Slave Boy

Who: Tim Cleaver
Company: Amazing Online Marketing
Age: 24
Has Held Title For: Seven months
Previous Title: Biology major, Portland State University

Working like a slave? Hey, make the most of it. That's what Tim Cleaver did. As an intern at a marketing company that is striving to meet the online design needs of an increasingly Web-ified Portland, Oregon, Cleaver is at the beck and call of everyone from designers to senior project managers. So he has given himself a new title. Says Cleaver: "I'm cheap labor, and I do the stuff that no one else wants to do."

So. Slave Boy?

My coworkers have referred to me by a few nicknames, including Asok, Young Jedi, and Young Grasshopper. But I feel the warmest tingly feeling when people call me Slave Boy. Occasionally, if we're working late on a Friday evening, they'll say, "Slave Boy, bring me a beer!"

How were you captured?

My roommate brought home some books on HTML. I started learning the stuff and thought, This is what I want to do. So I quit my restaurant job, looked in the phone book for the nearest Web-development company, and asked if I could hang out there and see what they did.

What's been your most liberating task?

Doing the coding for the very first project I worked on: a Web site for a local restaurant called Queen of Sheba.

Will "Slave Boy" be on your résumé?

Sure. If a company doesn't want to hire me because I used to have a goofy title, I probably don't want to work there anyway.