As a child I had two passions, science and tech, seeing as science based jobs are quite limited I chose the latter for my career path. As such I have been involved with tech since the age of 10 when I was playing with batch files in my old 486sx IBM. ~2 or so years later I was the house computer guru and busied myself by learning html to build websites. My original sites were fairly basic and began in the wysiwg world of Frontpage but even then I found it limiting and began making them by hand. Not too much long after I was selling html websites to make enough cash for lunch money and the occasional splurge (like an ipod). You can read more about my entrepreneur ways here: Born Entrepreneur
Having successfully conquered html my interests dove deeper into the PC. I became familiar with all of the components and inner workings so much so that when it came to training for my Comptia A+ (Good for life) cert in high school I had already gathered enough knowledge to pass said exam. Then right after college I met my first challenge, a real tech job. I became an IT Help Desk employee at The University of Toledo. Sure it doesn’t sound all that fancy with such a limiting name but believe me it was much more than helping a professor understand MS Excel and it’s intricacies. You can read more about that here: My Employment Past & Present
College was rough, it certainly wasn’t the cake walk I’ve had up to that point. Combined with a need to actually become socially active I struggled with my studies. I simply had a hard time balancing school, work, and free time. Despite the troubles I still managed to graduate with a 3.2 GPA. At this point everything was going well, I had real documented tech experience and a degree under my belt. I felt ready for the world, well as ready as one could be given the the bad job economy of the time.
I arrived at Shopmetrics a few months before graduation. I began working part time as a ‘Web Developer’ which I kindly put into quotes because web developing actually meant that 90+ percent of the time I am knee deep in SQL working on an SSRS reports that will, yes, be put on the web but only as a link to be downloaded into Excel. So my ‘Web Development’ job actually meant ‘Any Programming Task’ job. Not that I am entirely upset about it, SQL is a decent enough language and I have had the opportunity to grow my skills immensely. In college I hadn’t much liked databases and SQL, programming as a whole in fact just didn’t seem to click for me. However, after having spent many long hours searching for bugs and becoming in-tune with the ways of computer syntax I’ve grown to become fond of it. I still feel my programming skills are lacking, but I now, at least, have the confidence to accomplish most needs.
While I wouldn’t say my journeys have been all sunshine and rainbows, I’m looking at you bricked router, I have to say I still look forward to discovering new tech and finding ways to incorporate it within my life.