Much has been written of the dot-com boom. Financial-oriented ponderings have pointed to that period from about 1995-2000 as being the most amazing financial market in history. Socially conscious writers have pointed to it as a turning point in the modern labor dynamic. But no one seems to want to hear about it from the twenty-somethings who were there. That’s where my buddy Billy Hylton comes in. Over on his superb site, Public Realm, Billy is cataloging a number of personal reminiscences about that temultuous time. This collection is made all the more timely and moving now that Billy has just been laid off from his job.

I was a definite part of the boom. I worked with Billy at Host where we had a tinge of the dot-com feel, but I went from there to a startup, EzGov, doing what seemed like important work. Connecting people to their governments in a fast, web-enabled way. The company is still doing well, though I get the sense that the visionary, important feeling is gone and everyone realizes they are just selling software.

After that, I parlayed my dot-com “expertise” into a sweet job overseas. Switzerland, to be exact. The pay was great, the location was amazing, and the work was interesting. It was everything we thought we wanted in 1999. And then the market crashed. The capital dried up and I came back to the States, listless and confused.

So now, I am here in the marketing and advertising world, enjoying the diversity of the day-to-day. My skills are still growing and I am finding my niche in this “technology” society. More and more, though, I find myself concentrating on family and friends. Spending more time reading a book about India, than a technical specification for the next release.

I hope that’s what most of us will take away from that time. Maybe we will learn, like the Wall Streeters of the 80’s had to, that a job is just a job.