Without giving all of my personally identifiable information out, here’s a bit about who I am.
I’ve been interested in computers from a very young age. My father had a computer repair/sales business back in the late 80s, early 90s. I’m told that I would occasionally go with him, and bring along a plastic toy hammer to hit the cases to help him “fix” computers. I don’t remember much of that, but it must have made a impact on me.
I learned how to type mostly out of necessity to get my games to launch in ms dos 3.x. I didn’t write or understand the autoexecs, or what a pagefile was at the time, but knew how to get my x-wing game fired up.
Then, I ended up going to school for physics and computer science, while working retail jobs where I gravitated towards tech support/help desk positions. This transitioned into a paid position at the university for entry level tech work. Early in my career, I discovered that tech support is less about fixing computers and more about helping people with their problems with technology.
Working with my manager, I started to identify issues that took a long while to fix. While still performing my hired job’s duties, I developed a system image builder utility which scripted the install of all programs needed for new disk images (updating where appropriate), and developed a script that would pull down and install local printer drivers and mapped drives dependent on the physical location of the tower, (based on its naming scheme and asset tag). I was hooked. The time saved by understanding all the steps of a complicated process, and automating it was something I really enjoyed doing. It had huge implications in the business sense of “doing more with less”, especially during the mandated federal employee furlough months. Fewer mistakes were made due to the automation and my fellow technicians were glad to be free of the tedious and time consuming processes that were now automated.
I started focusing heavily on process automation and trying to widen my IT knowledge. Later, I was hired for an IT Analyst position at a for profit university, and thanks to my manager there, learned the behind the scene workings of active directory, group policy, and Windows domains in general. The department inherited a “problem child” of a network with a satellite campus, and I was allowed to take ownership of the network. I got to work organizing active directory, rolling out group policy changes, and automating installs and updates through management consoles until it was up to proper standards. A team of 2 techs and one manager were able to manage 700+ systems while still responding within SLA guidelines for help desk support tickets and change requests.
Following my IT Analyst position, I was hired for system administration and programming at an ERP software company. Their ERP system used a proprietary programming language that only worked on the Windows OS. They were looking to expand their software offering as a SaaS, but many of their clients were using MAC computers. The solution implemented was a RemoteApp of their Windows software that would be able to be run on any internet connected device. I created and administered a Windows domain in the cloud which hosted the ERP software and linux based database files, had domain secured WebDAV shares going to linux samba shares and set up a remote gateway for VPN, routing, and firewall duties. I scripted installers and client on-boarding tools, created a knowledge base for both internal and client use, and trained support staff on properly identifying and resolving client connection or authentication issues.
I have worked a few jobs not directly related to Information Technologies, and they have helped contribute to my understanding of the full picture of what makes a business work. I thrive on understanding how and why something works, even beyond the scope of technology. In my spare time I have tuned and modified cars, overclocked high end computers, and designed and printed parts with 3D printing technology. Cryptocurrency is another interesting topic to me, and I’ve recently developed an automated trading engine using Python, MongoDB, and AWS EC2 server instances. I am always trying to learn new ideas and concepts to further my understanding of the world. I consider myself very analytical and with my personal experiences, I am able to bring many resources to the table.
I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read this. I feel like it gives a pretty good high level view of who I am as a person, and my accomplishments in the world of Information Technologies.