enough to ever function again (not much changes, I guess). Radios, speakers, VCRs, computers. But, taking things apart was just the start.

In 1996, I found the internet (this is before Google, people). Armed with a 33MHz computer with 16MB of RAM, I hit the internet with curiosity and intrigue. I have no clue what attracted me to the internet. Maybe it was the fact that I could be anywhere in the world within an instant. Growing up in North Dakota, going anywhere usually meant a 2 hour car drive and one might argue you still didn't get anywhere.

At some point in the fall of '96, I decided that I wanted my own virtual piece of the world. It was pretty novel to even have internet access back in those times, let alone a website - especially a nine year old with a website. That didn't stop me. Eventually, the simple web page I created evolved into a full fledged site, then sites.

Looking back, I'm glad I got hooked at a young age. My hobby of creating websites for fun eventually turned into paying work. Instead of flipping burgers through high school, I was able to work part time as an internet developer for Minot Public Schools. Talk about a power trip. The most visited website in my hometown was suddenly under my control - not too bad. On the side, I also was busy doing freelance work for numerous businesses under the name Pixel Movement.

I graduated from high school in 2005 and by default had to give up my job with the school district. College was the next adventure I decided to embark on.

I spent two wonderful years at Bismarck State College. Yes, it's a community college, but don't let that fool you. BSC was a world-class institution when I went there. The staff cared, the professors knew what they taught, and it sparked me to want more. Needing a four year university to feed my appetite to learn, I headed eastward with my then girlfriend Jessie (and now wife) to North Dakota State University in Fargo.

When we originally moved to Fargo, I thought we were making a huge mistake. I was suddenly completely out of my element. I wanted to go back to Bismarck, but it turns out getting thrown into something unknown was just what I needed. This was a valuable life lesson that I haven't forgotten.

By moving to Fargo, I was also able to grow my freelance work into a legitimate company called Pixel Movement. What started off as a side project to supplement income became my full-time job - based in the spare bedroom of our college apartment.

Running a company during college was one of the best challenges I've ever had. It was a constant battle to keep work, school and my personal life balanced, but somehow I did it. Given the nature of some of the work I did and being on the road for days at a time, it's a miracle it all worked so well.

And by 2008, what was just a little side business when I moved to Fargo had turned into a venture that was capable of supporting my wife and I. At a time when other students were worried about finding a job, I had no such concerns. My economy was doing just fine. I was getting to work with amazing clients around the country.

As Pixel Movement kept growing and my service offering expanded into video production, I knew the spare bedroom was quickly becoming inadequate. So, in June 2009 I made the move into an 8th floor office with a view in downtown Fargo. There was something about seeing my sign on the wall told me that Pixel Movement had made it.

I think I crammed three years of living in that summer. Pixel Movement offered me more work than I knew what to do with. Whether it be the wedding videography I found an unexpected niche (and talent) in or the marketing work I got to do with the North Dakota Horse Park, I was busy. The attention I got for my work was growing, too. It was almost surreal to see the company I had started grow to something that people recognized.

That December, my hard work continued to pay off. I graduated Magna Cum Laude from North Dakota State University with a degree in Business Administration. I was now a business owner and a college graduate.

Even though the collegiate chapter of my life was closed at least temporarily, I remained active in the community through various non-profits and through Rotoract, a branch of Rotary International. I served as president of my, albeit small, Rotaract chapter from the winter of 2010 until I left Fargo in October 2010.

Leaving Fargo was a tough decision. I had greatly enjoyed the city and the experiences it had given me. I also had an amazing time running what I considered the best one-man multimedia production shop in the valley. In fact, I'll always say Fargo was the city that shaped me. But, opportunities arose as they often do and pulled us away from the city we had come to love.

My wife and I said good-bye to Fargo and moved west down I-94 back to Bismarck where I took a job as a website designer with the State of North Dakota. Being the one man show, while fun, wasn't quite giving me the tools I needed to be excel. I often felt that I spent more time maintaing the status quo and less time keeping an eye to the technology horizon.

Besides, I've always thought that throwing yourself into a completely new environment is the best way to learn. I don't mean that Bismarck was drastically different. But, going from the private sector (Pixel Movement) to the public sector (State of North Dakota) certainly was a significant change.

Since I've been at the State, I've had the chance to work on many high visibility projects. It's been an eye-opening experience to see the difference between the private and public design worlds. This is not to say one side has it right and one wrong. I've gleaned valuable bits from both sectors which, I feel, makes me a stronger and more adaptable designer/developer.

Of course, there's much more to me than just what I do for employment. I'm a nomad at heart. There's nothing that gets me going more than a good trip. Whether it be to some local place I've never been or a cross-country rail journey, I'm game. If I traveled constantly, however, I would find it difficult to keep employment. That's when those stationary (no, not paper) hobbies come in handy. On any given night, I'm probably in the garage working on my 1976 Fiat Spider or some other piece of mechanics too far gone to (cheaply) save.

For now, I find myself in Bismarck with my wife (Jessie), our two dogs (Moose and Hank), our sun conure (Sunny Dee) and our two retired thoroughbred race horses (Seven and Jewel).